More than six?

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Which I, by the way, think is a ridiculously small number. If you haven’t read at least six, you’d better start reading!

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety; italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or from which you’ve read an excerpt.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6. The Bible

7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

There we go–I’ve got six. I can stop now, right?

8. Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell

9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare

15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch – George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34. Emma -Jane Austen

35. Persuasion – Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
Totally cheating by having The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe count twice (see #33)

37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

41. Animal Farm – George Orwell

42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50. Atonement – Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52. Dune – Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65. The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72. Dracula – Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses – James Joyce

76. The Inferno – Dante

77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal – Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession – AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94. Watership Down – Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So my original 6 out of 7 number doesn’t hold true through the end, but I’ll still say I’m decently well read.

At least I’ve read more than 6.

Interesting side note. I saw this in a friend’s Facebook notes and filled it out. Then, in the same sitting, I was going through my Google Reader and discovered that Hope in Brazil had done the same meme. Fun!


Thankful Thursday: Change

I have had a year that has seen many changes.

This year saw the early hopeful buds of spring, the late frost that killed said buds. This year saw pruning, a cutting back of unfruitful boughs. This year has seen a drought which forced a new growth of roots. This year has been a year of transplantation and learning to grow in a new environment.

This year has not been easy–it could have easily broken and destroyed a much stronger woman than I. But God, in His infinite grace, has caused this weak woman to withstand such a storm so that He might be revealed strong amidst my weakness.

Thankful Thursday banner

Today I’m thankful…

…for dreams rising and being dashed–and for a hope secure beyond my dreams

…for doctrines and worldviews challenged, some confirmed–and for an anchor that holds amidst it all

…for relationships broken and formed–and for the friend who never leaves me nor forsakes me

I am thankful for the material and ethereal changes this year has wrought…

…the transition from student to professional

…the move from Lincoln to Columbus

…the transfer from one church (in Lincoln) to another (in Columbus)

…the awakening of my mind to the things of God

I am thankful for the many new things this year…

…for new blogging friends

…for a new home

…for a new church

…for a new Bible study

…for a new job

…for a new book club

Many things have changed this year, but one thing remains the same: The God who began this good work in me is faithful to complete it. And today, I am thankful most of all for the faithfulness of God so clearly seen throughout my many life changes.


Nightstand (November 2010)

On last month’s nightstand:

On my nightstandOn my nightstand

What I actually read this month was…
Considering the craziness of this month, what with moving and traveling and still living and working in two different towns, I read quite a bit. But I had very little access to internet, so I’m far from caught up with reviews. I have at least a dozen items on my “TBReviewed” list!

Fiction

  • A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
    I finally called it quits on this after 3/4 or so. I just couldn’t get interested in the story.
  • Love’s Abiding Joy by Janette Oke
  • Love’s Unending Legacy by Janette Oke
  • Love’s Unfolding Dream by Janette Oke
  • Love Takes Wing by Janette Oke
  • Love Finds a Home by Janette Oke

Nonfiction

  • The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande (TBReviewed)
  • Nasty, Brutish, and Long: Adventures in Eldercare by Ira Rosofsky (My Review)
  • Nina Garcia’s Look Book by Nina Garcia (TBReviewed)
  • Radical by David Platt (TBReviewed)
  • Will This Place Ever Feel Like Home? by Leslie Levine (TBReviewed)

Juvenile

  • Children’s Picture Books author BANG-BANKS (partly)
    including BANG The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart (My Review)
  • Nebraska a “Celebrate the States” book by Ruth Bjorklund (TBReviewed)
  • The Old Motel Mystery created by Gertrude Chandler Warner

This month’s nightstand is a bit different since I’m in the middle of moving and I haven’t got a nightstand (or any other place for my library books)–and because I’m trying to finish up these library books so I can start anew in my new city.

Currently in the middle of… or going to start soon (?)

On my nightstand

  • 30-Minute Get Real Meals by Rachael Ray
  • Ask Me Anything a Dorling-Kindersley book
  • Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America by Kate Zernike
  • Business Casual made Easy
  • Desiring God by John Piper
  • Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris
  • The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy
  • Making the Big Move by Cathy Goodwin
  • Nebraska an “America the Beautiful” book by Ann Heinrichs
  • The Secret of Skull Mountain by Franklin W. Dixon
  • Miscellaneous children’s books, fashion/wardrobe books, and Boston guidebooks (leftover from my trip this month)

Drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading.
What's on Your Nightstand?


WiW: A Lovely Song

The Week in Words

I am surrounded by the Word of God.

My Bible goes with me, tucked into my purse.

My MP3 player is loaded with sermons and podcasts to listen to as I drive.

My bookshelves are full of books expositing the Word of God.

My Google Reader fills every day. Homemakers reflecting on how the word of God impacts their lives. Mothers praying the word of God over their children. Men discussing the nuances of one doctrine or another.

The Word of God. My life is saturated with it.

And it is beautiful.

But the Word of God is not merely a song to be heard and applauded.

Last night, I read these words–and they cut me to the heart:

“Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them.”
~Ezekiel 33:32

Surrounded by the Word of God, I revel in its beauty. I delight to hear how the gospel has impacted others. I delight to read of the intricacies of the gospel. It is a lovely song. The speakers, the bloggers, the writers play their instruments well with pleasant voices.

But it is not enough to consider the Word of God a lovely song.

I must do it.

The Word of God must enter my soul and transform me.

I pray that Jeremiah’s cry might become mine.

“Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me
the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.”
~Jeremiah 15:16

Oh that the Word of God might become for me more than just a lovely song. Oh that it would become as the very sustenance of my soul. That I might eat the Word of God–and that by it I might be transformed.

This is my prayer.

Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.


I would have lost heart

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!”

~Psalm 27:13-14

It’s been a long year.
It’s been a tough year.

I’ve been tempted to give up a hundred times (a day).
I’ve been tempted to lose hope.

And I would have–
except for one thing.

I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Years ago, a girl in our church wrote a song based loosely on Psalm 27. I sing my best memory of it now and am reminded that I have hope, even in the moments when I find myself melancholy and almost ready to despair.

Here’s my best memory (which is, I’m sure, quite imperfect):

I am needing, You are giving
I am weary, You offer rest
Though all of me is not much to offer
You give me Your best

You’re the one my heart is needing
Lord, my hunger You satisfy
Hear my cry of desperate pleading
In You I long to abide

And I will see the goodness of the Lord
I will see the goodness of the Lord my God
In the land of the living

~Beth Calcara (now Swihart)


On the Front Page

I’m on the front page.

Of Google.

If you’re looking for…

Other odd Google searches that have led readers to bekahcubed…

  • “wasn’t wearing a slip”
  • how long does it take to bend a bone
  • proposal with dum dum pops
  • what food group does gatorade belong to

But most of the searches that lead people here are rather straightforward (or boring)–titles of books, quotes from books, names of people, etc.

What’s the best Google search that has sent someone to YOUR website? Conversely, what’s the weirdest search you’ve ever done?


Thankful Thursday: No theme, just Thankful

I don’t have a theme for today’s thankfulness. I don’t have energy to come up with a theme. But I’m thankful nonetheless.

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Today I’m thankful…

…for the package that arrived at the House of Dreams today

…for the internet that got hooked up in the House of Dream yesterday

…for dinner and a movie with my roommate

…for new renters for the townhouse that mean Casandra and I can save ourselves a month of rent by moving out early

…for bright pink shoes and the joy they bring to my residents

…for compliments from coworkers (I am way too blessed!)

…for very helpful Menards salespeople (I’m sorry that the rest of you don’t experience the same service I do–have you tried shopping for hardware wearing a skirt and heels?)

…for my sister and I both being home at last

…for the nap I took in the car yesterday BEFORE I fell asleep at the wheel (as opposed to the one I took a week ago AFTER falling asleep at the wheel–talk about scary)

…for the grace of God that has brought me safe thus far–and the grace that will lead me safely through these last few weeks of craziness too.


Book Review: “Nasty, Brutish & Long” by Ira Rosofsky

Working in a nursing home isn’t easy. There are cantankerous residents, sleep-deprived coworkers, and governmental forms to be filled out in triplicate. There are hoops to be jumped through to provide care–and hoops to be jumped through that inhibit care. There’s the pecking order of doctors, nurses, therapists, and other care staff. There’s the often contradictory demands of residents, family members, physicians, and government regulations. And then there’s the emotional toll of caring for people who inevitably die.

Living in a nursing home isn’t easy. There are bossy staff who insist that you can’t get out of your wheelchair but must wheel yourself on the long way to the dining room. There are buzzers and beepers and lights going off everywhere at all hours of the day or night. You can’t pick your neighbors–you can’t even pick your roommate. You’re constantly being interrupted by staff who insist on interviewing you about the same old stuff–or who keep asking you if you know your name and where you’re at. Staff insist that you go to “activities”; but the one activity you’d really like to enjoy–spending time with your children and grandchildren–isn’t available. And then there’s how everybody inevitably dies.

Ira Rosofsky’s Nasty, Brutish & Long: Adventures in Eldercare tells just some of the stories of life in a nursing home. Rosofsky, a consultant psychologist for a variety of long term care facilities, writes of life on both sides of the nurse’s station. He sympathetically shares the stories of the elders he’s met (fictionalized, of course, per HIPAA). He tells of the processes and paperwork that come along with working in long term care. And he reveals his own story as a son placing his father in a long term care facility.

As one who has had a lengthy acquaintanceship with long term care (considering my relatively young age), I found Rosofsky’s story to be… true. His writing resonates with the girl who went to assisted living facilities to conduct Sunday afternoon worship services–who gladly sang the old hymns at the top of her lungs and then listened as the residents told her about their parents, their children, and their grandchildren. His writing resonates with the girl who served coffee and wiped tables and fell in love with her elderly residents. It resonates with the girl who still remembers sitting with an elderly woman, reading her Psalm 23, explaining to her the gospel, describing how she can have assurance of salvation. It resonates with the girl who later that week removed that same woman’s tray ticket from the stack before meal service–she wouldn’t need a tray anymore. She was dead. Rosofsky’s story resonates with the girl who grieved as her grandmother moved from a retirement community to assisted living to a nursing home–a girl who felt increasingly helpless as her grandma’s dependence on the nursing staff grew. It resonates with the girl who is now a nursing home dietitian, loving to care for her residents, hating how hard it is to care for her residents.

The tale Rosofsky tells in Nasty, Brutish & Long is a true story–and it’s a story that’s being played out in nursing homes around the nation.

This is a memoir. It describes but doesn’t necessarily explain. It raises questions but doesn’t necessarily give answers. You’re not going to find the solution to the long-term-care crisis within the pages of this book. But you will find a powerful description of the realities that face many of those working or living in long-term-care.

I feel like everyone should read this–but then I wonder if I’m just being selfish. Maybe I just want everyone to read it so they can understand my world. Maybe that’s it. But the truth is that even if this isn’t your world now, long-term-care will likely be your world in the future. Maybe you’ll place a parent in a LTC facility. Maybe you’ll find yourself in one when your recovery from a surgical procedure takes longer than expected. Maybe you’ll find yourself in one long term. Or maybe you just need to be reminded of how vital your visits and prayers are to your church’s elderly. At any rate, I think this book is a valuable tool for understanding the challenges of life in long-term-care.

You should probably read it.


Rating: 4 stars
Category: Memoir
Synopsis:Ira Rosofsky paints a picture of life in long-term-care from the perspective of residents, staff, and family members.
Recommendation: This is a great intro to the challenges and pressures of life in long-term-care. It’s worth reading–if long-term-care doesn’t affect you now, it may very well affect you tomorrow.


Visit my books page for more reviews and notes.


Book Review: “The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma”

I was thrilled with Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society (My Review). Not quite as much with The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (My Review). Both were great stories. I’d highly recommend either. But The Mysterious Benedict Society is not just a great story–it has the additional benefit of being profound.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a great middle betwixt the two–and a great cap to a marvelous series.

“The Prisoner’s Dilemma” refers to a famous test the children are given at the beginning of the book. They’re being given the test as a school exercise–and they manage to find a way out without resolving the tricky ethical questions the exercise was designed to force them to grapple with.

Yet life will insist that they wrestle with the same question yet again.

When Ledropthe Curtain renews his attempts to regain the Whisperer, the children must make difficult decisions. Will each child choose to act in his own interests or in the interest of another–even at a high cost to self?

Stewart artfully weaves the Prisoner’s Dilemma throughout the story, never heavy-handedly insisting on recreating the exact predicament set up in the first scenario–but still managing to test the children multiple times (and to renew the question in the reader’s mind as well.)

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a potent love story–not the story of romantic love, but of the love of a father for a daughter, a daughter for a father, a devotee to his idol, a brother for his brother, and four friends for each other.


Rating: 5 stars
Category: Young Adult General Fiction
Synopsis: Four children find themselves in tricky positions as they must repeatedly choose between personal gain or what’s best for their friends and loved ones in this adventure to stop the evil Ledropthe Curtain.
Recommendation: Nothing can quite top the first in the series for a thought-provoking read that’s also a great story–but this third volume comes close. A must read.


Visit my books page for more reviews and notes.


Thankful Thursday: Stuff of the Free and Reduced Price Variety

It may well be that I’m too in love with stuff. It may well be that I’ve bought into the materialistic American dream (I finished David Platt’s Radical this morning and have a bit of thinking to do on the thesis of said book.)

But the truth is, I’m very thankful for the stuff I’ve got–and especially for the stuff I’ve recently been given or have acquired at a reduced price.

Thankful Thursday banner

Today I’m thankful…

…for a lovely time in Boston with Aunt Joanne and Uncle Paul and for the stuff they blessed me with–

two quilt tops pieced by my great-great-aunts, now being sent into my keeping (Anna and Grace and I will have to get them all quilted–and then haggle

–a camera with a working viewfinder, which Joanne gave me, completely unexpectedly

–a folding umbrella which Joanne and Paul forced on me on my way out the door–which served me well in that last day of Boston rain

…for the multitudes of FNCE paraphernalia, particularly–

–the canvas bag with a relatively innocuous California Raisins logo

–the water bottle from the honey board

–the vegetable seeds from Monsanto

–the lunch bag from the American Heart Association

–the LTC pocket reference that I bought at reduced price

…for the household stuff and clothing I got at Goodwill this past evening–

seven shirts ranging from long sleeve sweaters to ultra-wicking athletic shirts

–a boyfriend cardigan in comfy gray knit

–another smart jacket for those business-y days

–a pair of ultra “sexy” jeans (just ask my Grace-bug, they’ve got her stamp of approval)

–two pairs of comfy lounging pants

–a long red nightgown

–a red fabric belt to go with my cute yellow shirtdress (and, as Gracie says, with…well, a lot of things in my closet)

–a dust ruffle for my bed

–four awesome towels to be made into bath mats for my bathroom (which is going to look amazing when it’s done)

–two flat sheets, also to be used in making bath mats

–a valance for my bathroom

–a new piece of blueware to add to my collection

–a nice big wooden shelf–that’s going to hold my blueware in my bathroom (once I’ve painted the shelf navy blue, that is)

three picture frames (that only need minor modifications before they can be used in my new bedroom)

And best of all, I love that I was able to purchase all of this for under $60!

Of course, I’d be remiss in telling of all the free and reduced-price items I’ve received if I didn’t express my thankfulness for the ultimate in free gifts:

…the gift of right standing with God, purchased by the blood of Christ.

…the gift of heavenly citizenship, won by blood not my own

…the gift of adoption, sealed by the Holy Spirit through no act of my own

I’m thankful to God for the things He has graciously granted me–but even if all these things had never been given, or if they should all in an instant be taken away, I should still have more than enough. For God, in His grace, has chosen to give me the gift of all gifts, Himself.

**In the interest of disclosure, all the free stuff obtained at FNCE was obtained from companies/organizations who had an ulterior motive in offering me free stuff–namely, getting my stamp of approval on their items/products. While I am grateful for the free items given me, I do not necessarily agree with the positions of all of said companies and organizations. As always, views expressed on bekahcubed are my own.**