Summer, Books, & Other Thoughts

Summer is here–well, almost. Charis graduates from pre-school tomorrow, and the other kids have their last day of school on Thursday. Then, whew-hew, it’s summer!

St Louis has not felt very “summery” yet. I know it is still technically spring, but with all the rain and cool temperatures, it is not the typical hot spring prelude to summer we experience here. I like to think that means we won’t have the typical 95+ days this summer, but that’s just wishful thinking.

Books

I am reading a couple good books. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is compelling, but it is not a great read when our country is at the beginning of a recession. I just got to the part where the storyline gets more positive, so I am hopeful that I will feel better as I get further along. We’ll see. I am enjoying the writing, though.

Belong to Me by Maris de los Santos is a contemporary novel on the NYT bestsellers list. I picked it up at the library today because I liked the cover.

I choose books all the time because of the cover. My short stint working for a book publisher in the 90s caused me to be obsessed with good book covers. I am not ready to recommend this book, but I am enjoying the writer’s style and getting to know the main character. Since it is a bestseller, it is only a 7-day-loan, so I should have more to say about it soon.

I am also reading Parenting Today’s Adolescent by Barbara & Dennis Rainey. So far after a little more than 2 chapters, it hasn’t told me anything I don’t know. But I am hoping it will offer some insights as we enter a new phase of parenthood that I am honestly not prepared for. I should have been reading everything available about 2 or 3 years ago. Now I am playing catch-up with our oldest boy having just turned 12. I really see why I need to be praying and seeking God in His Word now more than ever as I face our children entering adolescence one after the other in rapid succession! Can I just say that I entered their infancies and toddler years exhausted, but the next 15 years (span from Calvin being 12 to Charis being 20) are the scary ones to me. May I never lose sight of the need to bathe our family in prayer!

Other Thoughts

You just can’t blog about everything. With that in mind, please pray for us more than you may have already been doing, or start if you haven’t been. We need it.

7 thoughts on “Summer, Books, & Other Thoughts”

  1. Ok, while that sentence is the most important of my comment, the rest of it disappeared! Whattup?!
    -I like the book cover, too. A lot, actually!
    -We need a good book on teens, too, and ours is 13 1/2! Was thinking about Ross Campbell’s “How to Really Love your Teenager” or Tripp’s “Age of Opportunity.”
    C Ya

  2. Jennifer,
    Thanks for your prayers. We appreciate it.

    Thanks also for the book titles. I wasn’t familiar with either title. I hadn’t looked at anything by Ted Tripp since the kids were little, but I should have thought to look him up.

  3. Did you finish the Good Earth yet? I finished the movie last night and it has a much more satisfying ending than the book. It is curious to me though, that screenwriters would take such a huge liberty…I guess that’s Hollywood.

  4. Debbie,

    I think I’ll finish The Good Earth today. I’ll definitely want to get the details on the version of the movie you watched so I can find it and watch it.

    I think you’re right about Hollywood just doing as they please with a story. But if the movie is older, I think it was even more common for Hollywood to make movie endings “happy” back in the 50s and 60s.

  5. The movie was made in1937 and the woman who played O-lan won an Academy Award for best actress.

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