Peter Pan

Summary:

The classic story of a little boy who never grows up and firmly believes whatever he pretends. He whisks a little girl named Wendy and her two brothers away from their comfortable nursery and flies them to Neverland to fight pirates and play with mermaids and so that he and the lost boys can have a mother.

My Thoughts:

This book makes the reader feel like they are caught in between a children’s game of make-believe and a bedtime story. The things that make this book stand out are the unexpected and truly innocent and child-like quirks (i.e. the lost boys’ solution to drive away wolves is to look between their legs at the wolves) and the surprisingly deep insight to characters (Hook’s strict upbringing at a private school which makes his deepest desire to be considered in “good form” rather than “bad form” and Peter’s uncommon relationship with mothers.) I did stall out a little in the middle of this book though. Sometimes one gets a bit annoyed with Peter and his antics.

Rating:

♦♦◊◊

Blurb:

” The cooking, I can tell you, kept her [Wendy] nose to the pot, and even if their was nothing in it, even though there was no pot, she had to keep watching that it came aboil just the same. You never exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all depended upon Peter’s whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of a game but he could not stodge just to feel stodgy which is what most children like better than anything else…”

Filed under: Book Reviews, Uncategorized , Book Reviews, books, J.M. Barrie, Neverland, Peter Pan, Rating, Summary

Two Random Thoughts

1. Got my library card for Augusta today. As I was standing in line I was reading the NY Times Bestseller list and noting with remorse that all the books were about practical real life things and not a good story among them. I had just about decided that to write a deep and thought provoking blog about it…when I turned the list over and saw the “fiction” list.

2. The day I face a plate full of chocolate chip cookies and don’t eat more than is good for me is the day I’ll know I’ve grown up.

Filed under: Uncategorized , chocolate chip cookies

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Ok, I confess. I had already read this book when I formulated my book list, you were probably wondering where it came from as it was kind of a black sheep on a book list stuffed with classics….don’t even look at me like that. It qualified! I swear. I got it as a present for my 20th birthday.

Summary: This is the story of the inhabitants of an island in the English Channel. The island was occupied by Germany during WWII. The book has wonderfully vivid characterizations and a beautiful voice. The entire book is a compilation of “letters” which I thought would be annoying at first, but it really turns out to be a wonderful tool in the story telling because it allows a subtlety and understated-ness otherwise unattainable.

My thoughts: I LOVED this book. I read it in about 3 days, even with tests to study for in between.

Rating: [there are no stars in custom characters and I am technologically deficient so I will be using a four diamond rating system.]

♦♦♦◊ [3/4]

Blurb:

“Spring is nearly here. I’m almost warm in my puddle of sunshine. And down the street–I’m not averting my eyes now–a man in a patched jumper is painting the door to his house sky blue.  Two small boys, who have been walloping each other with sticks, are begging him to let them help.  He is giving them a tiny brush apiece. So–perhaps there is an end to war.”

Filed under: Book Reviews, Uncategorized , The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

the book list

1. all bloggers love lists. 2. I love books. 3. I just had my 20th birthday.

so in accordance with all these things here’s a list of 21 books to read before my 21st birthday:

1. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
2. Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
3. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
5. The Brothers Karamazov by Theodore Dostoevsky
6. The Snows of Kilimanjaro and other Stories by Ernest Hemingway
7. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
8. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
9. Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum
10. Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway
11. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (tried this one once, will try again.)
12. The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
13. The Flame Trees of Thicka by Elspeth Huxley
14. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
15. A Passage to India by E.M. Forester
16. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
17. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey
18. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
19. Daisy Miller and Washington Square by Henry James
20. A Man Named Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
21. Blue-Eyed Child Of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw

I’ll post a brief review as I go, since I know everyone is eager to learn as much as they can about literature!

Filed under: Life, Uncategorized , 21 books to read before your 21st birthday, 21st birthday, book list, books

Ah Youth.

Well, its time to welcome my 21st year (no, I’m not 21, I’m 20, but if you think about it this is my 21st…oh, you can figure it out)…

And at this auspicious beginning of it I feel:

tentative…wary, even.  Certainly less idealistic than 16. A little less enthusiastic than 12. Definitely not at all like 5 (which I can barely remember to tell you the truth).

I feel old (and that just goes to show how young I really am.).

On my “birthday” day I felt like I kept waiting for something to happen…like a cake! or a surprise! A birthday just felt odd without a party, even though I know I haven’t had one of those in a few years now. (4 to be exact.) But I think that’s a little the way 20 is going to feel…like I’m ready, and waiting…but then when nothing happens and I just go on average-ly, that’s ok too.

That’s the really funny part about 20.

It expects something, but its not a little kid anymore, so its ok when nothing happens.

In fact it kind of enjoys nothing. And that, in a nutshell is what I like about growing up. I’m enjoying more the just average things- like having a night off work, or silence, or just living.

There’s such freedom to the way I feel right now.

I’m so free!

I’m just at that wonderful in between part of life where you can live like an adult and work and drive and be alone, but you don’t have to worry so much about bills or responsibilities.

And my future is still so big and vast and exciting and expansive(too many pronouns? tough. leave me alone, I’m enjoying my idyllic naivete here.). I haven’t had to face all the practicalities of it yet. It hasn’t closed down to “what’s for dinner tomorrow night?” I could do anything, BE anything I wanted.

So thank you 20. And I’m so glad you’re here, I think you’re going to be a very good year.

oh yes, and somehow, quite coincidentally, this is my 20th post!!

Filed under: Life, Uncategorized , 20, 21, the future, the next year, turning 20

Do we talk too much in prayer?

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.  Go near to LISTEN rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools who do not know that they do wrong.

Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.  God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.  As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.”

-Eccl 5:1-3

“And when you pray do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” -Mt 6:7

Filed under: Moral/Spiritual, Uncategorized , fools, Prayer, talking, words

Trust in the Lord

…with all you heart, soul and mind. (or “The promised second installment of “Finding Love”)

Will I ever find love? but that’s not even the real question. The real question is:

Do I trust God?

and the answer is

YES

no?

I don’t really know, and can I even legitimately call myself a christian if I don’t trust God?

I mean “I just decided to TRUST GOD with my life” is Christianese for “I became a Christian.” So are the two synonymous? Trusting God and being a Christian?

Why don’t I trust God?
I’m not sure I don’t, but  its hard for me to trust him with all my heart because I feel like He hasn’t filled up my heart. I still long for something else to fill it.

It’s hard for me to trust him with all my mind because the last time I trusted Him it didn’t really work out. Not on His end, but on mine. I failed miserably. Now my fear is that if I do trust Him I will once again be unable to live faithfully through whatever happens.

When you get burned trusting a person its very hard to trust them again.

What about when you get burned trusting God? can you even say that you got burned trusting God? I mean, is that possible? because ultimately we’re taught that God knows what is going to be the best for us in the end and so everything He does is working towards that…So, each time we feel like He’s violated our trust, its just not really the end of the story?

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you.”

Filed under: Life, Moral/Spiritual, Uncategorized , future, God, love, trust