Weeding through the stack of read books and deciding that some need to be recycled:

The Return by Sonia Levitin was recommended in Read For Your Life, Turning Teens into reader by Hunt and Hampton.
The style was so stilted and so obviously teaching, rather than story telling, that it was hard to push through it.  It describes a portion of Operation Moses, an operation that airlifted Jewish Ethiopians out of refugee camps in Sudan after they suffered persecution in the remote western highlands of Ethiopia.  I was interested to read of this group of Jews and of the airlift to take these people to new lives in Israel, but would have preferred a better storytelling style or plain documentary.  Going out.

I have read many of the Read For Your Life (RFYL) Recommendations, and they have been really good, so the Return was disappointing.


Gervase Phinn, Out of the Woods but not Over the Hill, more from this retired  Yorkshire school inspector.  Some wonderfully funny anecdotes, but not as good as his other volumes.  Very bitty.  Going out.

Madeleine L'Engle, A Severed Wasp.  She develops her female characters well.  This book centers around a cathedral in upper Manhattan.  She does a good job showing how difficult living and working in such a tight community can be.  She also made a strong case for the power of unconfessed sin to keep someone in bondage.  Not particularly edifying.  Going out.

Project Pearl by Brother David, is the true account of how a very small group of men risked smuggling 1,000,000 Bibles into mainland China in 1981.  It is a phenomenal story of God's provision and cloaking, but also of how easily the people of God turn on one another.  Going out.

Billy Sunday by Lyle Dorset.  Well researched biography of the baseball player who became a revival preacher.  Sobering reminder to stay humble when God uses us.

The House on Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper was very well written, very disturbing account of her childhood in Liberia.  Too hard to read again or recommend to others.  Grim.

Kemelmans, Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red, and Saturday the Rabbi went Hungry.  Detective stories that will teach much about how reformed Jews view Christianity and about their own theology.  Some of the characters are very callous, not as good as the first one, Friday the Rabbi slept Late.

Books that are not worth keeping

The pile I have wanted to write up has got so high I can barely hide it under the little corner table.  I have decided that the books that are not worth keeping are not worth more than a sentence of dismissal.

The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs, appealed because I like knitting and I really enjoyed the circles I have been in that centered on handwork.  The book was well written and the story real enough, but some of the ideas Jacobs wanted to put across are not True.  I regretted spending time on this.  It can go to the library sale, but not to the prison library.

Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana by Anne Rice, was not a bad read.  I read it because I had heard of Rice's personal journey (which has since taken another painful detour).  There were a few thought provoking ideas and perhaps the book is helpful to those wanting a more fleshed out picture of Jesus, although I find re-reading the gospels does that for me.  This one goes to the prison library.

In Other Rooms, Other wonders, by Daniyal Mueenuddin, was The Full Circle's (bookshop in Khan Market) idea of an uplifting read after I went looking for something to change the pace when I had finished the Bangladeshi novel Lajja (Shame).  In Other Rooms is an unrelentingly depressing and hopeless look at Pakistan through a series of short vignettes.  Library sale.

The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett ( of The Secret Garden fame) was a pleasant read with gratifying victory of the good, but there are better things on the shelf that should take priority.  Prison library.

Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home by Harry Kemelman was another in the series of mysteries solved by Rabbi Small.  This one was darker than some of the others, but like all Kemelman's Rabbi books offered an interesting look at how a 1960s reformed Rabbi viewed God and Christians while being a decent whodunnit.  Prison library.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay was book club pick for our seniors'(as in retirees).  I really appreciated learning about the 1942 roundup of the Jews in Paris, but found the contemporary narrative woven through the history weak. Prison library.

Kapitaen Worse by Alexander Kielland (1849-1906), a short Norwegian novel, about an older sea captain who marries a much younger woman.  The description of the Norwegian little town is excellent, and my translation was beautiful..  I am guessing Kielland had some very hard experiences with those who called themselves Christians and his own relationship with God wasn't vibrant enough for him to know the difference between Christ and those who call themselves His followers.  Library sale.

The Man who Died Laughing by Tarquin Hall is the second of his mystery novels using his New Delhi detective Vish Puri.  this one isn't as good as the Case of the Missing Servant.  These books appeal to those who know Delhi and some of the landmarks and customs and Hall's affection for the place and people is evident in his writing.  Prison library

Lessons From San Quentin

Bill Dallas's book is autobiography and life coaching at the same time.  He was convicted of grand theft embezzlement as a high flying real estate big money player, and by a series of illogical events ended up serving his sentence in San Quentin.  It's a book that most people could benefit from.  The prisoner still incarcerated would be encouraged and those of us who may never see the inside of a prison for any reason will profit from the life lessons Dallas extrapolates from his five years in maximum security prison.  Going on the shelf for future lending to those interested in prison ministry and on the Amazon list for donations to prison libraries.  *****

The Miracles of Prato

Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz teamed to write a fictional account of the life of Fra Filippo Lippi in 1450s Prato.

There is a lot of good historical detail that seems to depict accurately the period and it propelled me to find much of Lippi's work on line, but it was essentially a piece of 'candy' literature and is headed out the door.

The  15th century Church is portrayed as a pretty nasty institution of very worldly people, and perhaps reflecting the authors' own backgrounds, there is little indication that any of those living and working within the establishment had any relationship with Christ.  

Land of a Thousand Hills by Rosamond Halsey Carr

This book landed on my pile because we hosted an evening of Africa-philes and asked each to bring some book or film recommendation about Africa. I have really enjoyed those recommendations that I have read so far.

This is the narrative of Mrs. Carr's experiences in Africa from 1949 to the present. Most of this time she lived in the area where Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda meet. Ruanda went through hell during the period she describes, and although she doesn't pretend that it didn't occur, she focuses more on the beauty of the place and the resilience and grace of the good people she was fortunate enough to interact with.

I got a far better understanding of the history of the area and the tensions between tribes building to the ghastly events of the early 1990s. I also learned about the importance of pyrethrum as a crop for manufacturing insecticide and am wondering whether I can plant some in my vegetable bed to discourage unwelcome visitors.

Good company for someone wanting some more background on Rwanda.