Category: Books

Reading Review – February

Books finished: 10
M is For Mama: A Rebellion Against Mediocre Motherhood by Abbie Halberstadt, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carré, Anxious For Nothing by John MacArthur, This Beautiful Truth by Sarah Clarkson, The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (re-read), Aggressively Happy by Joy Marie Clarkson, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, For the Love of Discipline by Sara Wallace (re-read), A Place on Earth by Wendell Berry.

Audiobooks: 8
In this phase of life, with littles and new-ish-born I clearly would not be reading anything without audiobooks. One of my, non-audiobook was Mere Christianity, which I started reading in January 2022 – over a year ago! My other non-audiobook was For the Love of Discipline, which was a re-read. The first time I read it was via an audiobook, and I liked it so much that I bought a copy so I could read it again and make notes in it. I also started it early last year. So, yes, I’m a big fan of audiobooks.

Most enjoyed: M is For Mama hands down. I’m even ordering a hard copy of it for myself. So good. Highly recommend!

Least enjoyed: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I knew from the tone at the beginning of this book just how it would end and how much I was not looking forward to it. I powered through this audiobook in I think two days. I just wanted to get it over with. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the book, it’s just depressing and sad and ends on a “it was all for naught” kind of note. Not my jam.

Commonplace Quotes:

To be a homemaker is a defiant act because it is work entirely opposed to the forces of evil

This Beautiful Truth by Sarah Clarkson

For it is a truth universally acknowledged that a child in possession of a sinful nature must be in want of a mama who loves and seeks the Lord (sorry Jane Austen, I had to).

M is for Mama by Abbie Halberstadt

… a Christian must not be either a Totalitarian or an Individualist. I feel a strong desire to tell you – and I expect you to feel a strong desire to tell me – which of these two errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world in pairs – pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is worse. You see why, of course? He replies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
Posted on by Anna Young Aside 2

Encouraging a Struggling Reader

For clarity, I am specifically going to talk about my own experience with one of my children, and what I have done that has helped my family.

What do I mean by “Struggling Reader”?

There are lots of definitions and terms in talking about students and reading. A reluctant reader or struggling reader is typically a student who is not motivated to read, does not enjoy reading, complains about reading, etc. The student may find the process of reading difficult to do, yet, without practice they cannot advance their reading skills or fluency. So, because they don’t practice reading takes more work, so it is hard, and therefore not enjoyable. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle.

My eldest son is a struggling reader. His birthday is late August. So, just because of where his birthday falls he is one of the youngest kids in his class. Reading has not – to this point, over halfway through the school year – come easily for him. It’s hard for him, and therefore he is not super motivated to do it.

My son is a typical human. He wants to do what is fun! Not hard! He’d way rather go run around, or build Legos, or tease his sisters, or really anything else besides read.

As his mom, and as a person who really loves to read, and write, I have found this struggle of his really hard for me! I know I shouldn’t take it personally, but sometimes I do. I want my son to enjoy what I enjoy. I want him to love books. I don’t want him to struggle. I don’t want him to have difficulty in school when I know he is a smart, capable child. And, and, and, and… (cue the spiral of mom guilt).

But let’s not wallow.

What have we done?

Chasing bubbles 🙂

What have we done to help our son, and all our kids? It’s pretty straight forward: we have worked to foster a love of stories. Not a love of books (not specifically), but stories.

This has turned out to be key for our son. If we force the books issue, then books become an obstacle at best, and the bad guy at worst. If we instead make the issue stories, that opens up a whole range of things for him, including shows, movies, audiobooks, bible stories (my kids don’t count the bible as a “regular book”. Kid logic, it’s cute), even songs.

My husband and I have worked to make our home a place of stories, starting when the kids were babies. Reading out loud has been an important part of this. We have been reading out loud to them since they were born. We read books before bed for years. Now, with school schedules and early mornings, we read before dinner and/or at the dinner table (after we eat, no food on my books please!). We tell stories all the time, about things we imagine, dreams we had, what happened in our days, etc. We play pretend with the kids – which is basically acting out stories. We watch movies together. We talk about the shows we watch (my kids will literally shout out “teamwork and friendship!” to their shows when they see the trope because we talk about it so much!). Anytime a story is being told, we jump into it.

I can now officially tell you that this has paid off. After seven and a half years of this, my son figured out just two weeks ago that books contain stories. More specifically, that the pictures don’t tell you the full story – but the words do. He just figured out that in order to understand the whole story (including the jokes, because of course he likes funny books best), he actually has to do the work of reading the words.

I didn’t tell him. My husband didn’t tell him. Even if we had given him the lecture about “you should really read the words, not just the pictures, because you’re missing the story”, he wouldn’t have listened, or believed us! (To be honest I did get halfway through this lecture, and stopped because I realized he had 100% tuned me out.)

If you have a struggling reader, this is the key, I think.

Keep reading to them. Keep engaging with stories. Keep things fun! Don’t avoid hard things, but don’t make them feel like they are on their own, like it’s this insurmountable task they have to do alone. Do it with them. Sit with them as they struggle through the words. Be their cheerleader. Celebrate any victory, even the small ones on the normal days. It’s a cumulative effect. They will figure it out. They will find the story that they love.

Kids are way more interested in what we adults find interesting, what we value, what we spend time doing with them.

Maybe I’ll have my husband do a post on how he encourages our kids in loving math!

What are you doing to encourage your kids in whatever they struggle in? Is there something you struggled in as a child? What encouraged you?

Update: I was looking up some books that might interest my son. He found me and joined me, and we researched some books. He got very excited about one in particular, and counted up his money to buy it. Just a few days ago it arrived in the mail! This is the first book he’s ordered for himself. So exciting!

Soli Deo Gloria

Posted on by Anna Young Aside 3

Winter and Stone

Why did the White Witch curse Narnia with a perpetual winter?

Why did the White Witch turn creatures to stone?

These two questions came to my mind in my most recent re-reading – more on that here – of the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia. I’m a read according to the publishing date person, so yes, I consider The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe to be book 1 of the series. Just like I think the first Star Wars movie anyone should watch is A New Hope, but that’s another post.

These are two very central elements to the first book of the Chronicles.
1) The curse of the Narnian winter, and 2) the Witch’s ability to turn the Narnians into stone.
Why did C. S. Lewis choose these? What’s the significance of these “powers”? After some thought, I have an idea, a theory if you will.

Warning, massive spoilers ahead if you have not read the books or watched the films. You’ve been warned. Now, go read the books.

Oh, the wonders of a crowded bookshelf.

My theory – Why Winter?

If you haven’t noticed yet, symbols are important in the world C. S. Lewis created. Although the Chronicles of Narnia is a fantastic fantasy series it is primarily allegorical, it’s supposed to be, Lewis explicitly intended it to be so. Therefore, the Witches powers of winter and stone are not just central to the plot and her character development, but are highly symbolic.

“The White Witch? Who is she?”
“Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!”

A conversation between Lucy and Mr. Tumnus; The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis

Why? Because Christmas is a celebration of life. Whether it is the pagan roots of the end of winter, or the Christian roots of the birth of Jesus, Christmas is inherently a celebration of life. Who is uniquely tied to life in the Chronicles? Aslan.

Aslan is pitted a the opposite of the Witch. The Beavers call him the true King of Narnia, making the Witch a usurper. He is the good and wise King of Narnia, she is the wicked and cruel tyrant. Aslan’s power brings comfort and boldness at just the mention of his name. The Witch in appearance and name inspires terror and doubt – she is called “witch” for good reason.

So, the Witch, as the usurping, illegitimate tyrant over Narnia seeks to squash out anything even remotely Aslan-ish. She plays to the natural order of things: nature slows down in the winter, and much of Narnia is nature – the talking beasts, the dryads, and the naiads, etc. – so the best way to subdue her subjects is a perpetual winter. It’s logical and mythical.

My theory – Why Stone?

Edmund saw the Witch bite her lips so that a drop of blood appeared on her white cheek. Then she raised her wand. “Oh, don’t, don’t, please don’t,” shouted Edmund, but even while he was shouting she had waved her wand and instantly where the merry party had been there were only statues of creatures (one with its stone fork fixed forever halfway to its stone mouth) seated round a stone table on which there were stone plates and a stone plum pudding.

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis

Why stone? Much like the first part of the theory, this has to do with life and therefore being the antithesis of Aslan.

The Witch wanted complete control over Narnia, probably because it was not hers to begin with. The control you can have over a living thing is quite limited, but you can do whatever you want to stone. Stone can’t talk back, stone can’t act in defiance, stone can’t even raise its paw in polite question, because stone isn’t alive.

It’s fascinating to think of the true king, Aslan, and then the children afterwards, and how they rule. They rule justly, and kindly over living creatures in a thriving kingdom. The Witch can only wield her power well over a dead land, and dead stone people.
Apply whatever sociopolitical analogies you see fit, there are many.

Aslan, the Jesus Christ character, is the opposite, as I said. He rules powerfully over living creatures in a thriving land. He quite literally brings life with his very breath in the scene where he breathes the stone spell away from all the statues in the Witch’s castle. In the most ultimate example of this power of stone, death, and life, in the chapter titled “The Triumph of the Witch”, Aslan is slain on the Stone Table.
The What? That’s right, the Stone Table. Aslan is killed with a stone knife on the Stone Table.
And then… as the sun rises, the table cracks in two, and Aslan lives.
The Witch uses stone to kill, to defeat, but Aslan’s power of life over death can never be defeated. This theme is all through this book, and the whole series.

“Who is Aslan?” asked Susan.
“Aslan?” said Mr. Beaver, “Why, don’t you know? He’s the King. He’s the Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand. Never in my time or my father’s time. But the word has reached us that he has come back. He is in Narnia at this moment. He’ll settle the White Queen all right. It is he, not you, that will save Mr. Tumnus.”
“She won’t turn him into stone too?” said Edmund.
“Lord love you, Son of Adam, what a simple thing to say!” answered Mr. Beaver with a great laugh. “Turn him into stone? If she can stand on her two feet and look him in the face it’ll be the most she can do and more than I expect of her. No, no. He’ll put all to rights, as it says in an old rhyme in these parts:

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

You’ll understand when you see him.”
“But shall we see him?” asked Susan.
“Why, Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for. I’m to lead you where you shall meet him,” said Mr. Beaver.
“Is–is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion–the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he–quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis

Now, a word of warning. Don’t go hunting for themes and connections like this. I made the connection only lightly while I read, and thought deeper about it afterwards. Enjoy the story. Don’t ruin the moment. Especially for someone else, especially for a child.

Go forth! And read well!

Soli Deo Gloria

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Posted on by Anna Young Aside 1

Re-reading Favorites

I’ve been in a funk. A reading funk, a creative funk, an anti-spontaneity funk.

It’s not a totally terrible thing that I’ve been in a funk! I actually have a very good reason to be in a funk. I have a three month old baby. I am nursing for the first time. I also have three other children who have their own needs, and a whole house to take care of, and a husband to relationship with.

Dirty floors, but happy kids 🙂

In short: I’ve been busy, and therefore tired. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

One of my go-to strategies for times like this is to re-read my favorite books.

So I’ve been re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia – I’m on The Silver Chair now – and The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton and the Harry Potter series. The stories behind my love of these books deserve a post of their own. For now I will say that I have many good memories associated with these books, and even without my nostalgia they are good books. It’s like eating your favorite food cooked by your favorite people, and enjoyed with them too.

My second strategy is to read a new book from an author I’ve read before and liked. This is how I am now in my third, or fourth, book by Wendell Berry. He’s not exactly a new author to me, I just didn’t enjoy his books the first time I read them. I think I had come off the heels of a fast paced thriller, and Wendell Berry’s works are all thoughtful character/place centered pieces. I was just not in the right head space for them. Now, I understand it better and just love it. I want to inhale all he’s written. I just found an audiobook of his read by Nick Offerman and I am so excited. I’m trying to be good and finish what I have started before beginning something new. (This is a discipline I need to work on for myself, and I’m starting to see it in my children.)

A third strategy I have, which I have already hinted at above, is audiobooks. I have to be careful with this one though because I will binge them. Not only that, but I will listen to the books constantly, perpetually having a headphone in my ear and irritated that I’m getting interrupted (and with lots of little people, interruptions are just part of life).

(I listen to almost all my audiobooks on my free library app! Woot!)

Re-reading is a wonderful thing. I have many other books I re-read on a regular basis. Perhaps I should make a list! But that’s another post.

Do you re-read books? What stories do you find yourself coming back to over and over?

Soli Deo Gloria

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Posted on by Anna Young Aside 3

Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full; Gospel Meditations for Busy Moms – Book Review

Gloria Furman does it again. In this little book Furman goes through the truth of the Gospel: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then she takes that truth and applies it to the everyday mess and busyness that is motherhood.

The subtitle for this book says “… for Busy Moms” but to be real, what mom isn’t busy. This is for all moms. That being said, I cannot recommend it enough. It is a short 160 pages, which includes all of the notes and back matter. Yes, it’s a quick little book, but man does it pack a punch.

If you’ve ever read Furman before, you know what I’m talking about. Her writing style seems, to my eyes, to be heavily influenced by her life as a wife to a disabled husband, a mother to multiple children, a woman in ministry struggling through all the demands that work entails, and lives in a challenging international city in the Middle East. She does not have time for the fluffy, round about way of saying things. “Get to the good part! Tell me the good news, now! I need it!” Her words seem to say. That’s exactly what she does in this book.

Yet, there is not a sense of urgency or chaos, as sometime is the case when this attitude of immediate need is applied to writing. She presents the message, or the “Treasures” as the title puts it, of this book gently. With the tenderness of a woman, and a parent. It is a breath of fresh air after a long slog type of feel she gives in her writing.

I think this is mainly due to the content of this book. It is difficult to come across as harsh, chaotic, prideful, or condescending when you are presenting a message that is not essentially your own. Gloria Furman in this short, sweet book presents Christ, the Message himself, to tired, busy women, with children in tow. Her books is life giving, because Christ is. Her words are comforting, confronting, and refreshing, because Christ is.

She does this through, not her own words, but through the scriptures. I type this with a smile, for it is difficult to read farther than a sentence or two without some scripture reference or quotation. Further proving that this treasure, this good news, this hope, is not her message, but God’s message, is Christ himself presented to the world, and through Furman, funneled at mothers.

Moms, pick up this book! Read it. Re-read it. It is that kind of book that you can read a few paragraphs, filled with scripture quotations, as your quiet time and dwell on truth all day long.

I read this in the carline while I waited to pick up my children from school, with my toddler in the backseat. Grab a paragraph or two while you nurse (actually you may be able to get a whole chapter while nursing). Read a little while your kiddos do their homework next to you. It’s small enough to fit in most purses! Take it to work and sneak a chapter in on your lunch break. It’s not dense, so even a few sentences before you collapse into bed is possible.

If you’re not a mom, read it! It’s the gospel. It applies to you too. Better yet, read it, and pass it on to a mom. Then, you can have discussions about what’s in the book! What a blessing! And you will get much more out of it talking about it, as usually when you talk about something, your mind and heart dig into it a little deeper.

Whatever you do, where ever you are in life. Read on, friends!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Posted on by Anna Young Aside 0