The Song of the Cardinal

Finished The Song of the Cardinal by Gene Stratton Porter, originally published in 1903. Porter puts her love and knowledge of wildlife to good work here in portraying the life of a male cardinal, his birth, youth, migration, mating and parenting. The cardinal migrates to the Limberlost Swamp in Indiana, where he befriends an old farmer and his wife. The farmer is so taken with the cardinal that he posts “No Hunting” signs all over his property, to protect the bird and his family. When he catches a young man taking a shot at his beloved cardinal he delivers the longest, strongest and most heartfelt telling off of anyone I have ever encountered. This is such a charming book. I recommend it to anyone who loves birds as well as an old fashioned read. Porter’s book A Girl of the Limberlost is among my favorite reads of all time.

Clair de Lune

Finished Clair de Lune by Jetta Carleton. It’s the story of Allen Liles, a young woman who takes a job as instructor at a junior college in Missouri, just before the U.S. enters World War II. Allen is the youngest member of the faculty, a lighthearted woman with dreams of being a writer in New York. Life in the small Missouri town is dull until she is befriended by two young men from her English literature seminar. The three a become chums and engage in many harmless larks, but one night, in a dense fog, her relationship with one of the young men changes. Nothing goes unnoticed in a small town. Allen, as a faculty member, soon finds her teaching position in jeopardy.

This was a lovely and funny book of lost innocence on the eve of an even greater loss. Carleton’s book The Moonflower Vine was a bestseller in 1963, and until now her only published novel. The manuscript for Clair de Lune was thought to have been blown away during a tornado, but instead it was safe in the hands of a good friend. I look forward to reading her other book with great anticipation.

Call It Courage

Finished Call It Courage written and illustrated by Armstrong Sperry. It won the Newbery Medal in 1941. Set in the Pacific Islands, it is the story of Mafatu, a boy who saw his mother die during a hurricane and who now has a great fear of the sea. Mafatu’s father is the chief of their tribe. He is ashamed to have a son who is a coward. One day Mafatu sets out in a canoe with his dog Uri to try to prove that he is not afraid, but he is lost in a storm and washed up on an unknown island. Here he employs all the skills of his people to build himself shelter, find food, create weapons and tools, and build a canoe to travel back home some day. He encounters many fierce creatures, a shark who tries to eat Uri, an octopus that tries to kill him when he is retrieving his knife from the water, and a wild boar. He conquers and kills all these dangerous foes, but his most dangerous foe is still the sea.

This was a very serious and at times frightening book. Mafatu’s struggle to stay alive and return to his own island is a compelling tale of bravery. Sperry’s book All Set Sail won a Newbery Honor Medal in 1936.

In This Our Life

Finished In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow. It won the Pulitzer in 1941. This family saga, set in Virginia at the end of the Depression, deals with various boundaries of acceptance. Stanley and Roy are sisters. Although Stanley is about to be married, she runs off with Roy’s husband Peter, creating scandal, havoc and bitterness. Stanley is a reckless person who never considers the consequences of her actions. Roy considers everything carefully, thoughtfully and emotionally. Their sensitive father, Asa, does his best for his family. His father before him owned the local tobacco plant where Asa now works in the stemming room. He lost the business and committed suicide when his son was a teenager. Asa is a patient man who has witnessed and endured a good deal of grief. His wife, Lavina, is a long-time invalid, who worries, fusses and fidgets over herself and Stanley, her favorite. Lavina’s Uncle William is a bombastic business man that helps keep the family afloat financially, and spoils Stanley in the process.

While most chapters deal with the ongoing turmoil of Asa’s family, some chapters are devoted only to the family of Parry, a young African American man who is studying hard in order to attend law school. He is encouraged by Asa who sees his promise and longs to help him achieve his dream. Parry’s mother had once been nursemaid to Stanley and Roy, as her mother had been to Asa. Now she takes in washing. Her husband is a mail carrier, who spends his free time tending his own lovely garden. Their life moves in a quiet, predictable routine until Stanley selfishly allows Parry to be accused of a crime she herself committed.

I enjoyed this book, although the daily emotional grind of the characters sometimes brought me down. It was made into a film in 1942 starring Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as the two sisters. I’m sure you can guess who was cast as who.

Emily Alone

Finished Emily Alone by Stewart O'Nan. Emily is eighty and a widow. Her best friend and sister-in-law, Arlene, collapses while they are at breakfast one morning, Emily must return to driving in order to visit her in the hospital and take care of Arlene's fish. Emily finds that driving isn't as scary as she remembers. Her new confidence allows her more freedom. She gets rid of her old boat of car and buys a Subaru. Her days are filled with a constant soundtrack of classical music and small events and errands. Her dog Rufus is a senior too and in watching his struggles with mobility, she sees herself as well. This is a funny, honest, and quiet book. At times Emily reminded me of the old maids in the books of Barbara Pym, also living quiet, small existences. An enjoyable read and a window into the lives of older adults living alone.

Leaves of Grass

Finished Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. I read the final, 1892 edition, known as "the deathbed edition." Whitman was considered insane and obscene when he published the first edition of this book. Today he is considered our greatest American poet. I never studied Whitman in any literature classes. I was surprised by the many references to this book that appear in popular culture. I was unaware of them until I read the poems. I took my time, reading only about five pages a day. It was a long haul, but stepping back, now that I have finished, I can appreciate the work as a whole and its influence on the Beat Poets, Ginsberg in particular,

"I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the
meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price
bananas? Are you my Angel?"

- from "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg

Tuck Everlasting

Finished Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. Although it was published in 1975, I missed this book growing up, which is too bad. I was in 5th grade that year, the perfect time to read it. Winnie Foster lives in a very strict household. One day she strays beyond the fence of her yard and explores the adjacent woods. She observes a young man drinking from a bubbling spring. Soon she meets him and his family, the Tucks. Jesse Tuck was drinking from a fountain of youth. He and his family drank from it 80 years before and have not aged a day since. Rather than being a blessing of eternal youth, their's is a curse. They work hard to make sure that no one knows their secret. When Winnie finds it out they take her away with them, not to kidnap her, but to take the time to impress the importance of their secret upon her. She learns it only too well.

This is an interesting, quiet, and with the exception of one event, a gentle book. Although I was unaware of the book when it was published, it is considered a classic today. Highly recommended.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. I have read this book many, many times. This time I listened to an audiobook version, read by Michael York. York's reading was spirited and fun. I didn't even realize he was the reader until I was a few chapters in and suddenly recognized his voice.

What a deep affection and respect I have for Aslan. Is that silly? I don't care. His tremendous strength and goodness pull me toward him. He is a metaphor for Christ and I am an atheist.

The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted

Finished The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher. This book has been on my TBR pile ever since Border's had their going out of business sale last summer. At the time I stocked up on lots of books that I had flagged on Shelfari. The cover and title of this book held me back for a while. It seemed so girly to me, and a few of the other books from that purchase had turned out to be way more chick than lit. However, as soon as I was a few chapters in, I knew it was going to be excellent. The characters and their situations are very real and believable. Descriptions were genuinely detailed and original, and Asher's sense of humor is unforgettable. I so enjoyed this book. The descriptions of food are tantalizing and luckily, there are recipes in the back. This book is much deeper than the cover gives it credit for. A must read for anyone who loves food, quirky characters and/or France.

The Magician's Nephew

Finished The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis. Although it was the sixth to be published, it's actually the first book in chronological reading order of Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. I've read this book before, but I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I did this time. This time I listened to Kenneth Branagh read it as an audiobook. It was charming. He has a different voice for each animal in the newly created land of Narnia. You can tell that he's having a ball reading this book aloud.

The many references to Genesis are perhaps lost on younger readers, but bring more relevance to the story for me since I'm interested in Lewis as a theologian as well.

The best part however was the realization that the wardrobe in the next book was made from the wood of the apple tree planted by Diggory as a boy and that Diggory grows up to be the old professor who takes in Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund during World War II.

Dawn O'Hara: The Girl Who Laughed

Finished Dawn O'Hara: The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber. This was Ferber's first novel, published in 1911. Dawn is a New York newspaper woman who wears herself to a frazzle, working for her own keep and to pay for the care of her husband, who is institutionalized as a result of alcoholic insanity. When her health finally fails, her sister Nora comes to care for her and to take her back to Michigan, where Nora lives with her husband and children.

Under Nora's watchful eye and the administration of many eggnogs, Dawn recovers. Through Nora and her husband, Dawn meets Dr. Ernst Von Gerhard, a German doctor who is brought in to consult on Dawn's case. Ernst helps Dawn find a place to live and a job with a Milwaukee newspaper. The slower pace of this metropolis makes it possible for Dawn to return to work and to begin writing her novel. She takes a room in a German boarding house where she meets many interesting and quirky characters. She also is befriended by Blackie, the paper's cantankerously generous sports writer. Among this cast of supportive and benevolent characters, Dawn thrives. Nora's husband Max takes over the keep of Dawn's invalid husband, Peter, and all correspondence with the institution where he resides. Nora is left free to live without that strain, except, that she is not free to love another.

Over time her friendship with Ernst grows to be so much more. This feeling is mutual. As much as Nora hopes to never see her dangerous and manipulative husband ever again, she is unwilling to divorce him while he is unable to speak for himself. Then, after ten years of treatment, Peter's doctors feel that he is ready to return to normal life. After he is released from the asylum, he tracks Nora down and demands that they pick up their marriage where they left off. Nora is terrified by this, but her two champions, Blackie and Ernst come to her rescue. In the end it becomes obvious that Peter's doctors were wrong. He is just as mad as he ever was.

I so enjoyed this book. I have always loved Ferber's writing. She has a way of inserting the reader into a cultural atmosphere that suspends all disbelief. This book hit a lot of painful chords for me. As the ex-wife of a mentally ill alcoholic, the story of her broken health and the terror at dealing with him after finding peace and happiness for herself hit very close to home. This created a strong personal connection for me with Dawn and her story. I feel sure that I will read this book again some time in the future.

Betsy and Joe

Finished Betsy and Joe, the eighth book in Maude Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy series. Betsy, Tacy and Tib are now seniors in high school. Cab has left school to run his family's furniture business, Carney is off at Vassar, but Joe and Tony are both still there, both vying for Betsy's attention and heart. As always with these books, I really enjoyed this read. It's now 1910. Betsy's older sister Julia is being vocally trained in Berlin. Deep Valley continues to be a quiet, idyllic, predictible place. Betsy "goes with" both Tony and Joe. She loves Tony as a friend and worries about what he's up to when he's not spending time with the crowd, but it's really Joe that Betsy feels drawn to. She and Joe have a number of misunderstandings and Tony leaves town to become an actor. Betsy and Joe make up and they graduate, wondering what the future has in store for them all. A comfortable bedtime read.

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

Finished The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston. I found this on the new book table at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor and I'm so glad I did. The interior is a marvelous and literal collage of life in the 1920s with magazine clippings, photos, ticket stubs and want ads. Along her journey from Vassar to Paris, Frankie receives advice from Edna St. Vincent Millay and helps James Joyce to edit his new book. Finally, she ends up back in her small New Hampshire town, caring for her ailing mother. There she finds everything she ever wanted in her own back yard. A truly delightful and fun read.

Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty

Finished Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty by Charles Dickens.

Finally.

I'll say from the outset that this is my least favorite Dickens novel to date. The story is ghastly and the characters are wretched. I'd almost say that this is horror literature, based on the events that take place, but really it's just historical fiction. Dickens based his story on the Gordon Riots that took place in London in 1780. His ability to portray the uncontrollable rage of a mob is so advanced that the reader is disturbed and terrified throughout the novel. There are many good natured and well meaning characters to counter those who are evil and treacherous, but the sheer horror of the tale was just too much for me. I'm glad it's finally over.

I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers

Finished I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers by Tim Madigan. As a journalist, Madigan interviewed Fred Rogers for an article in 1995, and the two began a strong friendship that lasted until Fred's death in 2003. In many ways Fred served as a mentor as well as a friend to Madigan, ministering to him and always signing his letters and e-mails to Madigan with "IPOY" (I'm proud of you). While the book describes their friendship, it also tells the story of Madigan's brother Steve's battle with, and death from Cancer. This book is honest, frank and so chock-full of warmth, that I found myself crying all the way through it. Especially at the very end.

I met Fred Rogers when I was about 8 years old, at his summer home, The Crooked House, on Nantucket Island. My uncle insisted that we invade Fred's privacy so that my sister and I could meet him. He was so kind and so gracious. I had always felt drawn to his quiet, reassuring voice and manner when I watched his television show. He is one of my heros. I miss him every day.