Categories: orthodox-life, reading, spiritual-writings
Date: 13 February 2008 20:18:19
I've read a few very interesting, entertaining and edifying books of late. I do enjoy a good book. Several in fact: I tend to have a fiction and several non-fiction books going at any one time -- and depending on how I feel, one book gets picked to be read that moment.
As part of my St Vladimir's Seminary Press Book Club membership, every quarter I get a nice selection of new releases from SVS Press. The last delivery included a children's book, Silent as a Stone: Mother Maria of Paris and the Trash Can Rescue. Beautifully illustrated, it tells the story of Mother Maria, a nun who aided the persecuted Jewish people in occupied France during WWII by hiding Jewish children in garbage cans and taking them to a safe location outside the city. She, and the others who helped her, saved a number of children. Mother Maria perished in a gas chamber in Ravensbrück in 1945. I have passed this book on to a family at church for them to read: and I believe it will continue to be passed on and read, and make the wonderful story of Mother Maria better known.
While I was in London last year, I visited The National Gallery, which was showing the exhibit Art of Light: German Renaissance Stained Glass [which is still on -- though only for a few more days]. I am a great fan of stained glass, so I eagerly lapped it up. I also bought the accompanying book, which I found an interesting and edifying introduction to stained glass technique, and to the German technique in particular. Interestingly, rather than adorning churches, a number of pieces mentioned are now in the Victoria & Albert Museum which, while I visited, will require a number of return visits to even begin to explore its collections. I also bought A Journey into Christian Art from the National Gallery's shop, and it will be one of the next books I begin to read. I know very little about art, but I am always willing to learn -- and this book is so lavishly illustrated, I think I may be simply looking for quite some time.
I think it was Rhys who drew my attention, after a post I made on David Crystal, an expert on language. The Fight for English is a fascinating and informative look at how people have always complained, from centuries ago, about the English language and how it is being misused. David Crystal makes no secret of the fact that he says no to "Zero Tolerance Guides", such as Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves [a book, I confess, I enjoyed] -- hence the amusing, to me, subtitle of the book, How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left. Though he does say people such as Lynne Truss are far more entertaining than some of the grumpy grammarians of days old. As always, his books are entertaining: he does have a wonderful sense of humour and a great turn of phrase. And he is so very well informed: as am I when I come away from reading a book of his. And I also ponder my own thoughts, prejudices, concerns about English: which must be a good thing. I was particularly touched to read his defence of those of us, like me, who received no grammar education at school, and thus do feel some form of inferiority when grammatical terms are flung about, and thus feel it is important we get everything "right". He makes a great case to say, 'No', we should not feel inferior: nor be afraid of those who would insist that one cannot split an infinitive or end a sentence with a preposition. Yes, there are some rules that aid in comprehension, but there are some, like those two, that do not.
Last, but not least, is Marina Lewycka's A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. I started this book in November 2007 when I was travelling around England and Wales, and didn't get past page 2: I couldn't get into it. I picked it up last Saturday and was finished by Sunday: I couldn't put it down. Perhaps last November was not the time. A fascinating story, and a very, very funny one: plenty of laugh out loud moments, as well as moments of utter despair and moments of heart-wrenching sadness. A great book. Though, I did wonder if there was something wrong with my laughing at such an "ethnic" story: am I laughing at 'those silly Ukrainians'? I do pray not, and I do think not: I am laughing at a human story; a story of silly humans -- the Ukrainian turns-of-phrase simply add to the humour. Someone from any culture could be the poor besotted Pappa; anyone could be the wanting-to-have-it-all Valentina. And I see aspects of the sisters, Vera and Nadia, all around me.
On to the next round of books...