The Famine Ships

I finished my first Spring reading book. The Famine Ships by Edward Laxton. It's non fiction so I probably wouldn't have finished so fast if I hadn't been sick as a dog this last week. What else can you do when you and your kids are sick? Read, surf the internet, watch TV. That about sums it up for me. The kids have watched our collection of DVD's and hours of Baby TV and I have lounged on the couch reading about Pat Maloney, Mary Lynch, William Ford, and many other Irish emigrants from the Famine years. Here's what I knew about the potato famine in Ireland before I read this book:

1. People went hungry

2. The English were bad and took advantage of the poor Irish

3. Far and Away starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman pops into my head every time I think of Ireland.

Here's a few things I know now after reading the book:

1. It wasn't really a famine. Ireland still managed to export food, just not potatoes.

2. The potato famine lasted from 1846-1851. (Not during the years of Far and Away which actually was around the turn of the century.)

3. It took anywhere from 27 to over 100 days to travel from Liverpool or Dublin to the East Coast of North America.

My favorite story in the book tells of a ship called the Jamestown that was filled with food and provisions and sent to Cork to aid the starving Irish. All the food that was sent was donated by the American people, even the Choctaw Indian Tribe donated a large sum of $170 to the cause. The total cost of all the goods was assessed at $35,868. What a beautiful thing! The captian of the ship, Robert Forbes, wrote about his experience when he stepped ashore in Cork:

"I went with Father Theobald Mathew only a few steps out of one of the principal streets of Cork into a lane; the Valley of the Shadow of Death, was it? Alas no, it was the valley of death and pestilence itself. I saw enough in five minutes to horrify me; hovels crowded with the sick and dying; without floors, without furniture, and with patches of dirty straw covered with still dirtier shreds and patches of humanity."

He wrote later that that voyage he had made in the Jamestown was the happiest moment of his life. I think it must have been. To be able to bring such welcome items to such needy people. I am not happy that so many people had to suffer so much, but I am happy that so many Irish did come to America. If there was food on their tables, they never would have come.

It was an enlightening book. It really made me think what a human can endure and still survive. The stories within this book made me feel guilty to complain about being sick, or cold, or hungry. After we're all feeling better we'll have a week of potatoes in honor of the Irish.

Spring Reading Challenge

I'm a little late but this challenge sounds exiting and it will keep my mind off myself. Find out about this reading challenge over at Callapidder Days. Here's my Spring reading list:

1. The Famine Ships by Edward Laxton

2. Mythology by Edith Hamilton

3. Niebla by Miguel de Unamuno (finish)

4. Balthasar's Odyssey by Amin Maalouf

5. Turkey's Southern Shore by George E. Bean

6. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

7. The Israel-Palestine Conflict by James L. Gelvin

8. Fighting for Franco by Judith Keene

9. Conferencias by Federico Garcia Lorca

10. Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

11. Bleak House by Charles Dickens

12. A Read-Aloud Handbook Sixth Edition by Jim Trelease

13. Oh, Pioneers by Willa Cather


Taa daa! There's my list. I'm so glad I found this challenge because now I'm not going to go into massive debt buying books when I return to the States in May. It would be nice to fill my list with more fiction but our shelves here are filled with my husbands books mostly. He was able to provide me with one fiction novel he borrowed from a friend. This will be a challenge for me but I feel like it will be beneficial.

My Antonia

When I was 9, 10, or 11 years old, or maybe older than that, my father actually bought me a birthday present. Not that he never bought me presents before. He always paid for them, but very few times selected them.

For this particular birthday he had wrapped up the presents in brown paper from a grocery sack. No ribbons. Just scotch tape. He wrote something like "To Christine, From Dad" with a permanent sharpie in his usual slanted, angular printing.

I opened them up and found two dark green books from Barnes and Noble. (That was the coolest book store back then!) One was a thick collection of American short stories. The other was a book by Willa Cather. I never read them all the way through. In fact I think I tried to read Cather's novel but gave up. I don't remember if it was My Antonia or Oh, Pioneers!. I did read several of the short stories in the collection he gave me though.

As I grew up in that same bedroom in my home in Los Gatos, CA those books sat there, and sat, and sat, and sat. And they would still be sitting there if my brother Clayton hadn't moved back to our house and moved himself into my old bedroom. But he probably didn't trash the books. They are probably on the bookshelves in his old bedroom. The sort of storage room now where everything that you don't want in your room goes. Those books are probably there right now. Waiting still for me to read them. And if that Willa Cather book is Oh, Pioneers! I will read it, this summer.

I just finished My Antonia and all I can say is "I'm so glad I waited to read it now". It is a wonderful book. An excellent book. An uplifting book. A sad book. A happy book. A book of love. Not a romantic novel, but a book of how real people can love and appreciate others in so many different ways. It was a beautiful book. One of those books that just makes you yearn for those good old days. I'm sure you all who have read it are wondering about my sanity. Good old days? I'm just the kind of person who longs for wide open spaces, for real nature, for the opportunity to take something small and build something big and wonderful from it. I just loved it. Hmmmm. . . . . . sigh.

Goose Girl

I just finished reading The Goose Girl. I'm sure the same thing that happens to you in that you're into a book and then you get your hands on another book and you start reading that book, finish it, and then return to the first book you were reading. So I was reading "The Name of the Rose" and was really getting into it at first, thinking "Oh my gosh, all these branches of the Christian orders back in the day is so fascinating. I really want to go back to Italy and learn all about it. I can live in a fantasy land and discover secrets just like that DaVinci Code guy did!" Then I slow down a bit because of the holidays and I decide to read "The Goose Girl" because it was sent to me as a gift, I've heard good things about it, and I just can't resist an escape. So I do. I get really into it. I read it in three days. Three days of fulfilling all my other duties (cook, cleaner, mother, wife, 2nd Counselor in RS, play group leader, and happy person) and using the free time for the book. It wasn't a blow me away, fascinating kind of book. In one word, uplifting. So uplifting that I'm so sad it only lasted three days. So now, even though I haven't finished the first book yet, I can compare the two and say that I much prefer "The Goose Girl". Perhaps for my stage in life it is the best choice. I can see why I don't delve into the darkness and mystery of old Italian monastic life right now. The weather is gloomy now. Rain. Cold. No snow yet. Sick kids. Crusty morning noses. So "The Goose Girl" was a welcome read. Has anyone ever read the Shannon Hale's sequel to that? Enna Burning?

Blog recommendation

OK ladies! Especially all you Stephenie Meyer lovers out there, here's just one more thing to get addicted to. Shamefully, I love this blog. I absolutely love how this girl writes. Honest. Funny. Real. Illogical. Anyway, last night I read the entirety of her posts. Unfortunately, that kept me up until 2 AM. I ask myself "Why do I read and get so into this?" I have a handsome, sensitive, helpful, self sacrificing, communicative, intelligent, and hard working husband. What more could a woman want? especially since he let me sleep in this morning while he made french toast for the kids, fed them, bathed them, and was getting them dressed for church by the time I wobbled out of my bedroom. I am lame, what can I say more? But still, if you are completely bored ladies, do take a look.
My Super Hopeless Romance

And please be honest ladies, if you read this and get sucked in like I did, please comment and tell me you did. I want to test my normality level.

My oldest child has reached an age where he can enjoy a book with chapters and an ongoing plot. A few months ago we read Charlotte's Web, we also read Stuart Little and now we are reading our third book titled My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett.

I love the illustrations but what I especially love is the map included on the first few pages. I have always loved maps. Especially fictional maps. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Phantom Tollbooth, Candyland the boardgame, the reference maps in the scriptures though not fictional are all places where I have enjoyed the power of the map. The power it has to transport you in your mind to another place, and in this place you must orient yourself to new surroundings which can help you understand your protagonist better. Anyway, I printed out a few copies of this map and had the kids color their own maps. Atticus ate it up. So now when we read he refers to his map that is taped on the wall next to his bed. Shermy ripped his. I guess he doesn't find his quite as fascinating but at least he colored it. Crayons fortunately have taken their proper place in his life. For Cinci they are still food. His map is still blank on my pile of papers. In a few years I will read this story again and we'll have a go at the same activity. So for all of you readers out there, this is a fun book to read the little guys. Got any other favorites?