Flying with me on the plane with me today:
Sarah Reinhard gamely sent me a review e-copy of her forthcoming book, and if you blog you can have one too. The snippets I’ve read seem to up the usual Sarah R. excellent standard, though I’ll admit I went straight to the special-feature paragraphs written by Jane Lebak (tear-jerking do-not-miss-lives-will-be-saved), Dorian Speed (encouragement-for-the-discouraged-disillusioned-and-cut-wide-open), and myself (you be the judge).
Heaven’s Fury, Heaven’s Grace is not my usual genre, but I asked Mrs. Peshek if I could borrow a copy to read on the plane. She was fresh out. But as I was on my way out the door after a lovely afternoon of mom-talk, UPS arrived with the new stash! So I’ve got a loaner, and can’t wait to see what it’s like.
[UPS also brought Mrs. P. a big box of school books from Rainbow Resource — which happens to be the best deal going for getting a teacher’s manual for the Oxford Latin Course. And boring things like Saxon Math and other stuff normal homeschoolers use.]
I picked up Land of the Morning at the homeschool used-book fair the other week — great piece of history. It is the memoir of an American missionary-kid to the Philippines who was captured by the Japanese and spent her teen years in the internment camp for expats near Manila. It is written as a historical document, not as a heart-thumping fact-based-novel. There’s a good overview of life as a missionary before the war that sets the stage for the details of prison life, and then freedom after.
The McAnlis family was Protestant, but the treatment of Catholicism (limited to times when it came up — just a few anecdotes here and there) is 100% respectful. The nun stories from the internment years make it fun and inspiring reading for the Catholic reader.
My copy is headed out on loan to my dad and stepmother (who hails from the Philippines), with the hope that it will come back to me in the fall for a tour around the inferno-area, then reside in my library for future homeschool use.
Not Going Anywhere:
I finished reading The Bible Tells Me So, and yes, it really is as good as Lisa Mladnich says it is. Review coming soon, but probably not until I return from vacation, since my review notes are written on the inside cover of the book.
Lest you think I overstate the case when I say you should save time and just buy one now before Christian comes to his senses and raises the price . . . my husband is reading this book. Do you understand what that means? The man is not like me. He doesn’t just “read books” for a hobby. Basically he reads the Bible and not much else, except Fine Woodworking and a few photoblogs and archery catalogs.
But we’re ramping up for another family-sized read through the Bible over this year and the next, and Mr. Bible Guy (the one I married) is working through the other Mr. Bible Guy’s book as a warm-up for that. Great book.