In Christian theology, the cross means pain, suffering, and death, but it also represents what comes beyond that, at the resurrection: grace, redemption, love, and life. In this final volume of Sigrid Undset’s Nobel Prize-winning novel, Kristin Lavransdatter, all the theological implications of the cross find their way into the narrative in a sweetly mystical [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross
Posted in Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction on January 31, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Our Mutual Friend (miniseries)
Posted in Bookish films on January 30, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Our Mutual Friend is my very favorite of the Dickens novels I’ve read (and out of 19 of his complete novels, I’ve read eight.) It’s a tale of love, revenge, redemption, class struggle, hidden identity, and most of all, money: the way poverty grinds people down, the way an inheritance corrupts, the way an occupation forms a [...]
Pride of Baghdad
Posted in Contemporary, Graphic novels on January 30, 2009 | 5 Comments »
In 2003, four lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during the bombing of the city. In this graphic novel, author Brian K. Vaughan and artist Niko Henrichon depict what might have happened to the lions during their short period of freedom.
As the book begins, the idealistic lioness Noor is plotting an escape, but the more experienced [...]
Catalyst
Posted in Children's / YA Lit, Fiction on January 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In Catalyst, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Kate Malone has a lot to be worried about. She’s a science geek, her father is a pastor, and they don’t understand each other; her mother is dead; her boyfriend (Mitch “Early Decision Harvard” Pangborn) is in the humanities, yuck. But worse than all this is that her plan [...]
Himalaya (Audio)
Posted in Audiobooks, Memoir, Nonfiction on January 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Michael Palin just makes me smile. I can’t help it; it’s almost a Pavlovian reaction. Of course, Palin is most famous for being part of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which is what makes me smile when I see him. These days, however, he’s making clever travel documentaries. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen of his documentaries (most [...]
Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl
Posted in Memoir, Nonfiction, tagged Review Copy on January 27, 2009 | 4 Comments »
In Dating Jesus, Susan Campbell, a reporter and columnist for the Hartford Courant, describes her upbringing as a member of a fundamentalist church and explores how the church’s teachings affected her as a girl, and how they resonate with her today. Her focus is on her childhood church’s view of women, but she also touches on salvation, scripture, [...]
Hey, the Newbery Medal winner…
Posted in Children's / YA Lit on January 26, 2009 | 7 Comments »
… is Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Will you look at that? I’m surprised and delighted, and apparently so is he. You can read my review of it here, but honestly I just recommend you go out and buy it. It’s a lovely spooky good read. Congratulations, Mr. Gaiman; now don’t stop.
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Posted in Nonfiction on January 24, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Ex Libris is a collection of 18 essays by Anne Fadiman on books and bookishness. In these essays, Fadiman writes of her family’s obsession with words, merging bookcases with her husband, the case and treatment of books, her love of fountain pens, and more.
It’s hard for me not to like a woman who as a [...]
Résistance
Posted in History, Memoir, Nonfiction on January 24, 2009 | 12 Comments »
In June 1940, the unthinkable happened: German troops invaded Paris. No one was truly prepared for the panic and the evacuation that followed. French soldiers watched, helpless, as families streamed from the City of Light to the countryside, carrying children and a few possessions in their arms, under fire from aircraft. Total defeat seemed inevitable: [...]
Mr. Punch
Posted in Fiction, Graphic novels on January 24, 2009 | 2 Comments »
The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch, a graphic novel by the intensely weird and wonderful combination of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, is dark, dark, dark. I’ll be the first to admit that I am a bit frightened by Punch and Judy. I know they’re supposed to be light kid’s entertainment, a [...]
