Imagination Library

Cooper loves to be read to. And I love reading to him. Not only is it educational for him, but it's a time to sit in the chair together, to be still, to snuggle and to interact. I have a goal of reading him at least 10 books per day, which we generally reach easily and often exceed.

A great source of books that I have discovered is Imagination Library, an organization started by Dolly Parton, that sends preschool-aged children a free book every month. We have been receiving books since January, and I look forward around the middle of every month to seeing what the next book will be. Cooper is too young to anticipate them or get excited about getting mail, but he very much enjoys having the books read to him.

This is a really cool program, and anyone can sign up on their website. It is only available in areas that have a sponsor, and our area, thankfully, is sponsored by Nissan. My hat goes off to Dolly Parton and the people who make this program possible.

Heaven is for Real

I just finished reading this book about a young boy who apparently took a quick trip to heaven while battling a serious illness. He came back and began to tell his parents some pretty amazing things. His descriptions were Scripturally accurate (far beyond the knowledge a child his age would have had), and he told of family members he met who had died before he was born that he had never even known about.

One funny part was when his dad has trouble keeping him from darting out into parking lots. Dad points to a dead animal and reminds him that he could be run over like the animal was. The little boy says that would be okay -- then he would get to go back to heaven. The dad laments: what do you do with a child who has no fear of death?

I have always been a bit skeptical about books like this, but this one is pretty convincing. For Christians, it is comforting to remind us that not only will we go to heaven ourselves, but we will also see our loved ones again (and yes, even our dogs, he says). He stresses that people HAVE to "have Jesus in their heart" to go there. This could potentially be a great evangelism tool for non-Christians.

The book is easy and quick to read and I think it would be enjoyable for almost anyone.

The Help

This bestselling book is set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960's. "The help" refers to black maids who work for white families and how they are treated. It is a work of fiction but is supposedly historically accurate.

There were a lot of things in here that surprised me. I was born in Tennessee in the mid-60's and have unfortunately known some who look down on black people, but nothing like this book refers to. They are almost treated as less than human. Assuming this book is accurate, it seemed that, other than not being in the bondage of slavery, very little had changed in the 100 years since the Civil War. Did Martin Luther King make all the difference?

I don't know. I only know that I hope I have never possessed one shred of the arrogant spirit that is seen in many of the white characters in the book. I hope I never look down on anyone the way black people are looked down upon in this story. And I hope that the progress in racial relations that has been made since the 60's will continue. God made everyone and loves us all, and He commands us to do the same.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

This book was interesting and captivating. Though the treatment of black people shocked me, the personalities of the characters and the relationships are very realistic. At times it is funny, at others sad. I found myself cheering the "good guys" on, wanting to see the mean ones go down in defeat. Though there is a bit of bad language, it is for the most part fairly clean. I would recommend this as a good read, both in an educational and an entertaining sense.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

I didn’t “discover” the Little House books until I was in college. Of course, I was aware of them before that, but I didn’t have an interest in history when I was a child, so I wrote them off as boring.

I think those books were where my love of history began. For the first time I saw actual people living lives that in some way set the stage for my own life, rather than a series of boring events to be memorized.

My interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder goes beyond her Little House books. I have done research into her life and have even been to the home she lived in as an adult in Mansfield, Missouri and visited her grave. William Anderson has written a number of books that tell us the details of Laura’s life that she didn’t include in her books. Here are some interesting facts I have learned:

Laura’s “Pa,” Charles Ingalls, was married to “Ma,” Caroline Quiner in 1860, but did you know that 2 of Charles' siblings also married Caroline’s siblings?

The Ingalls had a son, Charles Frederick, between Carrie and Grace in age. He lived for 9 months.

Laura’s parents have no surviving descendants.
- Mary never married.
- Laura married Almonzo Wilder. They had a daughter, Rose and also had a son who died in infancy. Rose married and later divorced. She too lost a son in infancy and had no other children.
- Carrie married David Swanzey, but not until she was nearly 42. They had no children, though Carrie did help raise 2 step-children, David’s son and daughter.
- Grace married Nathaniel Dow. They had no children.

It is believed that Carrie’s husband David named Mount Rushmore, and his son was one of the workers who helped carve the figures there.

Pa died in 1902 at age 64. Ma died in 1924 at age 84. They both lived in DeSmet, South Dakota, until their deaths.

The family attended a Congregationalist church when Laura was growing up, and she and Almonzo later attended a Methodist church in Missouri. She kept a Bible on a table near a favorite rocking chair, and in it was a list she had written out of chapters to read during various times of trouble.

Laura’s daughter Rose was grown and had made a name for herself as an author before Laura began writing the Little House books.

Laura wrote all of her books out in pencil on school-type tablets.

She intended for “These Happy Golden Years” to be the last book in the series. She wrote the manuscript of “The First Four Years” but felt it was too tragic to publish. It was found and published in 1971, after both Laura and Rose had died.

Laura’s books were well-loved from the time they were published. She received many honors during her lifetime, but it is said she was always humble and gracious. She personally wrote back all of her “fans” and attended as many of the ceremonies in her honor as her health would allow. She was the last surviving Ingalls daughter and died in 1957, three days after her 90th birthday.

Julia's Hope

This book, by Leisha Kelly, is the first in a series I have been reading recently. I found one of them at random on the shelf in the library and really enjoyed it, so I am working my way through the series, completely out of order.

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Set in a small town in Illinois during the Great Depression, this book is about a family who is living in much harder times than I have ever known, doing what they must do to survive. They are Christians who have little more than the clothes on their back and must rely on God to provide for them each day. It was a time when friends and neighbors helped each other out, even in their own poverty, and ingenuity is vital. The characters are portrayed so realistically that I wondered if they author was writing from personal experience, but I did a little research and found out it is indeed fiction.

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I would recommend this book and the others in the series for anyone who likes historical fiction or Christian fiction. It has made me appreciate the things I have but also realize the importance of some values that have all but been forgotten in our society today.

Nashville Then and Now

I think I've mentioned before that I'm very interested in Nashville's history, so this book, by Katrina McDaniel, is COOL! I just happened to come across it at the library.

It shows old pictures of places all over Nashville (mostly downtown) that were made between the Civil War era and the early 1900's, and then shows a photo of the same spot today, describing the changes that have been made. Some of them look very much the same and some are completely different. The front cover shows the then newly-built state capitol with Union troops camped on the grounds during the Civil War.

Don and I took a nice walk downtown Saturday night after we went to Spaghetti Factory, and it meant a lot more to me than it has before, seeing the old buildings and remembering how long some of them have been there, or what the places used to look like. It was interesting to imagine the now-paved roads as once being dirt roads full of horse-and-buggies or having tracks for street cars (maybe that's why downtown has such bad parking!). We walked over the Shelby Street Bridge, which the book shows a picture of shortly after it was finished in 1909. It looks pretty much exactly the same, but is now a pedestrian bridge because a few years ago they decided it wasn't safe for traffic anymore.

If you are at all interested in the history of Nashville, this book is for you. It is 144 pages with lots of photographs. It would also make a good gift or coffee table book.

A New Favorite Author

I've recently discovered Alfred Leland Crabb. He was an author who wrote three novels set in Nashville between the Civil War and the late 1800's. The books were written in the 1940's, but in my opinion, they are easy to read and get caught up into.

His characters include some real historical figures: James K. Polk's wife, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Andrew Johnson and others, and some who are just everyday people.

I just finished Supper at the Maxwell House, and am now reading Breakfast at the Hermitage. He has another one called Dinner at Belmont. I've gotten my dad into reading them too.

If you live in Nashville (or even if you don't) and are interested in history, these are books you may enjoy. I think they are out of print, but the Metro library has them, or you can probably find used copies on Amazon or E-bay.

The Hope Chest

I finished this book, by Karen Schwabach, recently. It is written primarily for children or young teens, but I often read children’s books, particularly historical fiction, because they bring things down to my level.

I found this book interesting for several reasons. It was set in Nashville in August of 1920. The main character was a 12-year-old girl who came to Nashville to find her older sister who was there campaigning for women’s right to vote.

I had no recollection of learning this in history, but following the work of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others in the second half of the 19th Century, Congress proposed the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on June 4, 1919, which would give women the right to vote. It had to be ratified by thirty-six of the then forty-eight states in order to become law. By the time this book was set, thirty-five states had approved it, and suffragists considered Tennessee to be their best shot for a thirty-sixth. A rally took place in Nashville where both suffragists and "antis" tried to persuade the state House and Senate to vote their way. The suffragists had an easy victory in the Senate, so it was up to the House. Everyone knew the vote would be close, and history tells us that it came down to a young House member named Harry Burn who was persuaded to vote in favor of suffrage by his widowed mother.

A few days later, the Amendment became a part of the U.S. Constitution.

The historical aspect of all of this was interesting to me because I had no idea it all took place in my own hometown. The book helped me see "feminists" in a slightly different light. I would certainly not consider myself to be one, but those women who worked so hard to get this right that I take for granted were considered feminists in their own time. I was also surprised by how poorly black people were treated during this era.

The more I study history, the more I realize how many things we take for granted that our predecessors had to fight for. It makes me wonder what the history books will say about our generation. The changes that are taking place in our country seem negative to me right now, but I can only hope and pray that we are just going through "growing pains," and that those who come after us will somehow be positively impacted by it all.

A Little Project

I saw someone do this on Facebook and thought it might be kind of fun:

1. Grab the book nearest you.
2. Turn to page 56.
3. Type the 5th full sentence
4. Tell us the name of the book.

Leave your results as a comment. It will be interesting to see what everyone comes up with.

Here’s mine: "It’s still early yet," he said, wanting to offer hope.
From The Longing, by Beverly Lewis

Southern Pralines

This is probably my all-time favorite cookbook. Published in 1987, I’m pretty sure it’s out of print now. It is chock-full of good, down-home southern recipes. Calorie counting is not a factor in most of them.

The first time I visited my in-laws, who live in Iowa, I wanted to take something that was a taste of the South, so I chose "Southern Pralines" from this cookbook. They loved them and have asked me to make them every year, so I’m revving up to make them this week.

These are not for the faint of heart. Extremely sweet and rich . . . they are delicious! They’re not too difficult to make, but you do have to follow the directions pretty closely.

Southern Pralines

2 cups sugar
2 cups pecan halves
¾ cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/8 tsp. salt
¾ tsp. baking soda

Combine all ingredients except baking soda in a large, heavy saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring gently, until sugar dissolves. Cover and cook over medium heat 2 to 3 minutes to wash down sugar crystals from sides of pan. Uncover and cook to soft ball stage (235°), stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in soda. Beat with a wooden spoon just until mixture begins to thicken. Working rapidly, drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased wax paper. Let stand until firm. Yield: 1½ to 2 dozen.

A Useful Cookbook

Don’t Panic – Dinner’s in the Freezer is a cookbook I got a few months ago that is great for planning ahead. It shows you how to make up meals that keep well in the freezer, so on busy days, all you have to do is thaw one out and pop it in the oven. It tells you how to modify the recipes for various size batches and gives specific directions for preparation day and serving day, as well as giving advice for storing them so all your pans aren’t in the freezer. It has main dishes but also appetizers, side dishes and desserts.
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I think our favorite recipe that we’ve tried so far is the Chicken Enchiladas. We’ve also tried the Continental Beef, Beef Fajitas and the Chicken Lelani, which were all pretty good too.
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I would recommend this book if you, like me, have plenty of time some days and no time on other days. It may just make your life a little easier.

The Last Lecture

I just finished reading The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. It was written by a man who, at age 46, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given just a few months to live. He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and after his diagnosis, chose to give a "last lecture," sharing the wisdom he had gained in life with his students. He also intended for it to be a message to his children when they are old enough to grasp it all.
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The topic of the lecture was "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," and he went through some of the things he had wanted to do as a child and had actually achieved, including working as an Imagineer at Disneyland, writing an article for World Book Encyclopedia and getting to experience zero gravity. He encouraged others to pursue their own dreams as well. He also talked about a number of ways that he had truly enjoyed life and made the most of it.
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I believe I learned some things from this book, but in my way of thinking, the thing that seemed to be glaringly absent was a faith in God. He did make a vague reference to his faith near the end without being specific about what he believed, but if I knew I were dying, the thing that would be top on my list of concerns, the thing I would most want to pass on to my children, would to be to know God and have assurance of spending eternity with Him. I don’t know for a fact that this author didn’t, and I pray that he did, but if he didn’t, then that is sadder than a life cut short, a widowed wife or children growing up without a father.
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Randy Pausch died on July 25 of this year at age 47. The book is really not a tearjerker for the most part, as at the time of writing he is still alive and looking at things from a positive viewpoint. It is entertaining and thought-provoking. I would probably give it 4 stars out of 5.