Cleaning out the office--the books

List of books

Great religions of the world (National Geographic, 1971)

Ancient-future faith; rethinking evangelicalism (Webber, Baker, 1999)

The Christian calendar; complete guide to the seasons of the Christian year (Merriam, 1974)

Complete guide to Bible versions (Tyndale, 1991, pb.)

Renovation of the heart (Willard, Navpress, 2002)

What the Bible is all about (Henrietta Mears, Regal, 1966, pb.)

The challenge of today (1st state convention Methodist men, Columbus, OH, March 1915)

Infant baptism and adult conversion (Hallesby, Augsburg, 1926 pb.)

Brochures: God’s man of faith (Luther); Small catechism (Luther); Why Jesus have his life for us; Women of the Bible; About the sacrament of baptism; Abstinence; Enriching your marriage; The servant as Leaders (Robert Greenleaf);

Jesus and his times (Reader’s Digest, 1987)

After Jesus (Reader’s Digest, 1992)

I and thou (Buber, Touchstone, 1970 , pb)

The happy Christian (Murray, Nelson, 2015, pb)

The Lord’s Prayer (Noyes, First Congregational, Columbus, 1962, pb)

History, criticism and Faith (Inter-varsity, 1976 pb)

A book of prayers for boys and girls (Neumann, Wartburg, 1943)

My prayer book (Concordia, 1957)

The art of reading scripture (David and Hays, Eerdmans, 2003 pb)

Treasures from the Greek New Testament ;Wuest’s word studies (Wuest, Eerdmans, 1941 pb)

A brief story of the Augsburg Confession (Concordia, 1930, pb)

Devotions and prayers of Martin Luther (Baker, 1965, pb)

Women in the Bible helpful friends (Latham, Broadman, 1979)

Encounter with books; a guide to Christian reading (Inter-Varsity, 1971, pb.)

Blog (Hewitt, Nelson, 2005)

Liberty and tyranny (Levin, Threshold, 2009)

The new thought police (Bruce, Forum, 2001)

Right for a reason (Chicks on the right, Sentinel, 2014)

A simple Christmas (Huckabee, Sentinel, 2009)

Power to the people (Ingraham, Regnery, 2007)

My grandfather’s son (Thomas, Harper Collins, 2007)

Extraordinary, ordinary people (Rice, Crown, 2010)

Arguing with idiots (Beck, Threshold, 2009)

Culturally incorrect (Parsley, Nelson, 2007)

Paradise suite/Bobos in Paradise (Simon & Schuster, 2011)

Countdown to the Apocalypse (Jeffress, Faith Words, 2015, pb)

The bookshop, the gate of angels, the blue flower (Fitzgerald, Everyman’s library 247, 2001)

Glenn Beck’s Common sense (Threshold, 2009, pb)

Overton Window (fiction) (Threshold, 2010)

Flight Behavior (Kingsolver, HarperCollings, 1st ed., 2012)

Black Orchid (Harper, Signet, 1996) autographed by author

The book thief (Zusak, Knopf, 2005 pb)

The notebook (Sparks, Warner, 1996)

The Christmas Letters (Smith, Algonquin, 1996)

When I am an old woman I shall wear Purple (Papier-Mache Press, 1987,pb)

I am becoming the woman I’ve wanted (Papier-Mache Press, 1994, pb)

Women of words (Bukovinsky, Running Press, 1994)

Old age is not for sissies (Peter Pauper Press, 1989)

Making your own days (Koch, Scribner, 1998)

A dictionary of textile terms (Dan River, 1967, pb)

Women’s Magazines 1940-1960 (Bedford, 1998, pb)

Women writers at work, (Plimpton, 1989, pb)

So your husband’s gone to war! (Gorham, Doubleday 1942) with book cover, rare.

It was on fire when I law down on it (Fulghum, Villard, 1989)

Sea biscuit (Hillenbrand, Ballentine, 2001)

On writing well (Zinsser, Harper, 1988)

Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi, Random House, 2004)

Writing down the bones (Goldberg, Shambhala, 1986)

A book lover’s journal (for recording titles read) (Addison-Wesley, 1986)

A handbook of literary terms (Citadel, 1966 pb)

Concise Oxford dictionary of literary terms (Bladick, Oxford, 1990)

Dearest friend (Withey, Touchstone, 1981)

Life at the speed of Light (Venter, Viking, 2013)

Courage to be rich (Orman, Riverhead, 1999)

Healthwise for life, (4th ed. Healthwise, 2000)

Family guide to natural medicine (Reader’s Digest, 1993)

It’s always the heart (Constantine, Westbow, 2014, pb.)

I love horses and ponies, over 50 breeks (Scholastic, 2011)

New Yorker book of cat cartoons (Knopf, 1990)

Simply Divine (Harris, Prima, 1996)

The Desperate housewives cookbook (Hyperion, 2016)

Socialized history of the United States (Vannest, Scriber’s, 1934)

My Country, civics textbook (Turkington, Ginn, 1923)

Book Club Selections for 2015-2016

Our group met Monday May 4 at Peggy's and selected titles for 2015-2016. Here's next year's schedule. I’m really excited about this list. We meet  at 2 PM at Bethel Presbyterian Church, 1735 Bethel Road, Columbus, Ohio 43220—first Monday except September and except for October 5 at Peggy’s in Bexley and December 7 at Carolyn A’s in Clintonville.

September 14--The Men Who United the States, by Simon Winchester--led by Carolyn A and Courtney.

October 5--Barefoot Lawyer: a blind man's fight for justice and freedom in China,  by Guangcheng Chen--led by Letha.

November 2--Dead Wake: the last crossing of the Lusitania,  by Erik Larson--led by Peggy.

December 7--Kaaterskill Falls: a novel, by Allegra Goodman--led by Carolyn A.

January 4--Clara and Mr. Tiffany, by Susan Vreeland--led by Bev.

February 1--Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking, by Susan Cain--led by Justine.

March 7--Shakespeare Saved My Life: ten years in solitary with the bard, by Laura Bates--led by Mary Lou.

April 4--Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker: the unlikely friendship of Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Todd Lincoln--led by Jean.

May 2--Look to Lazarus by David, Elise and Bev Meyers--presentation by our own Bev.

It's unlikely that I would purchase any of these titles, but if I come across a good buy, I might.

30 Lessons for Loving, guest blogger Adrienne Zahniser

Dr. Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist and Professor of Human Development at Cornell University, has provided an intriguing look at love and marriage from the viewpoint of over 700 married adults, 65 and older, representing a total of 25,000 years of married life.  His five-chapter book, neatly divided into six lessons per chapter, is the result of a carefully designed in-depth interview study named the Marriage Advice Project, which he outlines in the Appendix.  Here he details the need of such a study, his research methods, ways he found a diverse and appropriate sample of interviewees, how he determined the questions and conducted the interviews, and how he analyzed the enormous amount of data collected.  His goal was to ask these older experts, married 30 years or more, “directly and in detail about the kinds of advice they would offer younger people about getting and staying married in a complex and difficult world.”

Though the study was quite academic in nature, the book itself is written for a popular audience—more personal, few end notes, no index or bibliography—with many quotes.  Excerpts from the many interviews are used freely and engagingly; a reader senses that both men and women responded thoughtfully, even eagerly to the questions for which they had much experience and definite ideas.  Some of these persons were widowed, some divorced, some had multiple marriages, some were same-sex, but the overwhelming cohort was 70-90 year-old couples in traditional one-time marriages.

The elders agreed on a number of important issues:  love is necessary in marrying, but so is common sense.  Sharing similar core values and interests, especially in such areas as money, religion, child rearing, careers, sex, friends is essential.  Additional values, often repeatedly mentioned, were sense of humor, honesty, trust, ability to listen and communicate, courtesy and respect, being good friends—a team, accepting partners as they are without trying to change them, and making time for each other.  The final lesson from all these experts:  “treat marriage, at every stage, as a lifelong commitment.”  Marriage then is a discipline, “a path where you get better at something by mindfully attending to it and by continual practice.” 

Most of these ideas are found in the multitude of advice books available to readers today.  This one, however, is unique because of the large sample group of older adults with views from the end of life; their experiences, both positive and negative, represent the full gamut of joys and problems inherent in love, relationships, and marriage.  They have earned a right to be heard, and the author has provided an amazing amount of useful information by listening to these many “grandparents,” then arranging their responses in a pleasing format.  This is a book you will enjoy reading and recommending to your friends and relatives! 

30 Lessons for Loving: Advice from the Wisest Americans on Love, Relationships, and Marriage by Karl Pillemer, Hudson Street Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-59463-154-2, $25.95.     For more information, visit http://marriagelegacy.org. Dr. Pillemer blogs at Huffington Post and has been interviewed by a number of news sources and media outlets. He has also written 30 lessons for Living, and is thinking about his next book which may be about finding one’s purpose in life, also based on the advice of older people. (I think he likes us!)

Flight Behavior

Our book club meets this afternoon--"Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver. I can't say it's my favorite novel (you might have guessed I prefer non-fiction). However, this writer has a way with words. What dog owner (yes, I've had a few in my younger days) wouldn't love this paragraph when Dellarobia (main character) let's her dog out into the snow:

"Snow. Roy bounded wolfishly through the white deep, nosing into drifts, leaving a tangled line of tracks as he hurried to put his small yellow tags on all of the year's most notable points. The dog version of Post-its."

Spoiler: The author was ahead with the next to last chapter of love, sacrifice and redemption of the past, then spoiled it in the final chapter with self-centered, silly "I gotta be me" decision by the main character. It's like being reminded how dumb we were in our 20s.

Fortunately, I found this for $2 at the library sale.

Reviewing math

This week someone posted on Facebook about reviewing insanely simple 9th grade math problems and I mentioned I'd been looking for something for review, but couldn't go higher than 5th grade because the material was too difficult.

Yesterday at Volunteers of America for 90 cents I found the neatest book, "Math on Call," Houghton Mifflin, 2004. It's attractive, nicely arranged, color coded with clear explanations that are somewhat below my reading level, even if the math isn't. So I went online to check out the grade level and found it is "sixth to eighth." It includes number theory, computation (which is about all I can do), algebra, graphs and statistics, geometry, ratio/proportion/percent, probability and odds, then study tips, test taking tips, tables, patterns (like Fibonacci) and systems (Roman numerals, Mayan, etc.) This is a terrific "review," and if elementary kids are doing this, God bless'em.   Also, the used ones I saw on-line were about $40--I may be bad at math, but that's more than 90 cents.