A Passage to India

Beauty and ugliness.  Humanity at its best and worst.  Colonizers and natives.  Muslims, Christians and Hindus.  This is A Passage to India.  Although beautifully write, it is often perplexing.  This story asks the questions, "Can English and Indians be friends?" He tries to make them friends, to force them into friendship, to explore the idea of friendship, but it doesn't work.  No matter how the friendship is manipulated and molded in the prose, it doesn't work.  Forster can not make them friends.

The best moments of the books are when Aziz ponders hospitality and the Indian mind.  He is my favorite character, there is a grace a dignity about this man, as well as a shroud of mystery.  Is he as gracious as he seems, or is the messy living quarters the indication of something different.  Maybe his internal world is a mess.  He longs for relationship, but different events occur to keep him from experiencing the intimacy he longs for.

Then there is Adela Quested, she is not my favorite character.  She is clearly not meant to be a favorite, but a sort of antagonist.  She wants to see India, but not Indians.  She is confused by the social arrangements and the customs.  She finds India to be disturbing and disorienting.

I want to have the literary chops to discuss a  book like this, but I don't.  I can skim the surface, ask a few questions, but the analysis alludes me.   What is the symbolism of the echo?  It is too odd, to not have meaning.  Or the section titles, they must also have meaning beyond describing location.  There is so much symbolism in this book, this is where the internet becomes my friend and teacher.  It is my guide to symbolism and imagery.

This book is not going to be for everyone, but if you get a chance, pick up a copy at the library and read the last two paragraphs and marvel at the beauty.

Classics

I'm not very organized and I'm not systematic, but my reading has a rhythm to it.  I read for pleasure. I read for renewal. I read to my kids. I read through a classics list. I read books on education. I read books on psychology. I read to grow spiritually.  I read what my kids are reading for school, which has the added bonus of knocking books off my Well-Educated Mind Classics list and often brings pleasure.

Like many adults, I wonder why did I never read these books when I was in school.  I read a few, The Red Badge of Courage, Anne of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter  and of course the Shakespearean plays, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.  And there was the time in 9th grade when I read Anna Karenina and turned in a book report where I missed the whole point, because I didn't have the life experience to get the whole point.  That was a sad day.  Anna Karenina turned out to be one of my favorite books after I did the hard work of unearthing the whole point.  That is the point of the classics, some are fun and you read them for pleasure, but most of them require some digging.  They require thought, exploration, and often a dictionary, coffee is optional, but also a good plan. They are meant to be read with a pencil in hand and a notebook nearby. They are quotable and deliberate.  They speak to an age past and they speak for an age to come.

I have been reading through The Well-Educated Mind Classics list beginning with fiction and moving my way through the different genres.  Susan Wise Bauer suggests reading through the books in order, but I am also reading with my kids in school and so I've ended up reading most of these books out of order.  I hope to blog about most of these books, at least the ones that have an impact on me.

The Books of 2013

This is my favorite post each year.  It is where I reveal the many books I read this year, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly (thankfully there aren't many of those). Each of these books reflects a moment in time and the intersection between my life and the life of the author.  Sometimes those intersections produced profound results and sometimes it fell flat.  For those that produced extraordinarily profound effects I have bestowed awards...

Most Life changing in my day-to-day life - I no longer use a clothes dryer

Raising Elijah by Sandra Steingraber

The read aloud I couldn't finish because I was crying  and boy most likely to take over our hearts - 

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Most likely to overtake my thoughts and conversations and drive all my friends crazy-

Quiet by Susan Cain

The Woman Who Stole my Admiration- 

Amy Carmichael by Sam Wellman

Most Heartbreaking- Addiction Sucks!

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Best Book to finish the Year With - Here's to  Whole and Holy 2014 

The Utter Relief of Holiness by John Eldredge

Gorilla most likely to be Adopted by the Braddys-

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Mom I Most Related To - Coffee, snow, writing, boys, books, need I say more

The Gift of Ordinary Days by Katherine Kennison

Classics
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier - read with Classics Book Club
Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - read with Classics Book Club
Don Quixote by Migueal De Cervantes - read with Classics Book Club
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Fiction
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton - read as a part of NPR SciFri Book Club
Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker
Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead
Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Inferno by Dan Brown
Bones are Forever by Kathy Reich
Flight Behavior by Barabra Kingsolver
Gone Girl by GIllian Flynn - the ugly, maybe only fit for a burn pile
Heartbeat Away by Henry Kraus
Seeker of the Stars by Susan Fish
My Mother's Secret by J.L. Witterick
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

Spirituality, Marriage and Parenting
The Utter Relief of Holiness by John Eldredge
Adopted for Life by Russell Moore
Telling Yourself the Truth by William Backus and Marie Chapian
Already Gone by Ken Ham and Brett Beemer
Reading Your Male by Mary Farrar
Becoming a Titus 2 Woman by Martha Peace - read with our elder's wives at SONrise
Habits of a Child's Heart by Valerie Hess & Marti Watson Garlett
Raising a Modern Day Joseph by Larry Fowler
Touching Wonder by John Blase
Discipleship in the Home Matt Friedman

Memoir
The Gift of Ordinary Days by Katrina Kennison
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver
Chief of Station, Congo by Larry Devlin
Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Schooling
Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz
In Defense of Childhood by Chris Mercogliano
Leadershift by Oliver Demille

Food, Science & Psychology Non-Fiction
Raising Elijah by Sandra Steingraber
Hungry for Change by James Colquhoun & Laurentine Ten Bosch
Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey - read as a part of NPR SciFri Book Club
What's the worst that could happen? by Reg Craven
Quiet by Susan Cain


Fiction Read Alouds
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
The Little Green Frog by Beth Coombe Harris
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
When Will This Cruel War be Over? by Barry Denenberg
Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Non-Fiction Read Alouds
The Mayflower and the Pilgrim's New World by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Last Days of Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly
Amy Carmichael by Sam Wellman
The True Saint Nicholas: why he matters to Christmas by William Bennett