888-Walking the Bible

I started off this challenge with so many great intentions…hmmm.  The list was going to help me read across more genres, I was going to write a little review on each book.  And now as you can see, my completed books aren’t really that balanced across the categories and I am way, way behind on the reviews.  [sigh] It is a tough life.

In keeping with our history studies of the time of the Old Testament, I read Bruce Fieler’s Walking the Bible.  He also has a PBS series with the same name which highlights many of the places discussed in the book.  Without hesitation, Walk the Bible is a keeper.  I’m not going to mooch this one (don’t know what that means?!?  Look for the upcoming revelation of my new hobby-bookmooching.)  The book journals the author’s visits to key sites in the Pentateuch and includes wonderful information on the geography, biblical history, and recent history of each site.  Along the way you are introduced to many academics, devoted pilgrims and desert pioneers.  This is not a dry text of facts, but a heartfelt reflection of a man’s travels, his personal reflections, the interactions he has with many giving people and his journey to understand the God of the Bible.  The book just gets you started on all of these-you finish the book aching to see the land yourself, thinking deeper about your own thoughts and ideas relating to the history of the Pentateuch, wishing you could meet some of these extremely dedicated people, and praying that so many of the people you have met through the book do in fact find the true fulfillment of the Gospel. 

888 Update

One of my favorite things to do as soon as school ends is just spend a few hours (or even a few days) reading as much as possible.  As you know, I am doing the 888 Reading Challenge and I was anxious to cross some books off the list.

You can look at the updated list on the 888 Page, but out of 64 books for the year, I have finished 25 (it sure feels like I should be farther than that, but…)  I am a little behind, but I know that I would get more done in the summer. 

Blithe Tomato-888 Reading Challenge Review

Love, love, love this book!  This is a collection of essays on farm and farmers’ market life in the Sacramento Valley.  Written by Mike Madison, the brother of Deborah Madison of the Greens Restaurant fame (a fabulous vegetarian restaurant in SF), this book is an easy, feel good, think a little bit collection.  Madison reflects on everything from what it means to be an organic farmer, to the savvy farmers’ market seller, to the unending struggle with gophers, to the ladies’ man who frequents the market and the joys of old tractors.  His easy writing style and wide coverage of  so many different areas of farming life draw you into the simple life and leave you wishing you too were living off the land.  At times a bit of Zen and some political liberalism pops up, but it is simple to overlook that and just enjoy the rural life.  All of the essays are short, so you can read just a bit here and there, but I couldn’t put it down.

From Two Economies: (an essay on having a new tractor part designed and built)

Every time I walk past my roller I admire it.  It is an unselfconscious piece of industrial art, simple and functional and well built.  It works exactly as intended, and every fall and spring when I plant bulbs I roll the beds, making the bulbs comfortable and the gophers uncomfortable.  As much as anything, I like that the roller was made for me by someone who appreciated what I was up to, and who had the craft’s-man pride to do beautiful work when something less would had sufficed. 

From Ulf:

Ulf’s farm was a study in green.  There was the lime green of Bibb lettuce and the arctic green of collards and the blackish green of Tuscan kale and the bronze green of mustards and the variegated green of cilantro, and many other shades of green, all set out in long, straight rows.  The glowing pointillist dots of chiles and tomatoes and oranges were missing, for ulf did not grow these things.  He was a leaf man.  He just grew greens.

Breathing a Sigh of Relief in the 888

I read a lot, but I admit that I had a certain level of anxiety over the number of books I committed to in the 888 book challenge.  But I just updated my list and have already knocked off 6 books…ahhh, I can relax now and maybe focus on just one or two of the books instead of the 4-5 that I am currently reading in bits and pieces.  I will need to keep a pace of 5 books per month, so I feel ok about this pace now!

See folks, it’s not that hard.  Quick, make a list and join me.  Now to decide if I will actually bother writing about every book…

888 Reading Challenge Review-The Great Bridge

The Great Bridge-by David McCullough 

I have owned this audiobook for a year or two and finally listened to it, thanks to the 888 motivation.  Without reservation, I enjoyed and appreciated this book.  I previously read several of David McCullough’s books (Truman, John Adams, Brave Companions and 1776), and this book joins their rank as well-written, engaging books of American history.  There is no trudging through this book, just easy reading of a monumental American landmark and the dedicated people who saw it through its 14 years of building.

In reflecting on the book, the portrayal of the father and son Roebling engineering team is foremost in my mind.  Both men were highly skilled and educated, extremely dedicated to their calling and careful to complete their work with the utmost integrity.  One of the interesting ideas in the book is the contrast between these virtuous men and their counterparts, a corrupt political ring in New York, eager to funnel city funds into their own pockets.  The building of the Brooklyn Bridge took place in the late 1800’s, so this was a time of great innovation and progress as well as tainted politics, especially during the terms of President U.S. Grant. 

So many of the men and women involved in the bridge project gave much of their lives to see it come to completion and this focus on great character carried me through the book.  It even made the few chapters that detailed the mechanics of securing the foundation for such a bridge, to the point of engineering overload in my mind, fade back as I was left with such a deep appreciation for these men and women who where so committed to an amazing project with such honor and dedication. 

Now all that is left is to take a trip to the bridge myself, joining the millions of pedestrians who have crossed the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn!

888 Reading Challenge Review-The Game

Working my way through my 888 reading challenge, I have a goal of writing at least a quick review of each book so I have a remembrance of each book as I fly through them.  I started easy! 

The Game by Laurie R. King

I owe huge thanks to Kami for the wonderful recommendation of The Game in my Mystery category.  I am a Mary Russell mystery fan now and look forward to the next one.  The Mary Russell character is the wife and very capable partner of Sherlock Holmes, and she is a rather fun, light change from Dr. Watson (although I still love Watson.)  This book is set in the time of the British Empire, in Colonial India.

In The Game Holmes and Russell are sent off to find none other than Kim, the young boy of literary renown in Rudyard Kipling’s book.  Fun, fun!  Right from the start I loved the historical and literary nods.  I thoroughly enjoy this type of book for purely fun reading.  The book is of course not of the literary level of the real Holmes books, but it has enough mystery and plot twist  to keep you hooked.   It is just the book to read during a rain storm while you’re all bundled up in front of the fire-like a mini vacation. J

The 888 Reading Challenge

Stumbling upon this reading challenge was just what I needed!  I have been thinking lately that my reading over the last year was so disappointingly hit-and-miss…I read some wonderful books and then there were all the ho-hum books that I read just because they were there and easy to get.  I knew I needed a plan.  Then voila!  I came upon the 888 reading challenge.  (The short explanation is 8 categories of 8 books each with 8 books overlapping for a total of 56 books.) Who wants to join the fun?!?

 Here is my list as it stands now.

8 History Books

1.        Mistress of the Elgin Marbles

2.       Walk Through the Bible

3.       A Short History of Nearly Everything

4.       The Odyssey **

5.       Cat of Bubastes **

6.        Desire of the Everlasting Hills

7.        The Gifts of the Jews

8.         

8 Novels

1.       Washington Square

2.       Persuasion

3.       Cry, the Beloved Country

4.        Lake Wobegon Days

5.       Love in a Time of Cholera

6.        The Silence

7.        Middlemarch

8.           

8 Mysteries

1.        Maisie Dobbs

2.       Murder on the Orient Express

3.       Father Brown

4.       The Name of the Rose

5.         

6.         

7.         

8.         

8 School Related

1.        Cat of Bubastes **

2.       Voyage of the Dawn Treader

3.       As You Like It

4.       Till We Have Faces

5.       The Odyssey **

6.       The Tempest

7.         

8.         

8 Non-Fiction

1.        Shakespeare, by Bryson

2.       Summer at Tiffany

3.       Reading Like a Writer

4.       Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog

5.       Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

6.       How to Read a Book

7.        Small is Beautiful

8.        Conflict of Visions

8 Food Books

1.        The Perfectionist, Life and Death in Haute Cuisine

2.       The 64 Dollar Tomato

3.       Blithe Tomato

4.       My Life in France

5.       Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

6.       Dining Out on Adventure

7.         

8.         

8 Book Club Books

1.       The Future and its Enemies

2.       Stop Dating the Church

3.        

 4.         

5.         

6.         

7.          

8.         

8 Religious Books

1.       Screwtape Letters

2.       The Cost of Discipleship

3.       Orthodoxy

4.       Mere Christianity

5.        Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance

6.        Steering Through Chaos

7.        For the Life of the World

8.