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What cost is too high for Peace? This book presents a world ruled by the "Peace Authority", a group who created a new technology that allowed them to enapsulate anything or anyone that they deemed dangerous to mankind (e.g., nuclear weaponry and the people with the power to use it), in an impervious, reflective "bobble." Now, fifty years later, the world is a wild, feudal land with little 'civilized' government in the ruins of the cities of California (large portions of the population were destroyed by a bio-engineered plague around the time the Peace Authority took over). Innovative new technology is being designed and created by the "Tinkers," family groups, and they rely on algorithms designed by the elderly Paul Naismith. When Paul sees a nearby bobble burst and makes the discovery that the people using the technology didn't really understand it to begin with, he uses his wits, his new apprentice, and his Tinker allies to wage war on the Peace authorities who have tried to contain anything "dangerous" in humanity.

In their attempts to keep humanity from self-destructing, the leaders of the Peace effort destroyed any government that might have been capable of resisting them, and they keep any new governments or technologies from progressing far enough to become a threat. The result is that they are keeping all of humanity in a feudal state and stifling innovation; their own technology has barely progressed from what they were using fifty years before, which was plenty when they were the only one with the all-powerful bobble technology. There are also subtle suggestions that gender roles and equality have regressed in this time; one of the most clever and successful agents working for the Peace Authority is a woman, and her place and authority is questioned by many of those around her, yet she is fiercely loyal to the Peace Authority. The Tinker families are very patriarchal, and women aren't allowed to be involved much in the technical work or in the big decisions. This state of affairs is highlighted by the contrast with Allison Parker, a woman from fifty years before....

Some of the most interesting ideas are about creativity - Paul's insight into the way bobbles actually work gives him the capability to use bobbles defensively instead of only for attack. Similarly, the Tinker technology is much more sophisticated than the Peacers suspect-- partly because they haven't been developing their own technology, and even seem to have lost some understanding of the old technologies they use that have kept them dominant. For one thing, the Tinker tech is much more energy efficient-- because they had such limited resources, they figured out a way to adapt.

I found this to be an exciting book, and very readable (although it took me a while to get engaged and really drawn in), but there are a lot of ideas here that are quit thought-provoking.

Title:	The Peace War
Author:	Vernor Vinge
Date published:	1984
Genre:	Science Fiction
Number of pages:	304
Notes:	recommended and loaned by Levi

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I re-read this book over a weekend when I wasn't feeling well, and it was perfect timing to forget how miserable I was and lose myself for a while in Sunshine's fascinating world of vampires and magic and baked goods. I guess that means that it must be "escapist" literature, although I don't really think of it that way. There is so much worth thinking about here, and parts of this book stay with me. Sunshine discovered more of herself and who she is-- and she struggles with it, because she thinks it means that she is some kind of monster. She has this dark "affinity" for vampires, even helped save one, which she's sure no one around her could understand (although it is her very generosity towards the unthinkably Dark Other that saves her). She thinks this makes her a dark creature herself, but those around her have to help her see that it is because of her brightness, because of who she is and the source of her power, that she can face such darkness.

The fascinating character of Con, Sunshine's unlikely vampire ally, gives McKinley the chance to dig into the workings of vampires in this world she's created. Vampires are completely other and scary to humans on an instinctive level, as hunter to prey. The normal path for a vampire who survives to any kind of age is to become a wealthy master vampire with teams of younger vampires working for him-- in part, because the old vampire can't go out in any kind of light, even moonlight. We see this with Con's enemy Bo-- he has become so corrupt and evil through satisfying every dark appetite he could imagine for many centuries that he is no longer even fully corporeal.

A great book that I could (will) re-read again. I see that McKinley has published a few other books lately, which is exciting, but I hope that sometime she gets inspired to give us another glimpse of Sunshine and her world.

Title:	Sunshine
Author:	Robin McKinley
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Horror / Fantasy
Number of pages:	405
Notes:	repeat reading

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It was so delightful to read the newer Chrestomanci books and re-acquaint myself with the wonderful characters of Cat and Christopher Chant that I found myself wanting to go back and read their own stories again. Both stories tell stories about young boys with nine lives, destined to be the Chrestomanci, the only magic-user powerful enough to police the rest of the magics in the twelve related worlds. But when we meet them, both boys are quite powerless and pretty lonely, and don't have any idea that they are actually powerful magicians. In Charmed Life, the orphan Cat lives with his beloved sister Gwendolyn, who is very pretty and seems to be a talented young witch. What he (and we) don't realize for quite some time is that Gwendolyn isn't all that powerful on her own; she has simply been using Cat's magic. In The Lives of Christopher Chant, young Christopher isn't an actual orphan but he might as well be-- his rich, society mother drives away his kind, worried father (who has enough premonition to sense something bad is going to happen to Christopher, but not enough power to know what to do about it). In his dreams, Christopher travels to strange and wonderful lands, but the gifts from strangers that he carries back in his dreams actually end up in his bedroom. When a clever nanny figures out what this means, Christopher's uncle begins making use of this ability to do some "experiments"; the young, lonely Christopher is so eager to please his uncle that it doesn't occur to him for quite some time that he might be doing something dangerous or illegal.

Cat and Gwendolyn eventually go to live with Chrestomanci (the grown-up Christopher Chant). Chrestomanci decides that Gwendolyn cannot be taught or practice magic until she has caught up on other things (which she neglected entirely, devoting herself to magic). Her tantrums and spiteful magic on the castle grounds, in the house, at the dinner table, and the like are quite entertaining and an interesting look at what it might be like to live with a powerful and capricious teenager (hopefully anyone who has to deal with that has a staff of trained magicians to clean up and keep them in check, as Chrestomanci does). Eventually, she decides she isn't going to get what she wants so she decides to jump to a different reality where she will be worshipped and adored-- but in doing so, she burns up another of Cat's nine lives and shifts a whole sequence of alternate Gwendolyn doubles into different realities, leaving a girl named Janet from an unmagical world like ours in her place. Finally, Cat makes the painful discovery that Gwendolyn was completely selfish and uncarinng, and he finally decides that he does mind having his magic borrowed and used without his permission, and is able to use some of his powers to help save the day in the climactic fight.

The young Christopher Chant seems to have no aptitude for magic because of an undiagnosed magical "allergy" that inhibits his powers. When he finally goes to a teacher that his father finds, he is instructed to empty his pockets, and then when he does the spell that's asked of him he had so much power he lifts the whole roof of the house off. The travelling between worlds that he does is also quite powerful and beyond what most people can do; because of his nine lives, he can just leave a life behind in bed and go somewhere else. But there are consequences, too-- when an accident kills his dream-self, then something similar happens in real life to finish the job and takes on of his lives. In the midst of his world travels and unknown black-market smuggling for his uncle, Christopher meets and strikes up a friendship with a girl who is the living Asheth, a goddess-- in exchange for a temple cat named Throgmorten, he brings her books to read.

Although he is pretty unhappy about it, Christopher eventually goes to live with the current Chrestomanci, Gabriel de Witt. When de Witt is incapacitated in the fight against the mysterious smuggler they can't seem to catch (Christopher's uncle), Christopher has to take over organizing the fight (with some help from Throgmorten and Millie, the former Living Asheth, who chose a name from her favorite series of books about a schoolgirl), Christopher has a revelation-- he sees that de Witt doesn't enjoy his duties as Chrestomanci at all, but finds that he, Christopher, loves it and is actually pretty good at it.

Title:	The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Volume 1 consists of Charmed Life (1977) and The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988)
Author:	Diana Wynne Jones
Date published:	2001
Genre:	Young Adult Fantasy
Series:	Chrestomanci
Number of pages:	598
Notes:	second reading

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Two new installments set in the always-delightful many related worlds of Chrestomanci. If there's a common thread between these stories, it's the idea of talented young people learning to trust themselves and their own abilities, even if the adults around them underestimate them or don't believe in them. The title character of Conrad's Fate is a young man convinced by his uncle that he has a bad karma hanging over him because of something he failed to do in a past life-- at his uncle's insistence he takes a job as a servant at the Stallery mansion to take care of his undone karmic task before he's too late, but things don't go quite the way his uncle hoped. The Pinhoe Egg centers largely on Marianne, a young woman who is sort of the "heir apparent" to the old Gammer of her extended family, sort of the magical head of the clan. A rivalry with a neighboring magic-wielding family turns ugly, the Gammer seems to be going crazy, but no one besides Marianne seems to see what is going on. Both of these stories also feature current or future Chrestomancis that we've met in the other books in the series, and it is fun to see more of them.

Things are always shifting in Conrad's town. One day, suddenly, all the mailboxes might be blue instead of red (and most people don't seem to notice). Once or twice the series of books he is reading in his uncle's bookshop changes, so the new one he was planning to read has a different title or isn't there at all. His uncle explains that someone up at Stallery Mansion is "playing the possibilities", using magic to shift things to their own financial benefit without ano care for how the changes might affect anyone else. Conrad goes to work at the Mansion, and meets up with a youngish Christopher Chant, who is there looking for Millie. The two of them are chosen to be trained as valet for the next master of Stallery, which means they have to learn a bit of everything-- and this gives Christopher plenty of opportunity for wisecracks about the way things work in the big house, such as the seemingly infinite regression of groups of servants eating earlier so they can wait on the next, more important group. In the midst of all their training, Conrad and Christopher notice that something strange is going on-- it turns out that the whole castle is sitting on top of a probability fault, where things and people can suddenly shift from one version of reality to another. When they eventually find the place that's being used to try to harness the probability shifts for financial gain, there is a computer set up, which gives Jones the chance to present something I found particularly clever and amusing-- there is a "shift" key on the computer that actually does exactly what it says.

The Pinhoe Egg is set in the area around Chrestomanci Castle, and takes place when Christopher Chant is the current Chrestomanci and Cat lives there with them (sometime after the events of Nine Lives). Among other things, this book gives an idea what it might be like if we had cantankerous magic-users going senile (a frightening thought!). Because Gammer Pinhoe is unwell, the family has to move her out of her old house-- and she goes pretty unwillingly: she roots herself into her bed, she makes the huge old table go careering through the town, and generally makes things difficult. At some point, Cat meets Marianne and her brother Joe, and he is up in the attic of the old house. He is inexplicably drawn to something, what looks like a huge egg, and Marianne gives it to him. With Cat's special care and magic, the egg hatches and something rare and wonderful and delightful emerges (you think at first it might be a dragon-- that's close, but not quite right). But as Cat learns to care for and understand his new friend Klartch, he learns something about the strange silent woods where he has been riding his horse, and the sacred duty that the Pinhoe family have taken on themselves for generations, a duty of protection that got twisted into something else by the time and forgetfulness of generations.

This story highlights the many different kinds of magic and power - the "dwimmer" of Marianne's family, the mechanical cleverness of Joe and Roger, Cat's creature magic and connection with the horse Syracuse (while Christopher Chant can't stand horses), Jason's fascination with rare plants, Irene's artistic magic-infused patterns and designs, Marianne's magic being different because she is a sorceress in a family of witches, and even Janet's non-magical practicality.

Title:	Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 3 - consists of Conrad's Fate (2005) and The Pinhoe Egg (2006)
Author:	Diana Wynne Jones
Date published:	2008
Genre:	Young Adult Fantasy
Series:	Chrestomanci
Number of pages:	688

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A multi-generational tale of a family that is somehow connected to the world of Fairy. There's a family tree chart at the beginning, and I found myself referring to it frequently because I couldn't keep track of all the people. The book starts in the middle of the family's story (Daily Alice meeting and marrying Smoky and rescuing him from his anonymity), but then jumps backwards a few generations (Violet Bramble leaves England and her fairies behind, only to meet John Drinkwater and learn that the world of Fairy is somehow also close to the crazy multi-style, multi-fronted house he built), and then moves forward and follows some of their children. It's a strange book and I couldn't tell if I liked it even near the end-- the family all know (to varying degrees) that they are somehow "part of a Tale," and I found myself waiting for something to make sense of everything. The ending is pretty brilliant, and really works-- it's the kind of revelation that transforms the characters and the story, makes sense of some of the strangeness and raises a whole batch of new questions. The title comes from (I think) the notion of some of the family that the world of Fairy grows larger the further you go into it-- only the smaller parts of it overlap with our world, so we tend to only see little fairy beings.

Part of the reason I wasn't sure I liked the book, and didn't really enjoy it so much while I was reading it, was that the characters are all so unhappy and, to some extent, difficult to like or identify with. One young man in the family meets an odd bird-person and is granted the gift of being irresistible to women; what he doesn't learn until later that this is really a curse that makes it impossible to resist any woman-- he is consumed with love by each of the many women he is spending all his time and vital energies chasing around the country to be with. Another young couple in the city have a very strange relationship that seems unhealthy-- but when you know the end of their story it makes a great deal of sense, somehow. Another disconcerting thing I found, at least early on my reading, was that although the book is written in a style that reminded me of George MacDonald, there is quite a bit more nudity and sex than I would ever expect to find in a MacDonald story (not much by modern standards, I think it was that the style caught me off-guard).

Other strange and interesting characters-- a dead and ancient king brought back from the dead to become President and tyrant; a woman who is effectively a wizard, but her power stems from her mastery of the Art of Memory, her ability to make sense of things and let the things she knows infuse each other with meaning so her understanding grows and changes. A changeling child, stolen from her mother and brought up by the fairies apparently only with one rather small task.

There were hints of the ending of the story, and the ones I caught (or know now I failed to catch) were in the names. Auberon seemed like a family name, and I didn't really think about it (why it sounded vaguely familiar, how it could be pronounced). I was intrigued by the mention of a family nickname for the younger Auberon's lover, his "dark girl" Sylvie-- she mentions in passing that her family sometimes called her Tita, or Titania. But even with those clues, I'm not sure I could have guessed (still not sure I understand) the way the story ends. Some of the other parts of the story make me think I'm not quite as familiar with the characters and stories of Fairy as I ought to be, and maybe if I were these things would make more sense.

In a way, this book reminded me of The House of the Spirits and 100 Years of Solitude-- a multi-generational family with hints (and more than hints) of the supernatural, magical experiences woven into the every-day. It was the little moments like this that I loved, where you don't know quite whether or not to believe-- one of the cousins who can't sleep sees the Sandman in the room of the children, but is told he won't get any sleep. Or, the Christmas where they write letters to Santa and burn them in the fireplace (as per their tradition), and Santa shakes his head over what some of them ask for because he knows what it will cost in unhappiness, but the requests are, in a sense, fulfilled.

I hadn't heard of this book or John Crowley until I saw the title listed on Alan Jacob's syllabus for a "Modern Mythology" course somewhere online (that was over a year ago, and now I can't find it). It does seem like a book that would be interesting to discuss, and one I wouldn't mind having other people help me make sense of.

Title:	Little, Big, or, The Fairies' Parliament
Author:	John Crowley
Date published:	1981
Genre:	Contemporary Fantasy / Fairy Tale
Number of pages:	538
Notes:	recommended by Alan Jacobs (sort of)

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Beth Cappadora, a mother of three, takes her children with her to her fifteenth high school reunion, excited to finally spend time with friends and get a break from being a mother. But everything changes in a moment .. she leaves her older son, Vincent, who is 5 holding Ben's hand, who is 3. A friend had already taken Kerry, the baby, upstairs to nap. When she returns from the front desk 5 minutes later Ben is nowhere to be found. Everyone searches, people ask questions, police come .. and her husband, Pat, arrives to participate in the search. At first the policemen are helpful and assuring her that they'll find him .. but as time continues, things become more serious.

Fast forward ten years or so .. and Ben shows up on their doorstep offering to mow their lawn. He lives two blocks down the street. But he isn't Ben any longer. He is Sam. And although they can piece together what happened and how, that doesn't mean Sam/Ben remembers any of it or wants to move in with his new/old family. A classmate stole him, and is in a mental institution, and Sam lives with his father who knows nothing about it. The only person they can blame is crazy and catatonic. What would it be like to live with the guilt that 'I caused this horrible event to happen' for ten years? Both Beth and Vincent live with this guilt. And even Pat, who wasn't there at the time. But they aren't able to talk about it, so each responds differently. Beth stops being a mother, stops caring about life, stops feeling anything. She figures that she was a mother to Ben and because of that he was hurt, so if she stops being a mother to her other two children they won't be hurt as badly. Pat retreats into his work, into dreaming up a new Italian wedding themed restaurant with his family that does brilliantly. Because he works in the restaurant business he is always working and always busy, and he is glad for that. Vincent, on the other hand, knows his mother both before and after .. and knows that she is nothing but a shell. He acts out, gets into fights, challenges everyone and everything. Nobody can make him stop, although his counselor, Tom, finally gets him to face facts and remember what happened and speak it out. At the end of the book it's revealed that Vincent considers it his job to protect his family in any way that he can .. growing up too quickly because his parents didn't really care for him as parents and he had to parent himself. A very interesting psychological story .. including the effects of what happens when Ben is reintroduced into the story. They can't just pick up where they left off .. so how do they pick up? Where do they begin? Can they deal with the new stress and the loss of old stress? And there's even a hopeful ending, which I was glad for :)

Title:	The Deep End of the Ocean
Author:	Jacquelyn Mitchard
Date published:	1996
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	434
Notes:	brought by sue

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The story of a young woman (19 or so!) who leaves her home in Asheville to go teach at a school for children in an impoverished area in the hills of Tennessee at a mission. She has almost seventy students of various levels and must learn how to teach them all .. but she also must learn to understand and value their culture, and most importantly she learns what she really believes about God. Before she heard Dr. Ferrand speak about the mission work that was being done in the poorer, rural areas of Tennessee and various states, she had enjoyed life and known all the right words. But in this new place she is faced with hard truths and people who are desperately in need, and her faith is deeply challenged.

Alice Henderson is a gift to all those she interacts with. She has experienced deep pain, and has chosen hope and love and care even in harsh places. Even those of the Cove (where they work and live) who do not easily accept outsiders into their lives have accepted her and value her input and care. Many of the truths that are clearly spoken in this novel are spoken by Alice Henderson. She wants nothing to do with easy religion, or those who say the right words but do not act on them, or those who have some sort of intellectual faith but don't believe in the real power of God. And of course, there is a man. Actually two of them. Who both fall for Christy. Both handsome and good at what they do. But oh, so different. David is the preacher for the mission and has strong convictions and wants to fight the evil he sees even though he doesn't understand the culture very well just yet. He is funny and works hard and wants to make a difference. Dr. Neil MacNeill grew up in the cove and through the kindness of outsiders was able to go to medical school and get topnotch training. He chose to return to the Cove and help as he can. He travels often, works hard to improve the lives of those around him, believes in science and tradition, and has no use for a God who allows such pain in the world. Christy enjoys both men, and both learns from and challenges both of them. But in the end she makes the only choice possible. choosing the man who really loves her and not the one who simply wants somebody to be loved by.

Title:	Christy
Author:	Catherine Marshall
Date published:	1967
Genre:	fiction
Number of pages:	501
Notes:	repeat reading

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David Wheaton is a man who is passionate about life. He is an actor who has been quite successful, but in life he has been a bit less successful. Turns out that he has had a number of wives .. 9, actually. And 11 children, although a number of them have already died when the reader joins the story. David is closest with his daughter Emma, who married a playwright, Nik. Nik's dream is to write a play about the Biblical King David and have his father-in-law play the main character, and has worked quite a bit on the script and ideas. David is dying, and is being cared for by his current wife, Alice, and Emma is present with them on a boat in Alaska enjoying this last time with her father. he wants to revisit memories, to apologize, to remember the beauty, to confess, and to prepare himself for a peaceful death. this means that Emma (and Alice & her brother Ben) must also revisit the past with him.

L'Engle carefully weaves together Biblical truth with this story of a man and those connected with his family. I often have a hard time with novels that refer to the Bible because I rarely agree with them. But L'Engle is careful about what she uses and how she uses it. Her characters often quote directly from the Word and make interesting connections. When one reviews the story of David, it is amazing that such a sinful and human man could have been used so strongly by God. The modern character, David, is also quite human and sinful .. and yet has brought much good to his family. He made his share of mistakes and ignored things he shouldn't have ignored .. but there has also been grace and care in his family. L'Engle is careful to leave the reader with hope .. even though some awful events come to light in the course of the story, the end feels like an inhaling and preparing to move forward. For both the characters and possibly for the reader as well, if one has identified with the characters in helpful ways.

Title:	Certain Women
Author:	Madeleine L'Engle
Date published:	1992
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	352
Notes:	first non ya fiction of hers I've read

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Jaxom has the 'privilege' of being both a Lord Holder and a Dragonrider in the land of Pern. In his mind, this means he can do neither fully - he must live in the hold, so he cannot do all the activities Dragonriders are allowed to do .. and yet because of his dragon he cannot fully participate in training to become Lord Holder of Ruatha. This book is about his coming of age .. learning to trust himself, to take care of those he loves, to provide solutions to tricky problems (even though he might have helped to cause the problem :), to know what he wants and how to get it. Jaxom is a character who truly cares about others, which makes him very enjoyable to read about and follow.

Ruth is one of the best characters in the book! He is a dragon .. white, which is unusual .. and also much smaller than any other dragon. Some tease Jaxom that Ruth is an overgrown fire-lizard instead of a real dragon. But Ruth has all the capabilities of a dragon and is more sensitive to other things as well. In part because of his size, fire-lizards always congregate around him, so he hears more stories and sees more pictures than most dragons. And actually pays attention to them! This turns out to make it possible for Jaxom and Ruth to save Pern in regards to a stolen egg. Also .. because Ruth is so small, he is fast and accurate and highly capable when it comes to fighting thread (sorta like rain, except it's longer and burns anything it touches). Ruth seems to be humble in the best sense .. knows what he can do and admits it without making little of others, and if he can help those he loves he jumps at the chance. A sweet character .. too bad it's not quite possible to go for a ride with him! One theme which runs throughout is that of discovery. Jaxom is discovering who he is and what he values and how he wants to live. Robinton, the Masterharper, is discovering that he must take care of himself and his heart, even though he longs to participate in adventures. Wansor, the Starsmith, is in the process of discovering how to tell time based on stars and their patterns (and thus discovering that the three dawn sisters are not normal stars..). The southern continent is being discovered to be much, much larger than they imagined. Through the memories of fire-lizards, they are able to discover the place their ancestors lived and even find important pieces of their history (can you say spacecraft?!). Exciting to be along on the journey, discovering with the characters and wondering along with them.

Title:	The White Dragon
Author:	Anne McCaffrey
Date published:	1978
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Dragonriders of Pern
Number of pages:	445
Notes:	repeat reading

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A young girl (12) named Tiffany Aching sees a monster come out of the river, and decides to take care of it. She is helped by some new friends .. six inch men who are blue and kin to Celtic warriors. They talk with wonderful accents, and will fight anything that moves. Their heads are weapons, and one headbutt can down a horse. They are quite hilarious. Tiffany's younger brother (who is sticky and always wants more sweets) is stolen, and she must go to save him. To do so, she must go to another land, which is touching theirs (and is evil). It is a land of nightmare, where there are webs in which one can be caught that make you dream, and if you eat any food, you stay in the dream forever. And nightmare dogs that are also horrible. There is a queen who is in charge of all the dreams, causing people to join in her dream, and not allowing them to leave.

The little blue men are my favorite part of this story. They are hilarious. “We are a famously stealin' folk. Aren't we, lad? Whut's it we're famous for?” [their leader] “Stealin'!” shouted the blue men. “And what else, lads?” “Fightin'!” “And what else, lads?” “Drinkin'!” “And what else?” There was a certain amount of thought about this, but they all reached the same conclusion. “Drinkin' and fightin'!” “And there was summat else,” muttered the twiddler. “Ach, yes. Tell the hag, lads!” “Stealin' and drinkin' and fightin'!” shouted the blue men cheerfully. [pages 99-100]

Title:	The Wee Free Men
Author:	Terry Pratchett
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Fantasy, Humor
Series:	Discworld
Number of pages:	375
Notes:	recommended by jewell and levi

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The next book after Gaudy Night, beginning with letters to and from various people. The story comes out that Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane get married .. rather quietly, without telling everyone. They evaded reporters in such a way that they actually had a bit of quiet (unusual for Lord Peter Wimsey). Wxcept that .. the house they go to stay in, which is in the country, happens to be the place where a man is found dead the day after they arrive. So their quiet honeymoon turns into questions and inquiries and possibilities and ponderings and murder investigations. With which, of course, they help. :)

One of the best parts of this book is the relationship between Harriet and Wimsey. They really do love each other, and it is clear throughout the story. As a married couple, it is good for them to delight in one another, and they do this quite gladly. One enjoyable chapter centers around them coming up with all the reasons and ways various people could have committed the murder, and with their intellectual capacities in full play, they come up with more than one might think. These are two people who have chosen each other, and must make adjustments because of it .. but they know they have chosen well and want to learn to love each other well and fully, without causing the other to change in ways that would be detrimental, losing themselves somehow. Worth reading again.

Title:	Busman's Honeymoon
Author:	Dorothy Sayers
Date published:	1937
Genre:	Mystery
Series:	Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries
Number of pages:	381
Notes:	borrowed from mom

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This is a book about five current missional groups: InnerChange, Servant Partners, Servants to Asia's Poor, Urban Neighbors of Hope, and Word Made Flesh. Bessenecker writes about the fact that historically, radical Christ-followers step away from the Church and to the the poor in order to call the Church back to the poor. These followers live simply, among those who are poor, making a difference in the small scale, suffering with and being present with their neighbors. He talks about how these people are radical not simply as an end, but in order to pursue Jesus. There are five different pursuits he focuses on: Jesus' descent into humanity, intimacy with Jesus, relational wealth, the Kingdom, and the edges.

Nice to read this book because I am part of one of the groups he discusses, and it's encouraging to know there are a number of us out there. And that this is not such a strange calling .. many throughout history have been similarly called to love those on the margins and to step down instead of reaching for those things the world values. Bessenecker makes these ideas accessible for the reader, without using fancy language or trying to prove his point strongly .. stories and examples from today are more than enough to do that.

Title:	The New Friars
Author:	Scott Bessenecker
Date published:	2006
Genre:	Spiritual, Nonfiction
Number of pages:	175
Notes:	from t. lockie

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This volume collects three different Darkover novels, all of which deal with the clash of cultures when Darkover is once more connected to the Terran space empire. All three books focus on young men of mixed or confused ancestry (whether they know it or not-- mostly not) who come to Darkover and are drawn by the strangeness of Darkover. Darkover society is still feudal and hierarchical, and their technology is based on psi-powers augmented by matrix crystals, but only the elite and gifted upper class tend to be powerfully gifted. It's interesting to see the conflicts in culture and the differences in attitude; in one case, a young Terran and Darkovan must join forces to cross wild territory together, and it takes both of their cleverness and different education to get them through-- tracking and hunting on one side, and basic knowledge of compasses and geography on the other. In another case, a Terran who had played with lenses as a hobby is brought in to teach the Darkovans (to help them battle forest fires) and is shocked that the intelligent, quick-learning man he is teaching doesn't know how to read. They explain to him that Darkovans don't make a "fetish" of literacy like the Terrans do-- they leave that to specialists and prefer to learn directly, with direct human contact.

All three of the stories were engaging, although I think they got better as they went on, since I found it much harder to put the book down when I was in the middle of the second two stories. They are also set in roughly the same time period, so there are some common characters and even some of the main characters show up in other books as minor characters (and sometimes at different points in their lives).

In Star of Danger, teenage Larry comes to Darkover with his dad (who comes there to work). Larry is immediately taken with the new world and longs to see more of the place and the culture. He explores the city, even parts of it that aren't safe for most Terrans, and ends up making friends with Kennard, the son of Lord Alton. Larry gets the chance to spend time in real Darkovan culture, and ends up getting tangled up in the politics and warring groups. Eventually, Larry discovers what the reader probably figured out long ago-- his mother was Darkovan, and he belongs to both worlds.

Jeff Kerwin is the main character in The Bloody Sun, and like Larry, he has ties to Darkover and returns there by means of the Terran space empire. He was raised in an orphanage there, but when he inquires as an adult there is no record of him, and when he wanders the Darkovan parts of the city he is mistaken as one of the Comyn, the gifted, red-haired lords of Darkover. Eventually he finds his way to the Tower of Arilinn and is trained in his psi powers to join them in a "circle", powerful enough to accomplish feats that would rival Terran technology, such as locating oreand mining it (this is done with the aim of proving that they can retain the Darkovan way of life and keep the landscape unspoiled, while still moving forward in technology). This book verges much more on the politics of Darkover-- there are no longer enough Keepers and matrix mechanics for the towers because the discipline required is so great and the old traditions are causing problems-- most notably the virgin-worship of the young Keepers and insistence that she remain a virgin lest she lose her power. Like Larry, Kerwin isn't all that he seems-- in fact, he turns out to be full-blooded Darkovan and the child of an earlier Keeper who attempted to change the traditions of virginity associated with the post, but failed to convince people. Through his experiences as a Terran and discovering his psi abilities, Kerwin recognizes that the psi powers aren't limited to the upper-caste Darkovans, as had been long thought, which opens new possibilities for the interchange of technology and knowledge between Terra and Darkover, as equals.

In Winds of Darkover, Dan Barron is the space-port equivalent of an air-traffic controller, but one day when he is caught up in an incredibly vivid daydream and almost crashes the landing spaceship, he is suddenly stripped of his position, and packed off to teach the Darkovans how to make lenses so they can build telescopes for fighting forest fires. On his trip to the forest outpost, he meets Lord Alton and is accompanied by Alton's foster-son Larry. They both notice some kind of psi-sensitivity, but they don't know quite what is going on. Meanwhile, bandits have beseiged and taken over the lonely outpost of High Windward-- the head of the family is blind Loran, who cannot save his family but instead decides to break ancient Darkovan law and uses his laran powers to take over Barron's mind and use him as a body to come aid his enslaved people and sisters. It works, but it changes several lives in the process and also brings up issues of Darkovan traditions with regard to who can be trained in the use of their laran gifts.

Title:	A World Divided - compilation of The Bloody Sun (1965), Star of Danger (1965), and The Winds of Darkover (1970)
Author:	Marion Zimmer Bradley
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Science Fiction
Series:	Darkover
Number of pages:	688

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This is the strange, out-of-order love story of Henry and Clare. Henry is a "Chrono-Displaced-Person": he has a genetic disease that causes him to travel through time-- but he can't control it, so he is constantly ending up in unlikely or inconvenient places, naked (because nothing goes with him when he travels), and having to fend for himself or rely on the few people who know his secret, if he's in a place and time when they know about it and can help. For Clare, the first time they meet is when she is a girl and Henry is an older man who is already married to her. For Henry, the first time they meet is when he is a young man working in a library-- but Clare is so excited to finally meet him in real time, and already knows the future self that he has not yet become.

There is a brilliance to Niffenegger's concept-- this is an incredibly unique story, and it's well told; every section is labeled with the age(s) of Henry and/or Clare, which helps to alleviate some of the confusion. Henry is often hearing things from people in the past that suddenly make sense of things they've said to him before (in his past, their future); and to some extent, the reader gets to experience a bit of this as well: getting parts of the story now, through Clare's eyes, and part of it later, through Henry's perspective. However, there is a disturbing aspect to the morals and ethics of this story that bothered me; the narrative touches on it at moments, but then dismisses it too easily for my taste. An older Henry corrupts his younger self on one of his first times travelling-- teaching him how to steal wallets and unlock doors so that he will be able to fend for himself when he's on his own in time. The older Henry feels a twinge of guilt about this, but for him it is a necessity-- and, what's more, it has already happened in his past, so he can't change it (this comes up more frequently-- causation in Henry's life is quite tangled because of the things that have already happened, and he explains at various points to others and even himself that he can't change anything when he's in the past). Likewise, the older Henry worries that he is perverting Clare through his relationship with her as a girl and then a young woman-- even though he is careful, of course the very fact of Henry being there changes her and makes her different from all the other girls. I was also troubled by the idea of cheating on one's spouse with a future or past version of them.

For all the brilliance of the idea of this book, I found myself slogging through it just to finish, and I finally figured out why when I met Henry and Clare's daughter Alba. She is a delightful character; afflicted with the same time-travelling disease that Henry has (although perhaps with a little more control), but clever and smart and-- perhaps what is strikingly different from the other characters-- happy and well-adjusted. Alba is the first character in the book that I actually liked. The other characters, even Henry and Clare, are so unhappy and messed up-- they have sad childhoods (in many of his time trips, Henry revisits the scene of his mother's death over and over) and mixed up relationships with their friends. There is a sadness about Clare, because she is nearly always waiting for Henry-- waiting for him to come visit out her out of time, waiting for him to come back from his time trips. And the murky ethics of it all is disturbing to me-- but there is none of that in Alba. For Henry, his disease is a curse that warps his life and eventually destroys him; for Alba, in a way it is a blessing because of the moments out of time that she gets to spend with her father.

This book was recommended to me by several people (I don't remember who all); my first hint that it might not be the kind of book I first thought was when I looked for it in a bookstore and it wasn't in the Science Fiction section.

Title:	The Time Traveller's Wife
Author:	Audrey Niffenegger
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	560
Notes:	recommended by several people; gift from Jane

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Harriet Vane decides to go back to Oxford for a reunion of sorts, even though she was on trial for murder and feels unable to face those she knew. Things turn out alright, and because she is a murder mystery writer, when strange things start to happen on campus they call her for help. They want to keep it quiet and under wraps so that the only all women's college isn't closed. But things get stranger and stranger, and Harriet eventually calls in the man who kept her from going to the gallows.

Because of various facts, a number of students are ruled out. So there are a number of tensions that arise, with people getting mad at one another and suspecting one another. Harriet is able to find a few people who have alibis (because she was with them during an event), and so is able to care for the college better. It has to be someone who is fairly well-educated, because Latin is used, and good spelling. Peter Wimsey eventually comes to save the day, and they solve the problem easily, before it comes to a horrible end. It turns out to be a woman whose husband was ruined by one of the teachers, who is trying to get revenge against the woman who ruining his life. Harriet meets Lord Saint-George, who is a nephew of Lord Peter Wimsey. He is quite amusing, knowing that he is handsome and that he can get just about anything he wants. He and Harriet become friends, and some interesting things happen between them. One of which is that Harriet and Peter have to start talking again .. and eventually, she decides that you can relate to someone both emotionally and intellectually. Well-written and intriguing, with plenty to ponder. Re-readable!

Title:	Gaudy Night
Author:	Dorothy Sayers
Date published:	1936
Genre:	Mystery
Number of pages:	501
Notes:	borrowed from mom

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This is the first volume of the acclaimed Y: The Last Man series, and it is engaging right from the start. Some unknown disease (or something) kills off all the males on the planet (not just humans but every species), and it happens all over the world at the same time. The only male survivors are Yorick, an out-of-work street magician and escape artist, and his pet monkey Ampersand. Vaughan presents a compelling picture of what the world might be like and how people might respond to an abrupt change like this. Some women form a new gang of Amazons, insisting that the world is better off without men; others mourn the incredible losses of all the talented musicians, scientists, and other great men that were taken away all at once. Even the political aspects are compelling: Congress is left with mostly Democratic politicians and the wives of the dead politicians demand their share of the power. The title of the series works beautifully on so many levels-- Y for Yorick, the last man on Earth, but also for the Y chromosome, as well as a play on the question, "Why?" since no one knows the cause of this disaster (although Vaughan offers a couple of possibilities in some of the different storylines).

The artwork is great, and so many little details-- in the art and in the story-- are delightful. Yorick's father is a literature professor who named his children after characters in Shakespeare (Yorick's sister is named Hero). The opening of this volume grabs you immediately because it shows the catastrophic event and then jumps back a little bit and gives you some of the different events in the storylines that lead up to the moment when all the males on the planet drop dead. This technique is very effective for this part of the story, but it began to seem a little overused when I saw it in the other sections of the story, at the beginning of some of the other issues in this volume, where it really wasn't needed to tell the story effectively.

Overall, very interesting and engaging. I will be looking to read more of this series.

Title:	Y: The Last Man - Unmanned
Author:	Brian K. Vaughan
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Series:	Y: The Last Man
Number of pages:	128
Notes:	gift from Jane (from my wish list)

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The fairy godmother that dogged Harry's footsteps in Grave Peril was forced to trade the debt-- Harry now owes a debt to Queen Mab of Faerie, and she is requesting him to look into the murder of one of the knights of the Summer Court of Faerie-- a person of great power, whom it would be difficult to kill, which may mean that it is one of the other Queens of Faerie. Mab wants Harry to prove that it wasn't her, in order to avert a war between the two courts of Faerie. There's also some wizard politics going on, fallout from encounters with the vampires in previous books, that forces Harry's hand and makes him accept Mab's offer even though he knows he should avoid entanglements with fairies at all costs. Harry begins the difficult task of investigating the other six Queens of Faerie (three for each of the Summer and Winter courts), and does his usual bang-up job of alienating people along the way. And, naturally, someone doesn't want him to succeed in his investigations and keeps sending warriors and beasts to try to stop him.

There are some clever, fun parts to this story. I liked the way Butcher worked in all the known names of the Queens of Fairies by giving the Summer and Winter courts each three queens-- sort of a past, present, and future queen, in a sense. I also liked the continuity from the other books-- the Alphas from Fool Moon are around, keeping an eye on Harry and helping him out of trouble, and eventually helping him out in the final showdown.

That final showdown is pretty exciting. There is a war going on in the heavens-- the beginning of a full on Faerie battle that, if left unchecked, could destroy the human world. Dresden and his allies climb up into turmoil and dark clouds over Lake Michigan in order to fight their way into the center of the battle and stop the unraveling that was caused on purpose, to upset the balance of the Winter and Summer courts of Faerie.

Title:	Summer Knight
Author:	Jim Butcher
Date published:	2002
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Dresden Files book 4
Number of pages:	371
Notes:	borrowed from Garvey

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This is a graphic novel adaptation of Richard Matheson's famous 1954 novel (which I haven't yet read but now want to). Robert Neville is the only uninfected, normal human left in a post-apocalyptic world (there are hints of bombs and dust-clouds in his flashbacks) where all other humans have been infected by a disease that basically turns them into vampires. The black and white artwork conveys beautifully the darkness and the utter loneliness of the world that Neville lives in. When the book opens, Neville has an established routine of the errands and tasks he does during the daylight (including repairing any holes in his boarded up windows, growing garlic in his hot-house, and stringing garlic around the doors and windows), but is always inside and locked up by dusk, usually playing classical music in attempt to drown out the noise of the monsters that congregate outside his house to try to lure him out. Eventually, Neville starts to move beyond this routine-- he starts researching the infected blood and reasons through how much of the vampirism is biological and what might be psychological (like fear of the cross and mirrors), and he starts hunting and killing as many vampires as he can during the day, while they are in their coma-like sleep.

There are great details here that make the whole world Neville inhabits much more convincing. For instance, on cloudy days he can't go far from home because he doesn't know how soon it will be dark enough for the vampires to come out. Or how a little thing like a watch stopping could mean death. Neville goes to abandoned stores for whatever equipment he needs and can salvage (like the microscopes he uses to study the infected blood), and he drives at high speeds, goes the wrong way on one-way streets, etc-- rules that were necessary in society become meaningless when he is the only man left.

What makes this story is compelling is the human element. Neville is tortured by the loss of his wife and child to the plague, and some of these experiences are shown through flashbacks. When Neville sees a thin, scared, stray dog in the daytime is nearly overwhelmed by the desire to have companionship. Over days and weeks he slowly, patiently gets the dog used to him, feeding him and moving closer to the food while remaining utterly still so as not to scare the dog off. Finally he manages to bring the dog into his house, and as night falls the dog is terrified because it can't get to its hiding place (and, of course, doesn't know that the house or this man is safe). Neville is finally able to touch the animal, and discovers that it is infected.

The other brilliance of this book, of course, is the twist of the title. Eventually (after three years of this existence), Neville discovers that the infected humans have figured out a way to live with their disease and are beginning to establish a new society-- and as he is dying, he recognizes that he has become to this new society what vampires are to us: the legendary, horrific monster that comes in while we are asleep and kills for no reason.

Title:	I Am Legend
Author:	Richard Matheson (adapted by Steve Niles and Elman Brown)
Date published:	1991
Genre:	Graphic Novel, Science Fiction / Horror
Number of pages:	244

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The galaxy of Ulubis has been disconnected from the rest of the "meta-civilization" when its wormhole portal is destroyed by Beyonder terrorists, but now, because of something inadvertently discovered by Seer Fassin Taak, two separate fleets are racing through deep space to attack or defend Ulubis and retrieve the vital information they think Fassin stumbled across-- a transform to find and access the long-thought mythical Dweller List, a wormhole network set up by the ancient gas-giant Dwellers centuries ago. Fassin is a scholar of Dweller Studies, caught up in the politics and bureaucracy by the order of the Mercatoria. While all the preparations for war and defense are going on, he is sent back to the gas planet Nasqueron to try to find the information that everyone is fighting for. Most of the story follows Fassin, but we get other parts of the story through Fassin's flashbacks, his friends Saluus Kehar, a rich industrialist, and Taince, a military officer with the fleet racing to Ulubis' defense, as well as glimpses of Lusiferous the Archimandrite, the ruthless and vicious head of the fleet coming to attack Ulubis. Banks has created a rich, dense universe populated with fascinating creatures (so many ideas here just thrown into the background could be a full story) and a compelling plot with a pretty satisfying resolution.

One of the undercurrents to this book is the existence of AIs. The current reigning bureaucracy hunts them down and destroys them, and often people use technologies that are "dangerously close" to full-blown AI. In fact, I noticed early on that the few instances of first-person narration all seemed to be AIs; most of the book is in third person, so this is an interesting (and, no doubt, quite intentional) choice-- it's subtle, but it seems to underscores the "personhood" of the AIs. I hoped and suspected that AIs would play into the story, and was delighted when one of the most interesting and strange characters turned out to be one.

There are so many interesting creatures and ideas here. The Dwellers themselves are fascinating (although I can't quite picture them visually from the strange description); they seem childish and silly, but they are the oldest known civilization still living in the galaxy, spread to all gas giant planets billions of years ago, and individuals can live for centuries. Species are divided into Slow (like Dwellers) and Quick (like humans), both for how they sense time's passing and (more importantly) for how long their civilizations endure. Dwellers are impossible to coerce or bribe, both because they are basically indifferent to most of what goes on outside their planets (during the invasion of Ulubis, almost all of the news Fassin can find is about the "play" war the Dwellers are conducting on Nasqueron), but also because their only form of money is the "kudos" that they receive from each other.

There are many fascinating "by the way" ideas that Banks throws in just as background for this universe. For instance, aHumans and rHumans-- some humans were taken from earth and helped to develop so that when the "remainder" humans finally developed their technology and made it into space, they discover that they aren't the only or even most developed humans out there. Or the Morbs, death-obsessed races such as the bird-like Ythyn who roam space collecting and preserving the dead of all kinds. The water-worlder Sceuri, like a huge eel with a folding sail-wing on its back. Or the moment when Fassin finds out his family has been killed and contemplates revenge, and ponders the fact that so many were involved in the destruction (military commanders, the person who launched the weapon, the people who built it, those who started the conflict, etc) that he can't possibly identify who was actually responsible. Also compelling: the Machine War against the AI (centuries ago) ended not because the biologicals won, but because the AIs recognized they could wipe out all of the biologicals and decided not to, and instead went into hiding.

I was a good chunk of the way into the book before I had any idea what the title meant. The Algebraist is the title of an ancient epic poem about a space voyage-- Fassin traded with a Dweller for this book, and it was in a footnote of the first volume that others discovered a reference to the key to the Dweller List. Eventually, Fassin discovers the alien algebra that is the answer he was sent to look for, and first thinks it is a joke-- but eventually figures out the answer is simpler than anyone could have guessed (it seemed like the perfect, satisfying answer to me, drawing together clues from earlier, seemingly unrelated parts of the story). But it also seems to me that the idea of algebra also links to the AI, especially because the first use of the word algebra in the novel is by an AI in hiding that knows it will soon be discovered and destroyed, meditating on the idea of revenge,

... the price its enemies all deserved to pay-by any algebra of justice under any sun you cared to name-for their intolerance, their savagery, their generacide...

Caveats for the sensitive reader: lots of swearing (even Dwellers occasionally use the f-word, which seemed strange-- translated into human?), some sex scenes, and some gruesome violence (presumably to establish how horrific and amoral Luseferous is, but still quite disgusting).

Title:	The Algebraist
Author:	Iain M. Banks
Date published:	2004
Genre:	Science Fiction
Number of pages:	434
Notes:	recommended and loaned by Pete

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The title of this book is a bit misleading. I've owned it for years, but apparently never read it, because somehow I thought it was a collection of fictional short stories about the Salvation Army during the war, and it's really nothing like that. Instead, it is a factual, anecdotal account of the work of the Salvation Army with the soldiers in France during World War I, pieced together from journals and letters from the people who were over there. Most of the anecdotes are very brief, a page or two at most, so there's not a lot of continuity; stories are organized by region and apparently by some kind of chronology, although this is not obvious. At times it feels like propaganda, as anyone who speaks ill of the Salvation Army soon comes to love and respect them, and the "lassies" are all pure of heart and motive-- and apparently most of their work involved making doughnuts and pies to give the lonely soldiers a taste of home. Still, it was interesting to get a very different perspective on the war and the living conditions near the front-- as Hill points out repeatedly, the Salvation Army workers went as near to the front as they were able, and endured the hardships along with the "doughboys" rather than associating with the officers.

There's a section at the beginning about "Commander" Evangeline Booth raising money and support to send her people to Europe (when someone asks where the Salvation Army is, she somehow correctly intuits it is a spy trying to find out where the American troops are), a bit at the end about the work of the Salvation Army for soldiers returning home, and then a long section at the end full of letters from presidents and governors endorsing the Salvation Army, and then from military people of every rank thanking them for their work. These are interesting, but they also make the book feel even less consistent.

I felt like this would have been a much stronger and more compelling story if Hill had taken all the anecdotes and stories and threaded them into a fictionalized account, creating a few characters that the reader could follow throughout, rather than jumping back and forth to unnamed people. And the moments when she talks about the Salvation Army "lassies" and heroes the way she describes the heroines in her fiction-- in spite of their blond curls and pretty faces, if you look into their eyes you just know how sweet and dedicated they are, etc. These kind of descriptions are silly enough in her fiction, but here in what is otherwise almost too dryly factual, it stands out even more.

Couldn't figure out how to classify this one-- it's not fiction, but I'm not sure it really counts as history either.

Title:	The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Author:	Grace Livingston Hill
Date published:	1919
Genre:	History ?
Number of pages:	327

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Bryson is a wonderful writer, and this is quite the interesting topic. Particularly for someone who enjoys words and using them well. Bryson includes a number of comparisons between English and various languages .. for instance, how English only has the word 'you' while in most other languages there are at least three or four different varieties to choose from when addressing someone else. And he is careful to make sure these go both ways .. expressing how in some ways English is simpler than other languages, but also how confusing it can be with grammar and vocabulary and simple changes bringing large changes in meaning.

There are a nice divisions for chapters .. names, spelling, pronunciation, swearing, wordplay .. and others relating to both the history and future of words and language. Of course Bryson uses good vocabulary in this book (how else could one write a book about the English language?!), so it was good for my brain to read this book. Not only was I learning as I read (and also wanting to share random facts with friends who weren't always so interested..), but I was using my brain and being reminded of words I don't get a chance to use often. This is a book I am sure I will read again.

Title:	The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way
Author:	Bill Bryson
Date published:	1990
Genre:	Nonfiction
Number of pages:	245
Notes:	from danny & anita

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I decided at the last minute that I wanted to re-read this book before I saw the new Narnia movie (I actually read the last ten pages in the movie theater), but I'm glad I did even though they changed so many things in the movie. It was delightful to catch the little bits that are directly from the book that I might not have noticed otherwise (like the Bulgy Bear sucking on his paws). Prince Caspian has never been my favorite of the Narnia books, but I think that must be simply because the others are so good and have so many interesting ideas in them, and not because this is a bad book. There simply isn't the scope for ideas that's provided by the many strange islands in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, or the fascination of meeting Narnia for the first time, or glimpses of creation and heaven that we get in the other books. But this story does have much to say about faith.

Narnia is in trouble again when the Pevensies return. Where before Narnia was oppressed and enslaved by the White Witch, now Narnia is wild, asleep, and hidden-- oppressed by humans who fear the fantastic Narnian natives. The landscape has changed so much in the centuries since Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy reigned over Narnia's golden age that a long section of the book is about them getting lost in the woods. Perhaps one of the changes they made in the movie are an extension of this-- in the book Peter is over-reliant on his sense of direction and knowledge of the land, where in the movie he is over-reliant on his skills as a military leader.

The ideas of faith mostly center around Lucy's interactions with Aslan. When they are all lost in the woods, she sees Aslan when no one else does, and they don't believe her. They made an interesting choice in the movie not to show Aslan when Lucy first glimpses him-- in the book it is easier to sympathize with and believe Lucy, but in the movie we are among those who don't get to see Aslan and don't know whether to trust Lucy. There is a great sequence in the book where Lucy is following Aslan and the others are following her without really seeing Aslan, although gradually they get glimpses of his shadow in the moonlight, and eventually they see him too. This is a great spiritual metaphor, because some people do seem to see God more easily than others, maybe because they are looking for him. But it also gives hope to those who don't see-- we can rely on those who have more faith until our own faith catches up.

It was hard to take the movie on its own terms because I kept thinking about what was different from the book. It makes sense that they would need to change and condense things to make this work as a movie, but some of the changes seemed like an excuse to have more battle scenes because I guess that is what movie-goers like (Lewis' description of the battles are always incredibly brief). It is also strange to listen to reviewers who don't like-- and don't seem to understand-- the Narnia movies. They think it is a poor attempt to duplicate the Lord of the Rings movies, and dismiss the talking animals as "cutesy." Whatever my quibbles with the changes they made to the story, my reaction to these kind of misunderstanding reviews makes me realize how much I value the movie-- perhaps because it allows me to enter into the wonderful world of Narnia and spend a couple of hours there.

Title:	Prince Caspian
Author:	C. S. Lewis
Date published:	1951
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Chronicles of Narnia
Number of pages:	216
Notes:	repeat reading

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This book has an introduction, a closing, and 9 chapters in between, with each of the main chapters being specifically about one pathway toward God. These are: naturalist, sensate, traditionalist, ascetic, activist, caregiver, enthusiast, contemplative, and intellectual. How freeing to be told that we don't all need to relate to God in the same way. So often in churches, we are told one or two specific methods .. told indirectly that 'good Christians' will have their quiet time reading the Bible every morning, or other similar mandates. For some people, these are good - but for others they limit and create discomfort. Because, you see, we are all created differently! And God is gracious to relate to us in a variety of ways, so that we can best come to know Him and His love.

Many of these pathways fit with a specific denomination or branch of Christianity, and I wonder how many of the divisions in the Church have come about because of difference in the way we were created by God. As humans, it seems that we are so quick to expect others to be like us. When someone becomes a Christian, it is easier to say 'follow my example' and 'do what i do' than to say 'follow the example of Jesus' - because Jesus seems unreachable and too perfect. But Thomas uses Jesus in most if not all the pathways, because He showed us how to live each one. God is much bigger than we believe Him to be - and the ways that He can reveal Himself are also much wider than we believe them to be. This book encouraged me to know the ways that I most naturally relate to God and make sure those are part of my normal life. Other pathways and methods will happen, and are good ways to stretch myself and learn new truths -- but if I'm not making sure my soul is fed in a way that it can easily receive food and communication from my Dad, I won't have the energy to try to hear God in unfamiliar ways.

Title:	Sacred Pathways
Author:	Gary Thomas
Date published:	2000
Genre:	spiritual
Number of pages:	224
Notes:	borrowed from diane, recommended by diane & lori

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Chesterton writes well .. with enough detail and not too much, and this book flows quickly and well, as one would expect from a nightmare. And there are certainly dream-like elements: at various points time moves much too quickly or too slowly for real life; there are sudden changes, with strangers suddenly being revealed as friends and the like; and oddities are seen as expected and normal. As with much of Chesterton's work, there are many layers and levels of ideas and relationships and truth in this work, and I'm sure I only grasp a few .. but on this reading I understood a bit more than on my first reading.

Gabriel Syme, a man who was selected to be a police detective fighting the anarchists, enters the story and debates with a poet spouting anarchist propaganda. Nobody believes he is one because that would be too obvious .. but shortly thereafter Gregory is invited to a meeting of anarchists so that he will believe there are actually such people. Which is exactly what he wants. Through a series of events, he is elected to the high council of anarchists. Which is composed of 7 people .. each known mainly by a name which is a day of the week (hence the title). At the first meeting where Gregory is present, they eat breakfast together and Sunday denounces one of the members as a policeman .. which later turns out to have affected everyone strongly.

Sunday is the leader of the anarchist high council, and is the definition of so much. All events revolve around him, whether others know it or not. All the anarchists are afraid of him and aware of how much power he has. The ending is spectacular. Sunday is revealed for who he really is (or at least what he can be understood to be .. ) and the other six days of the week are given clothes which beautifully represent the days of creation. Sunday is revealed to have been in all sorts of unexpected places, playing many parts to make things have happened as they did. although this was written and meant as a nightmare, there are many beautiful truths in it. Two being that each man experienced Sunday differently and remembered different facets of him & they experience challenges and suffering, but consider it all worthwhile once they reach the 'end'. This book is well worth reading, as are all the books of Chesterton I've read so far. And worth re-reading!

Title:	The Man who was Thursday: a Nightmare
Author:	G. K. Chesterton
Date published:	1908
Genre:	fiction
Number of pages:	186
Notes:	borrowed from jonathan, repeat reading

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A young girl named Rachel is growing up in Hawai'i, in a time when leprosy is seen as a horrible and dangerous disease. Such that if someone shows signs of it they are taken to a special hospital and if they are not cured, they are sent to Kalaupapa, an island for those with leprosy. She spends time at the hospital and ends up being sent to the island .. meaning that she will only see her family if they can pay for a trip to the island which isn't easy on their small salaries. But instead of going away to die, she finds out that life is indeed possible. he is a trouble maker for the nuns who take care of the young girls with leprosy, finding ways to get around rules and push boundaries and enjoy life.

Before reading this book I didn't know that leprosy was such a problem at the turn of the twentieth century. I knew that it has been seen as a horrible disease for a long time and that many people (from Biblical times) have been made outcasts because of it. But the idea of people being exiled and separated from family was hard to read about. Especially because this is a novel based on history .. these are events that did take place, and Hawaiians were separated from family members in harsh ways. Good to know a bit more about history .. but also to see the hope and vivacity that Rachel shows, as a young girl faced with such pain. Hope in the midst of suffering .. that's something of which we can always be reminded.

Title:	Moloka'i
Author:	Alan Brennert
Date published:	2003
Genre:	historical fiction
Number of pages:	384
Notes:	brought by sue

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I saw the movie first, and wasn't sure what I thought about it .. but then my siblings enjoyed it so that helped me to be willing to watch it again. And it made more sense the second time through. The movie was rather confusing for me .. but the book made much more sense. There are a number of stories going on at the same time (they are very closely related, but still .. it's lots of characters to keep track of). Tristran Thorn ends up headed on an adventure to find a fallen star to bring back to the girl he loves .. but little does he know just how much adventure is ahead of him .. with three other sets of people wanting the same star for much darker purposes.

To get the star, Tristran must enter into Faerie .. where most people are not allowed to go. But he has some faerie blood in him and thus can enter. In Faerie, things are almost never what they seem. One man that is visible might have 4 or 5 ghostly companions (brothers who cannot rest until the next king is chosen). An innkeeper might actually be a witch in disguise. A barman might have once been a goat. A bird might actually be a person in a slightly different form. Along with the physical being quite changeable and not to be relied upon .. so are hearts and relationships changeable. Tristran longs for one thing .. but when it is finally within reach he realizes that his heart has long ago started wishing for something (someone) else. As Gaiman creates such a transitory and uncertain world, it can be hard to know what is true and what is illusion. But in the end the truth makes itself clear and things end up as they should :)

Title:	Stardust
Author:	Neil Gaiman
Date published:	1999
Genre:	Fantasy
Number of pages:	248
Notes:	from danny & anita

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Not my favorite of Jane Austen's books, but I was inspired to re-read it after seeing the delightful Masterpiece Theater version of the story. They did a wonderful job of bringing to life this plain, ordinary heroine who reads to many Gothic mysteries and is ready to imagine romance or intrigue anywhere. The narrator makes a great deal of the fact Catherine Moreland does not resemble the usual heroine of a novel-- not extraordinarily pretty, neither extremely rich nor poor; she is just about as ordinary as she can be. And yet in spite of that, she gets to have her own little adventure and finds her own romantic hero.

Catherine is kind and generous; somewhat naive and innocent, and sometimes outright ignorant. There were times when she reminded me of Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice-- always trying to think the best of people, even when things don't quite add up. Except that Catherine isn't as wise or intelligent as Jane (and, of course, she doesn't have a sister like Eliza to tell her how things really are). Austen does a great job of making things clear to the reader that Catherine completely misses-- Catherine's faithful "friend" Isabella, people's concerns with wealth and mis-perceptions about how wealthy Catherine might be.

Catherine's romantic interest, Henry Tilney, is a completely delightful character. He's amused by the foibles of other people, like Catherine's obsession with Gothic novels, or Mrs. Allen's obsession with clothing; he's witty and humorous, and very aware of language-- he teases Catherine over the silly things that she says, which probably she has heard other people say, and in the process he begins to educate Catherine and form her mind. When she says a book is "nice" he responds according to the original meaning of the word (neatness), which of course confuses Catherine, and Henry digresses on how the word is used for anything and hence comes to mean nothing. Another time Catherine says she has "learned to love" a particular kind of flower, and Henry teasingly asks how she learned such a thing. According to the narrator, these two end up together because Henry was the cause of Catherine's "first serious thought," which was incredibly flattering to him.

Title:	Northanger Abbey
Author:	Jane Austen
Date published:	1818
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	221
Notes:	repeat reading

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