And here’s my conundrum: I wanted to like this book. I wanted to go along with what he’s saying – mainly because every other kind, sensitive, new “missional” Christian loves this book. And I totally agree about helping out the poor and needy as he describes in the book. We are sponsors of a child through World Vision. However, I cannot support Stearns’ theology. He suggests that caring for the poor will usher in the Kingdom of God on earth and continually quotes scripture out of context to support this idea. (Forgetting that the Scripture he’s using are the words of Jesus spoken to the Israelites – yes, if they accepted Him as their Messiah, the Kingdom of God would have been ushered in immediately. However, they did not.) Also, I hesitate to say that caring for our neighbors or the poor is a hole in our gospel. It might be a hole in the way we reach others, and it might be a hole in the way we respond…but it’s not a hole in the gospel. Assuming you see the gospel as the message of Christ coming to earth to die for us and be resurrected in order to save us from our sins…I think the way we reach people with the gospel – whether they be rich and well-fed, or poor and needy – is not part of the gospel. It’s like here’s point A – the gospel…Here’s sub-point 1., 2., 3. “how we reach others with the good news.”

Now…that being said, of course I enjoyed his biographical chapters and found his leaving his presidency of Lenox to be the president of World Vision to be inspiring. I also thought he gave good ideas for what we can do as our part of reaching the poor and needy and appreciated his insight. And using Bono as our spiritual leader in all things socially spiritual…well, how can any of us stand up to that? (wink, wink)

(The other book similar to this is Wess Stafford’s book, previously reviewed. Just my own humble opinion, but I’m going to side with Stafford on why we reach out to others.)

Or,if you just really can’t bring yourself to read a book, please consider sponsoring a child through Compassion International. The charge is $38 a month to sponsor a child. We have tried to explain to our kids a little about ways they can help and we have them contribute to the sponsorship and help write letters or draw pictures to our sponsored children. I searched until I found a girl born on the same day as our middle child, in the year our oldest was born. And our second sponsored child through World Vision has a birthday quite close to our oldest. (Finding children with similar birthdates makes it even more interesting to our kids.) I’m still searching for a little birthday buddy for SuperBoy!

So, consider sponsoring a child, please?

NB: I did not buy one single book this month!  I determined I would only get books from the library or read ones I already have on my shelf. Which leads me to my next point, which is THANK YOU! to reader Mike who, when I found out he and his family, including reader Kris, were in Vegas and had eaten at The Burger Bar and I emailed and said, OH! The Burger Bar! That’s Chef Hubert Keller’s restaurant! (The fact that I know this and not basic geography facts would be why I’m only a 69% Jeopardy player). Anyway, I said, hey, if you see an autographed cookbook by Hubert Keller, pick it up and I’ll pay you back. Kind Reader Mike got the book for me and then even said I didn’t have to pay him back – it was a gift. How kind was that? Here’s the book:

Sorry it’s blurry, but still…how fun is that? Maybe this should be the start of a new collection – autographed cookbooks!

Here is the rest of the booklist for January. The only one I’d recommend to you is the second one, The Informant, which I own, so if you live by me, you’re more than welcome to borrow it.:

1. Across Five Aprils; Hunt, Irene; 224; 1/4 (school)
SASR (Short Attention Span Review): This was my third time through the book, and each time it just bored me more. Just rambles. But! A great intro to what it would have been like to live through the Civil War as a kid. Rating: 5)

2. The Informant; Eichenwald, Kurt; 567; 1/3
SASR: Wow. What a crazy, crazy story! I really enjoyed this book – definitely the best book I’ve read this year. (Little joke there for ya.) Although the names can be hard to keep straight at times, this is a book about the price fixing schemes of a large corporation located close to us (ADM in Decatur). A man is used as cooperating witness with the FBI – but is he really helping? Or just confusing the matter with his lies? Made into a movie starring Matt Damon (which we haven’t seen yet – but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it.). Additionally, here’s a Link to article in World Magazine. Rating: 8

3. Storm Surge; Gutteridge, Rene; 348; 1/5
SASR: Third book in a trilogy of mysteries written by a Christian author. Good, light entertainment. Creepy and suspenseful. A little too much focus on the romance stuff. No man I know would notice whether a girl was wearing mascara or not – and this guy kept noticing it… which, instead of being “sweet”, I found rather creepy.
Rating: 7

4. Juliet, Naked; Hornby, Nick; 390; 1/12
SASR: Book by author of High Fidelity and About a Boy – if you liked either of those books or movies, you’d like this. The title is in reference to an acoustic CD released by a musician who hasn’t done anything in about twenty years. A man and woman who are living together review the CD with two totally different views on it and….then the story happens!

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Larsson, Steig; 590; 1/14
SASR: I read this because I kept seeing it everywhere. Heavy on the R rated torture scenes, it was also a good mystery and definitely a page-turner. It centers on a journalist who is hired to write a history of a large family and to attempt to solve the mystery of a girl’s disappearance many years before.

6. Chateau of Echoes; Mitchell, Siri; 384; 1/15
SASR: I always enjoy Siri Mitchell’s books. They’re light, escape reading, but better written than most Christian lit. This one focuses on a recently widowed lady who lives in a chateau in France. Journals were found on the property written by a girl in the 1500′s. How do the two women’s lives intertwine?

7. The Other Queen; Gregory, Philippa; 438; 1/24
SASR: I have read most of Gregory’s books and have previously enjoyed them, but this one was scattered and not that interesting and  – if you know even a little English history – you know what’s going to happen, so there’s no suspense. However, I don’t want to disparage Gregory’s writing! She usually is much more interesting, so if you want a good English monarchy book to read, try her “The Other Boleyn Girl” (or rent the movie).

Total Pages January: 2,941

That happened this last week and accounts for my absence from blogland. The book is East of Eden by John Steinbeck and it’s now a Top Ten Favorite Book for me. The book itself covers decades in two families’ lives: the Hamiltons and the Trasks. And the theme of the book is Timshel – the Hebrew word for “Thou mayest.” Using the story of Cain and Abel, the author presents the idea of thou mayest choose to do wrong, or thou mayest choose to do the right thing. (It’s right now I wish I could write a deeper analysis of the book, but I’d bore you and frankly, the fact that I can’t write a deeper analysis is why I’m just me in a suburb and not a great classic author such as Steinbeck)

I highly recommend the book, although some of the topics and language are rather harsh. But the overwhelming story of sin and redemption is powerful, to say the least.

And while books like these are so great to stumble upon, it’s always a major disappoint when they’re done.

This is why I read.

(I’ve highlighted the ones I would recommend to you.)

1. The Winter of Her Discontent; Haines, Kathryn Miller; 324; 1/8/09

2. I Was Told There’d Be Cake; 1/11/09

3. Still Life With Chickens; Goldhammer, Catherine; 179; 1/24/09

4. Girl Perfect; Strickland, Jennifer; 194; 2/2/09

5. Nurtured by Love; Suzuki, Shinichi; 107; 2/5/09

6. Outliers; Gladwell, Malcolm; 285; 2/7/09

7. Jaywalking With the Irish; Monagan, David; 240; 2/10/09

8. The Truth About the Irish; Eagerton, Terry; 2/16/09

9. McCarthy’s Bar; McCarthy, Pete; 338; 2/20/09

10. Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home; Sunee, Kim; 370; 2/22/09

11. Super In the City; Uviller, Daphne; 295

12. Eat, Pray, Love; Gilbert, Elizabeth; 2/28/09

13. There’s No Traffic on the Extra Mile; Minor, Rickey; 179; 3/2/09

14. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; Shaffer, Mary Ann and Barrows, Annie; 278; 3/6/09

15. O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare; Williams, Niall & Breen, Christine; 233; 3/11/09

16. Around the World in Eighty Trades; 3/23/09

17. The Associate; Grisham, John; 3/25/09

18.Death of Riley; Bowen, Rhys;  325; 4/2/09

19. Forgive and Forget; Scanlan, Patricia; 4/5

20. Johnny Tremain; Forbes, Esther; 322; 4/9 (school)

21. For the Love of Mike: Bowen, Rhys;  3234/12/09

22. A Little Bit Wicked; Chenoweth, Kristin; 232; 4/18

23. Girls in Trucks; Crouch, Katie; 241; 4/20

24. In Like Flynn; Bowen, Rhys; 321; 4/22

25. Tuesday NIght at the Blue Moon; Thomas, Debbie Fuller; 366; 4/26

26. Oh Danny Boy; Bowen, Rhys; 323; 4/28

27. A Homemade Life; Wizenberg, Molly; 5/11

28. The Secret Life of Becky Miller; 5/12

29. The Man Who Ate Everything; Steingarten, Jeffrey; 494; 5/14

30. A Skating Life; Hamill, Dorothy; 238; 5/15

Dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum
Now the time has come for proving
What a diet did for Pooh
And since we pledged he’d be unwedged
That’s what we’re going to do

Think heave-age, think ho-age
And out the Pooh will go-age
For mind over matter
Will make the Pooh unfatter

*The first book I’ve finished reading in ’09 is The Winter of Her Discontent, the second in a series written by Kathryn Miller Haines. Rosie Winter is the name of the heroine. She is an aspiring stage actress, but keeps getting mixed up in solving murders. The setting is 1940′s New York during WWII. I’ve enjoyed both books in the series so far and would recommend them to you. Haines does a great job of portraying what it would have been like during the War.

1. The Winter of Her Discontent; Haines, Kathryn Miller; 324; 1/8/09

2. I Was Told There’d Be Cake; 1/11/09

3. Still Life With Chickens; Goldhammer, Catherine; 179; 1/24/09

4. Girl Perfect; Strickland, Jennifer; 194; 2/2/09

5. Nurtured by Love; Suzuki, Shinichi; 107; 2/5/09

6. Outliers; Gladwell, Malcolm; 285; 2/7/09

7. Jaywalking With the Irish; Monagan, David; 240; 2/10/09

8. The Truth About the Irish; Eagerton, Terry; 2/16/09

9. McCarthy’s Bar; McCarthy, Pete; 338; 2/20/09

10. Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home; Sunee, Kim; 370; 2/22/09

11. Super In the City; Uviller, Daphne; 295

12. Eat, Pray, Love; Gilbert, Elizabeth; 2/28/09

13. There’s No Traffic on the Extra Mile; Minor, Rickey; 179; 3/2/09

14. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; Shaffer, Mary Ann and Barrows, Annie; 278; 3/6/09

15. O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare; Williams, Niall & Breen, Christine; 233; 3/11/09

16. Around the World in Eighty Trades; 3/23/09

17. The Associate; Grisham, John; 3/25/09

18.Death of Riley; Bowen, Rhys;  325; 4/2/09

19. Forgive and Forget; Scanlan, Patricia; 4/5

20. Johnny Tremain; Forbes, Esther; 322; 4/9 (school)

21. For the Love of Mike: Bowen, Rhys;  3234/12/09

22. A Little Bit Wicked; Chenoweth, Kristin; 232; 4/18

23. Girls in Trucks; Crouch, Katie; 241; 4/20

24. In Like Flynn; Bowen, Rhys; 321; 4/22

25. Tuesday NIght at the Blue Moon; Thomas, Debbie Fuller; 366; 4/26

26. Oh Danny Boy; Bowen, Rhys; 323; 4/28

27. A Homemade Life; Wizenberg, Molly; 5/11

28. The Secret Life of Becky Miller; 5/12

29. The Man Who Ate Everything; Steingarten, Jeffrey; 494; 5/14

30. A Skating Life; Hamill, Dorothy; 238; 5/15

31. Just Take My Heart; Clark, Mary Higgins; 322; 5/16

32. Her Royal Spyness Solves Her First Case: Bowen, Rhys; 324; 5/21

33. Same Kind of Different As Me; Hall, Ron & Moore, Denver; 245; 5/28

34. In Dublin’s Fair City; Bowen, Rhys; 282; 6/5

35. East of Eden; Steinbeck, John; 601; 6/11

36. Ender’s Game; Card, Orson Scott; 6/20

37. Prairie Tale; Gilbert, Melissa; 365; 6/27

38. My Life in France; Child, Julia; 333; 6/29

39. Tell Me, Pretty Maiden; Bowen, Rhys; 304; 7/3

40. French Milk; Knisley, Lucy; 195; 7/8

41. The Missionary; Carmichael & Lambert; 376; 7/12

42. How to Raise a Modern-Day Joseph; Weddle, Linda Massey; 220; 7/15

43. Sick Girl; Silverstein, Amy; 297; 7/16

44. June Bug; Fabry, Chris

45. Walk a Mile in My Flip-Flops; Carlson, Melody; 8/8

46. Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Comedy, Tragedy and Fairy Tale; Buechner, Frederick; 97; 8/9

47. A book too embarrassing to admit I read after Buechner; 273; 8/25

48. Alice in Wonderland; Carroll, Lewis; 76; 8/25

49. Master Your Metabolism; Michaels, Jillian; 248; 10/31

49. My Little Red Book; Nalebuff, Rachel Kauder; 198; 9/8

50. The Year of Magical Thinking; Didion, Joan; 227; 9/1

51. The King’s General; DuMaurier, Daphne; 440; 11/20

52. Godric; Buechner, Frederick; 178; 11/24

53. Lincoln: A Photobiography; Freedman, Russell; 144; 11/30

54. Half Broke Horses; Walls, Jeannette; 272; 11/30

55. Twenties Girl; Kinsella, Sophie; 435; 12/8

56. Cake Wrecks; Yates, Jen; 191; 12/9

57. Jesus With Dirty Feet; Everts, Don; 124; 12/14

58. Boo; Gutteridge, Rene; 12/15

59. The Splitting Storm; Gutteridge, Rene; 359; 12/19

60. Storm Gathering; Gutteridge, Rene; 343; 12/20

61. Claire; 12/30

62. Wait! I forgot number 62! It’s Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. For some inexplicable reason, I love this book and read it every year. I do not ever repeat read books – so yeah, this one is definitely a favorite!

1. How can it be Christmas without the Carpenter’s? The whole album is great, but “Merry Christmas Darling” is my first choice.

2. Amy Grant’s latest Christmas Collection has some of her older songs on it, but a couple new ones that are good… worth it to get this album if you like her. “I Need a Silent Night” is my new favorite of hers.

3. Any Windham Hill collection is great…just be aware that they recycle older songs and put them in “new” collections. So make sure you’re buying an album with music you don’t already own. That being said, Carols of Christmas Volume 1 and Volume 2 are great to play during dinner all through December (and November…and possibly October, if you dare).

4. Michael Buble has a collection out this year. Get it. Enough said.

5. Harry Connick Jr has great Christmas albums out, but this year’s is the best so far (if only I had thought to look earlier – he’s playing in Chicago tonight and tomorrow! Boo-hoo! I would have gone in a heartbeat.):

6. James, James, James. How you can sing those songs.

7. And, most embarrassing of all: This album brings back a veritable Santa-sized Sack O’ Childhood and Teenaged memories, it’s not even funny. I burned my fingers making our family’s traditional hard rock candy (which we made every Christmas) so many times to this song, that when I hear the bass singer sing those mournful tones, my fingers immediately start hurting. Ready? Don’t laugh until you’ve heard “The Carols Those Kids Used to Sing”:

The Statler Brothers Christmas

(I added this photo so you could see the front of the costumes – Target has beautiful princess/queen outfits. Perfect for 6 year olds! And I didn’t have to sew one little stitch.)

So I just HAD to start reading it out loud to them. “Oh, but there’s a faun named Mr Tumnus and there’s the White Witch and Aslan. Aslan is… oh, you’ll have to wait and see.”

We just finished reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe yesterday. It was my third time through the book in my life, but, really, this book never loses its greatness. I was so excited to introduce the girls to Narnia and Aslan. And thrilled when they understood what his sacrifice meant for Edmund and the others. (Which, in my opinion, shows what a great writer CS Lewis was – that even kids can understand the allegorical nature of his writing.) For the rest of the day, a lovely cloud of Narnia fantasy world enveloped us all. (yep, I said that in a British accent, too.)

What books did you love as a child? What book(s) would you be excited about introducing your child to?

Morton Arboretum: I have always wanted to go here, and we Finally Made It this last Wednesday. The children’s garden is amazing and the kids got a ton of energy out. And I only lost SuperBoy once. Oh, wait, I have been to the Arboretum once – remember the oh so fateful first 5K? Ugh. Anyway, my love goes to the Arboretum and all it’s Arborialtorialness.

A book I’m enjoying this week. It’s dark comedy, but it is making me laugh. Some language issues, but I love the plotline of the man who bumbles his way through life, having accidentally burned Emily Dickinson’s house to the ground :

I also read this this week:

Rather teenagerish story of a girl falling in love with a vampire. Yep.

Seth Godin is an author my brother introduced me to. Well, not literally introduced me to. That would be embarrassing. Hey, Seth. Whaddup? Um. You rock?

Anyway, read his books if you have any interest at all in marketing issues or in leading the masses to follow you or in knowing when to quit (as discussed in his book The Dip.) You can link to his blog here. I’ve liked all his books and his blog insights on marketing… Although, I admit that the last thing I had to market was why the three children should indeed go to bed RIGHT NOW.