Books you have read

Posted on December 7, 2010 by freda

This list from BBC3 is going round the internet and facebook like a rash. I just can’t avoid it any longer, so here goes.

For Instructions:

• Copy this list.

• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.

• Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.

• Underline the ones you really want to read

1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. *Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen *
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman – (copy on the shelf to read)
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Berniers
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
 21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

Oh dear and I thought I read a lot. Back to the bookshelves.

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Picture Perfect

Posted on December 6, 2010 by freda

Picture Perfect is one of Jodi Picoult’s earlier novels, originally published in America in 1995 and now published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK.

It’s always hard with her books to tell much of the story because then the twists and turns are spoiled, so I shall content myself with quoting from the flyleaf.

A woman wakes to find herself lying in a graveyard, hurt and bleeding, her memory wiped clean. She doesn’t know what she’s doing there – or even who she is. She is rescued by a police officer, himself a newcomer to Los Angeles. After days of waiting, she is taken by complete surprise when she is finally identified by Alex Rivers, Hollywood’s biggest movie star – and her husband.

If, like me you like mysteries, then this is the book for you. As a slight spoiler, I shall just say that I enjoyed learning more about Native American culture. It doesn’t merit a 10 because of the slowish start, but is definitely an 8. Let me know if you have read it.

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Getting to church

Posted on December 5, 2010 by freda

Getting to church today is going to mean several layers of clothes and hiking boots. That is always providing there is no more snow overnight.

A peaceful Sunday to all my readers. Keep warm if you are in the frozen north of wherever you are.

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What a difference a day makes

Posted on December 3, 2010 by freda

Yesterday was very cold but sunny with it. Misty had not been able to get out for several days so we took the opportunity to go to Loch Etive, a nearby sea loch. The bonus was seeing this heron waiting for fish. His patient stance says a lot about nature. Indeed being in a sub-zero world with the sun shining low made up for the vagaries of the weather over the last week or so. Unfortunately, the snow is back today so there is no going out. That’s why I’m cheering myself up by posting yesterday’s view. You can see the ice in the foreground.

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The right kind of church

Posted on December 2, 2010 by freda

Thanks to Rev Shuna for pointing me to this advice. The full blog post can be found here. I’d love to know what you think.

Here is a step-by-step plan for how to get more young people into the church:

1.  Be genuine.  Do not under any circumstances try to be trendy or hip, if you are not already intrinsically trendy or hip.  If you are a 90-year-old woman who enjoys crocheting and listens to Beethoven, by God be proud of it.

2.  Stop pretending you have a rock band.

3.  Stop arguing about whether gay people are okay, fully human, or whatever else.  Seriously.  Stop it.

4.  Stop arguing about whether women are okay, fully human, or are capable of being in a position of leadership.

5.  Stop looking for the “objective truth” in Scripture.

6.  Start looking for the beautiful truth in Scripture.

7.  Actually read the Scriptures.  If you are Episcopalian, go buy a Bible and read it.  Start in Genesis, it’s pretty cool.  You can skip some of the other boring parts in the Bible.  Remember though that almost every book of the Bible has some really funky stuff in it.  Remember to keep #5 and #6 in mind though.  If you are evangelical, you may need to stop reading the Bible for about 10 years.  Don’t worry:  during those ten years you can work on putting these other steps into practice.

8.  Start worrying about extreme poverty, violence against women, racism, consumerism, and the rate at which children are dying worldwide of preventable, treatable diseases.  Put all the energy you formerly spent worrying about the legit-ness of gay people into figuring out ways to do some good in these areas.

9.  Do not shy away from lighting candles, silence, incense, laughter, reallygood food, and extraordinary music.  By “extraordinary music” I mean genuine music.  Soulful music.  Well-written, well-composed music.  Original music.  Four-part harmony music.  Funky retro organ music.  Hymns.  Taize chants.  Bluegrass.  Steel guitar.  Humming.  Gospel.  We are the church; we have a uber-rich history of amazing music.  Remember this.

10.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

11.  Learn how to sit with people who are dying.

12.  Feast as much as possible.  Cardboard communion wafers are a feast in symbol only.  Humans can not live on symbols alone.  Remember this.

13.  Notice visitors, smile genuinely at them, include them in conversations, but do not overwhelm them.

14.  Be vulnerable.

15.  Stop worrying about getting young people into the church.  Stop worrying about marketing strategies.  Take a deep breath.  If there is a God, that God isn’t going to die even if there are no more Christians at all.

16.  Figure out who is suffering in your community.  Go be with them.

17.  Remind yourself that you don’t have to take God to anyone.  God is already with everyone.  So, rather than taking the approach that you need to take the truth out to people who need it, adopt the approach that you need to go find the truth that others have and you are missing.  Go be evangelized.

18.  Put some time and care and energy into creating a beautiful space for worship and being-together.  But shy away from building campaigns, parking lot expansions, and what-have-you.

19.  Make some part of the church building accessible for people to pray in 24/7.  Put some blankets there too, in case someone has nowhere else to go for the night.

20.  Listen to God (to Wisdom, to Love) more than you speak your opinions.

This is a fool-proof plan.  If you do it, I guarantee that you will attract young people to your church.  And lots of other kinds of people too.  The end.

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Mouse Patrol

Posted on December 1, 2010 by freda

Him Behind The Wheel became the Mouse Patrol Officer this morning. That meant getting the ladder out of the garage through the snow and climbing into the loft to check the poison. (Sorry, No way can I cope with human traps.) Count today – 3 dead mice, poison still intact but needed filled up a little bit.

Musophobia is the word for me – I learnt it on someone’s blog. Something deep inside me just cannot cope with the poor little creatures indoors. If they are outside I have tolerable coping strategies, though I don’t like them running over my feet. A site dedicated to musophobia – which kindly does not show any pictures of the little animals – says this about phobias:

Phobias are believed to be developed by heredity, genetics and brain-chemistry combine with life-experiences.

As a child I used to be able to handle white mice, there was a craze of them as pets at my primary school. The boys used to bring their pets to school then produce them from their pockets in the middle of lessons; interestingly, most small girls screamed whereas I was bold enough to handle the said white mice. In secondary school I made myself handle the white rats. Perhaps I could do this because they were white, they were clearly pets, and didn’t come under the general heading of vermin.

When I am in the garden I can look at a cute little field mouse and feel OK, but a mouse running across the kitchen floor, or jumping out of a cupboard sends me spare. The one time I managed to stay in control (ie not jump on top of a chair) was whilst taking a church service. I was busy up the front when all of a sudden a mouse ran out from underneath my long robe (horrors to think of it sheltering there) and ran away to seek refuge under one of the pews. The Elders being ordained at the time gawped, and I managed to carry on with only a laughing comment as interruption.

As you have no doubt gathered, my experiences with mice over the years has been chequered. I first remember them being hunted in the post-war prefab where I grew up in London. (These were the forerunners of timber-framed houses nowadays and were badly needed to replace areas that had been bombed out in the blitz of WWII.) The cat was duly sent into the nether regions where the boiler connected with the hot cupboard and mice came running out in all directions with Mother shouting like a banshee and Father wielding a shovel. There was no alternative but to hop about or jump on a chair. Aha! So that’s where the urge comes from.

In later years, HBTW and I plus an ever-increasing family moved from house to house and every time there was the worry of whether there would be mice or not. An old Manse (Church house) was one of the worst. The little loves used to creep out at night and raid the dogs’ biscuits, leaving their traces in amongst the little dog’s covers. (Yes – she was a cairn, in case you’re interested.) My wonderful helper, Joyce, used to shake the covers disgustedly, say “Yeuch!” before she threw them all in the washing machine yet again.

Nowadays, we live in a 25yr old bungalow and to date, mouse activity has only been in the loft and the garage, where the boiler is. Oc course, when the cat was alive he would bring in specimens from time to time – not helpful – I thought cats were supposed to eat the mice. However, he liked to be the bringer of gifts. One place I do treat with caution though is the compost bin corner. I am reliably informed that mice are attracted to the heat and even HBTW has been known to nearly jump out of his skin on occasion.

So – no pictures of house-mice in the comments please; I am simply grateful that Mouse Patrol is over for another few weeks.


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Celtic Prayer

Posted on November 29, 2010 by freda

Sacred Space 2011 arrived in time for the start of Advent – excellent! I ordered from amazon.com and it came from amazon Germany. (Possibly because of a large USA army force resident there?) The prayer at the beginning is an ideal one for this time of year.

Prayer for the Journey

As the rain hides the stars,
as the autumn mist hides the hills,
as the clouds veil the blue of the sky,
so the dark happenings of my lot
hide the shining of your face from me.
Yet, if I may hold your hand in the darkness,
it is enough, since I know that,
though I may stumble in my going,
you do not fall.

Not much snow here yet.

At least, not much in comparison to other places. The car would still need to be dug out in order to get out of the driveway.

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25th

Posted on November 28, 2010 by freda

This has been a lovely weekend, friends were staying for a couple of nights just prior to their 25th Wedding Anniversary. We shared lots of good food, (thanks to HBTW for marvellous meals;) good conversation ranging on shared memories over many years – lots about our time in the Western Isles and various household removals since; and best of all there was loads of laughter.

Happy 25th, R and M!

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Fall of Giants

Posted on November 26, 2010 by freda

If I say to you that at times I wanted the giants to hurry up and fall, then you’ve got a fair idea of what this review is going to be like.

Having given Ken Follet’s earlier book, World Without End ten out of ten, I was quite frankly rather disappointed that his latest offering – Fall of Giants – gets bogged down, both in the mire of the First World War and the machinations of the Russian revolution and civil war. Think history book and you might get the picture. The people tend to take second place to what is going on in the world rather than the easier to read devise of the characters leading the story.

In addition to the Russian, German and British characters (of aristocratic and working class families) we are introduced to American old money and a criminal dynasty.  The 6-page Cast of Characters rivals War and Peace, which I put aside to eagerly get my eyes on Fall of Giants. The book is supposed to be the first of a trilogy covering the 20th Century. I’m not sure if I shall bother to read the rest of them.

In mitigation there are some well-drawn characters giving a twist to sub-plots and the main plot. The theme of socialism in Britain is well covered but gets skewed into Bolsheviks, Mensheviks etc in Russia. The first half was much more readable than the second, which is a great shame. Also there were pointers set out in families which made it clear where the next book is ultimately going.

It gets a grudging score of six out of ten from me, though I am wondering if I am being too harsh. Has anyone else read it?

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Birthday Blessings

Posted on November 25, 2010 by freda

Blessings have been very much on my mind as I think about blogging friends and family who celebrate Thanksgiving. As you probably know already, Misty is a very special part of our lives. Today is her fifth birthday and she is still very much like a puppy, but with better manners.

Happy Birthday, Misty!

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