Bush's reading list

Reason #862 to feel badly about myself: President Bush reads more books, and reads more intellectual books than I do. See the article here. (HT: JT)

Say what you will about Bush, but the scope and volume of the list shows someone who is not only intelligent (gasp!) but is disciplined in what free time he has. After I'm done berating myself for spending too much time on the internet, I'm going to see if my library has some of these titles. Who knows--maybe I can match Bush's 40 books read in 2008. I'm staying realistic, though, so I'm not aiming for Karl Rove's 64. These are busy men, but they're not pregnant stay-at-home moms caring for a toddler.

And yes, I'm playing that card as long as I have it!

Bird by Bird

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

I read this a while ago while visiting my parents, but I talked to both of them about it so I didn't feel as compelled to blog it right away. Basically, it was a well-written book about writing by an accomplished author, but now I don't want to read her other works.

The author has really practical advice about getting past all those voices in your head telling potential authors not to write. She tells us how to get past all that baggage, and just write. You can be perfect later, or write about the history of epic subjects, or become world famous published author, but for now, just write. Not bad advice for life in general, whether you want to be an author or not.

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time,
was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three
months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at
our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the
kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder
paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized
by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside
him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by
bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.

Lamott has wisdom to pass on, but now I don't want to read her noted memoir, "Travelling Mercies." It's about her religious conversion but it's not the God that I know. The most annoying example is how she refers to God is "she," which is not only specifically NOT how God identifies Himself, but it's a cliched affectation as well.

I enjoy writing, but I don't want to be a "writer," at least not this stage in my life. Right now I'd just be happy keeping up with the laundry. But if or when I do decide to take it seriously, I'll reread this book. If you can get past the author, this book has great information on learning the craft of writing. Just take it "bird by bird..."

The Best Baby Books

I have been surrounded by babies lately, not to mention my own incubating right now. (I'm at 20 weeks right now--halfway through!) With that in mind, I thought I'd share my thoughts about baby books. I have some strong opinions, as you'll see below....

I spent most of my pregnancy reading and researching all things baby. At one point, I had to cut myself off because I was reading too much and stressing out. I don't want my anxiety to be wasted, so here are some highlights of what I found. When you have a baby, you don't want your precious free time spent reading mediocre books.

First: avoid What to Expect When You're Expecting. I think it's over-rated. I had to stop reading it because I was starting to freak out about all the risks, complications, and possible nutritional deficiencies. I much preferred Your Pregnancy Week by Week. It's written by doctors and is much more reasonable. Plus, the readings are divided into weekly sections, instead of monthly, so the information is more digestible.

Second: avoid Babywise. What a terrible book, especially for someone claiming to be a Christian author: bad science, outrageous claims, faulty reasoning, no footnotes or references, and at one point, I had no idea who the author of one chapter was. Despite being so frustrating, I still read it twice, once before Violet was born and again when I was pulling my hair out because she wasn't sleeping. There is good information in there, but you have to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Okay, I'm done being mean. Here are the books I recommend:

The Baby Book, by the Sears family. This is the authority on attachment parenting, which is a child-focused parenting style. It was a total contrast with Babywise, which was very much focused on the parents. While I disagree philosophically with the Sears' worldview, they give practical ways to love your child and give him security. I thought the sections on nutrition, babywearing, feeding babies and toddlers, and developmental stages were especially helpful.

A good compromise between the above two books is Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, which despite its goofy title, is very good. It's a compassionate view of babies (who need their parents to be their advocate), while emphasizing their need for structure, routine, and familiarity. I wish I had read it before I had Violet, as I think it would have reduced some of my earlier mis-steps.

So who should be the focus of your parenting? The cheesy answer is to say "Jesus! We should focus our parenting on Jesus!" But it's true. To that end, I highly recommend Shepherding a Child's Heart, by Paul Tripp. The point of discipline isn't to merely change behavior, and the point of Christian parenting isn't to get your child to pray the sinner's prayer. Our goal is to produce adults who love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and their neighbor as themselves. The book is soaked with Scripture, and Tripp has really practical applications of what shepherding might look like during different stages of childhood. I am planning on re-reading it soon, because I feel like I need all the direction I can get during these toddler years.

And here's a super practical book: Signing Smart with Babies and Toddlers. I can't recommend it enough. A hearing-impaired coworker gave it to me, and I love it. Unlike other books, which tend to just focus on simplistic vocabulary, it teaches you how to initiate conversations with your child and invite him to interact with his world. I think Violet uses about 30 signs and it is so helpful, for both of us.

I hope this helps, if you were looking for some baby books. Babies are so amazing--enjoy your little one!

Tender at the Bone

Tender at the Bone, by Ruth Reichl

I read Reichl's Garlic and Saphires a few years ago and really enjoyed it, and I finally got around to trying her earlier writing. I woke up hungry around midnight this week, so I got some food and started reading this book. I finished my snack, and then finished the book! It's 282 pages, and I read it all in one night. That's how much I enjoyed it.

Reichl is not only a foodie with serious street cred, but also an excellent writer. As one Amazon review said, "Ruth writes with all her senses." This book isn't so much about the food itself, but used food to explain the times, the places, and the people. She included recipes at the end of each chapter which added dimension to the story.

Essentially this is a coming-of-age story from the sixties and seventies, but don't let that scare you off: this one is actually good. Reichl's mother was manic-depressive who totally ignored food safety rules. Growing up, Reichl felt compelled to protect the family's guests from her mother's moldy dishes, which evolved into a love of good food. Her WASP-y upbringing was completely skewed because of her mother, who would do things like drop her off without warning at a French-Canadian Catholic boarding school, "so you can learn a second language!" She had went to college as far away from her family as she could, and did things like visit Tunisia, as a newlywed she shared a NY flat with others to make rent, attended Studio 54, and lived in a California commune. At its heart, this book is about growing up in a crazy time, loving your crazy friends, trying to escape crazy family members, having crazy adventures, and yet making the decision to stay sane.

A Bell for Adano

A Bell for Adano, by John Hersey

I'm not sure. Meh. Did I miss something? Am I not very insightful? Would I have enjoyed it more if there were illustrations?

This book is set towards the end of WWII European theater. The American occupation has come to Italy, and an American major becomes the de facto mayor for the city of Adano. The people are starving, but what they want the most is their bell back. The town bell rang in the city square for 700 years, but the fascists took it and melted it down for war materiel during their retreat. An Italian-American major, who we are told is a good man but has clear flaws, restores the justice corrupted under the fascists, does what he can to get food to the people, but becomes driven to replace the bell for the people of Adano.

It was interesting reading this from a 21st century perspective. It was written in 1944, so I wasn't able to predict how the book would end. I could easily picture this in my head as a black and white movie with the stock characters. If this book were written today it would have been totally different-- the characters were a bit two-dimensional, but there was no doubt of the America's success in the war and that their good intentions would ultimately benefit the people. One can't help but make comparisons to the Iraq war, which has much more moral ambiguity surrounding it, even among people who believe it was the right thing to do. Maybe I'm left feeling conflicted over this book because I wish America today had the certainty and vision that we had 64 years ago. A lot has changed since then.

Semicolon's review here.

Is Christianity Good for the World?

Is Christianity Good for the World? A Debate, by Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson

Internet-wise, I was at the right place at the right time. When I was reviewing Doug Wilson's Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, I stumbled across a blog post at Canon Press offering Doug Wilson's latest for bloggers to review. Even though I was months late, the very kind Frank sent me not one, but three books to review. This is about as close as I will ever come to winning the lottery, and this was much healthier for my soul!

This morning at breakfast, I just finished Is Christianity Good for the World?, a debate between celebrated atheist Christopher Hitchens and the always-pithy Douglas Wilson. Despite the serious subject matter and considerable intellect of the two authors, it's an engaging little book which I finished quickly (especially considering I was usually feeding a toddler while reading it). It began as a series of articles sponsored by magazine Christianity Today and evolved (if I may use that word) into this book.

I love a good debate, and this one was fun. Logical arguments, spotting fallacies and weak reasoning, trumping the opponent... these all make my nerdy heart go a-flutter. This debate all came down to authority, at Wilson's insistence. Hitchens started by railing against totalitarianism and religion, and pitted them against atheism and free will. Wilson responded by saying that unless you glorify God as God and give thanks to Him, argumentation is moot. Wilson kept trying to ask why Hitchens could use words like 'right,' 'wrong,' and 'evil' if morality, as he claimed, was a product of our evolved species. Hitchens argued that his morality was more noble because he was motivated by goodness itself and not fear of an imaginary afterlife. I thought it was interesting that despite Hitchens claiming the moral higher ground, he was consistently disdainful and made Wilson seem even more polite by contrast. Here's an example of his tone:

Deists used to agree with you about a Creator but were not religious in that the assumption of such an entity did not license the further assumption that he or she desired to intervene in human affairs, let alone the assumption that the torture and death of a single individual in a backward part of the Middle East was the solution that we had been awaiting for tens of thousands of years of brutish homo sapiens existence. (p. 52)

In my opinion, Wilson not only proved Hitchens' evasiveness in showing a basis for his standards of right and wrong, but he also showed himself to be funnier and kinder. After much civility, Wilson finally broke down and wrote:

You write like a witty but acerbic tenth-century archbishop with a bad case of the gout. (p. 64)

So, is Christianity good for the world? Hitchens seemed stuck on attacking all religion in general, and Wilson became (necessarily) focused on asking how an atheist had any moral claim to right and wrong, if we're all just 'matter in motion' and continually evolving and besides, who is to say that morality won't evolve to something totally different in the future? Wilson's arguments reminded me of "The Great Debate" between my old pastor, the wonderful Dr. Greg Bahnsen, and Dr. Gordon Stein. I'm paraphrasing from my recollections from high school when we studied this, so I encourage you to check out the video or transcript, but Dr. B trounced the guy by basically saying, "You're using the standard of 'right' and 'wrong' to judge me, but a godless world has no basis for absolutes. You're just borrowing from my own worldview."

Of course I'm a Christian, but I think Wilson showed his position to be more interesting and logically sound than Hitchens'. More than that, however, is Wilson's grace: congeniality towards his opponent, thankfulness to God and Christianity Today for the forum provided, and the grace given in the gospel message at the end of the book. Especially during the upcoming book tour and public debates, I hope this book changes hard hearts by changing stubborn minds. I think that Wilson's argumentation and Hitchen's celebrity will make this debate another one for the history books.

UPDATE: I was really thinking of the Bahnsen vs. Tabash debate, not Bahnsen vs. Stein. That's okay, they're both brilliant.

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Fables: 10001 Nights of Snowfall, by Bill Willingham et. al.

Dark, dark, dark. This was another one of my graphic novel experiments. My honey scoffs whenever I say the words "graphic novel" which I have to admit, really is a way to say "comic books for grown-ups." He prefers to read technical manuals, which I call "comic books for nerds." This graphic novel was definitely R-rated. I guess I should have expected it, but it still took me by surprise. The book was so imaginative and the illustrations are so beautiful, that as long as you are prepared for the subject matter it's worth the read.

Here's the set-up: story-book characters have been chased from their homeland by a mysterious and gruesome enemy called "The Adversary." He and his ogres either can't or won't follow the Fables through a portal into our world that deposits them into New York City. Snow White is sent as an ambassador to a powerful caliph in story-book Arabia to form an alliance against the Adversary. Instead of conducting political negotiations, he marries her that night with the intent to kill her in the morning. Rather than beg for her life, she tells him a story. And another, and another. Soon it's morning and he agrees to let her live for one more day... and more stories.

Each of Snow White's stories are illustrated by a different artist, and the work is amazing. There is quite a range, but the writing (by Bill Willingham, who apparently is a legend) is what really grabbed me. He had an inventive take on the stories we all grew up on, but it made me wonder if anyone reads the Brothers Grimm and fairytales for their own sake anymore. Shrek 1, 2, and 3 strip-mined every story children might know and movies like "Stardust" and "Brothers Grimm" play in those worlds but don't follow the rules. Willingham took it even further. Not only are there the dark elements from the original stories, but then there's the really dark elements from Willingham's post-modern deconstruction of the stories and his 21st-century take on evil.

The imagination in these stories is amazing, and if you enjoy art at all you'll be drawn into the illustrations. I don't think I'll read the rest of the series though. If you have (or will), let me know--I want to know how it ends!