November 2022 Book Reports

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte - I had read this book a few years before we had kids, so it had been almost twenty years when I read it again with my book club. It seemed a little more trite to me this time around, though generally I think the main protagonist is a much more virtuous person than I would have been in her situation. (read free Kindle copy)

Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants by George W. Bush - link to my post (borrowed copy from my dad) 

A Mercy by Toni Morrison - I read this as I was deciding on an African American literature selection for senior year. This book presents the stories of a single 1680s household from the differing perspectives of the master, mistress, and slaves. It is often difficult to read, both because the text can be challenging and because the events are harsh and tragic. Few people of privilege, wealth, or power are portrayed positively. But it is beautifully written. I think a high school senior could read it, though some will struggle in understanding some of the voices. There are also some pointed criticisms of Catholics that, while I think they are valid, would need context for a teenage Catholic reader. That is all in addition, of course, to all the content considerations you might imagine: rape, violence, slavery, witchcraft, intimacy outside of marriage and with people of the same gender, etc. (library copy)

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis - This was my second time through this audiobook and I loved it just as much as the first time. I picked up on many more of the jokes this time through because I had recently listened to Jerome K. Jerome's original travelogue, Three Men in a Boat. Back in 2020, I wrote:

This may be my favorite audiobook of all time. I enjoyed every single minute of it, invented chores so I could listen to it, and was both delighted with the ending and sorry it was over. It's a quirky tale of time-travel, Victorian England, the Blitz, and romance, "to say nothing of the dog" (and cat). (purchased from Audible during a sale)

 I'm sure the book is good, but the audiobook is an absolute delight.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie - I've never been much of a mystery reader; I can never guess the murderer! But so many people rave about Agatha Christie, I thought I'd give a few of her books a try. I enjoyed this one, though of course I didn't figure out the solution until it was revealed. (library copy)

Leona by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino - I was looking on PaperBackSwap for books by this author because I love her book My Heart Lies South. This little out of print book about a brave but often over-looked woman in Mexico's history was available. It's written at about a middle school level, though the romance means it might be more interesting to older children. I enjoyed it, but I don't know that you have to seek it out. (received from another member of PaperBackSwap.com)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - link to my post (library copy)

Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis - I read this with my book club. The story tells of the perseverance of two women left alone in the Alaskan wilderness, the revival of their skills to survive, and the flourishing of their friendship. It's also a story of the healing of family relationships. I added this book to my Geography of the Americas shelf in case any high schoolers want to select it as a free-read (Level 5 or Level 6). (purchased used)

The Yellow Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang - I have read fairy tales aloud to all my kids regularly since the very beginning of our homeschooling journey, but we don't read one every day, or even every week, so it can take a long time to get through a book. Fairy tales seem to be enjoying something of a moment, especially in the homeschooling crowd, but nothing can teach you about the wonderful and the weird as much as reading through a collection from beginning to end. I picked something different to read aloud after this one, but I'm considering returning to the Blue Fairy Book after that because my younger kids don't remember it. (purchased used)

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links.

Making Monterrey Home: My Heart Lies South

My Heart Lies South: The Story of My Mexican Heritage (Young People's Edition)

by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño

This was a delightful light-hearted book I enjoyed so much, I promptly found some more books by the same author to add to my shelves. (We already own and love Nacar: The White Deer.)

After an exceptionally short courtship, Elizabeth Borton gave up her life in the States to marry a young man in Mexico. She moved to Monterrey in the 1930s and, with the generous help of her husband's large family, adopted the ways and life of her new homeland. She writes of her mishaps as a young bride in an unknown culture with wit, hope, and warmth. An insert in the middle shows many wonderful photographs of the author and her family.

Many of the anecdotes feature the Catholic faith, integral to the lives of the author's friends and neighbors, though perhaps experienced differently than in America today. 

This is the Young People's Edition printed by Bethlehem Books. I have never seen a non-young person's edition and cannot speak on the differences between them. This edition is not diminished by adaptation and is just as enjoyable by adults as by young adults. I think the focus on a newly married young woman means the book is most appealing to teenagers or adults rather than younger readers. There are also references to courtship rituals, pregnancy, drinking, and smoking.

There is one episode early in the book (pp. 26-27) in which a young maid threatens to kill herself. The story is told as if young woman was merely being melodramatic with no intention to actually harm herself, but you might want to preview that scene before sharing with a young person who has lost a friend or family member to suicide.

This is one of the books recommended in the Mater Amabilis curriculum for high school geography when studying North America. I think it would be a wonderful choice for a free read, though it's difficult to know how much has changed in Monterrey since the 1930s. It's as a memoir of an earlier time, not necessarily an accurate depiction of life today.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. I purchased the book directly from the publisher during one of their frequent sales. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

Sacrificing Everything for the Faith: Blessed Miguel Pro

Blessed Miguel Pro: 20th-Century Mexican Martyr

by Ann Ball

This is one of the possible saint biographies named in the Mater Amabilis™™ Level 4 lesson plans (8th grade). It coordinates with the 20th Century history plans. Our children are already familiar with the story of this mischievous priest from the Glory Story.

Blessed Miguel Pro is one of many priests, religious, and lay Catholics persecuted and executed by Mexican revolutionaries. Unlike many of them, there are plenty of photographs of his execution in 1927. Photographs of the execution, the moment of impact of the bullets, of a soldier standing over Father Miguel's body to shoot him in the head, and a photography of a bloody Father Miguel in death are included in this book, so be aware if you intend to share this book with younger children. Though disturbing, I don't think they are too graphic for my 13 1/2 year old son. He'll be reading this book first term next year.

This book is not a literary biography or historical fiction. The author draws on interviews and letters to present a basic history of Miguel Pro from this childhood through his disrupted studies for the priesthood (when the seminaries in Mexico were closed) and, finally, his return to his Mexico in the midst of the persecution of Catholics and the Church. Throughout the book, little stories and examples of his personality are woven into the more basic narrative.

It is appropriate for my 8th grade son to begin wrestling with martyrdom in the modern world. Living in the security of 2017 Kansas, it is easy to think the martyrdom of saints like St. Paul and St. Ignatius of Antioch are only found in the ancient world. Bl. Miguel Pro is, however, one of many Catholics and Christians killed because of their faith (explicitly or implicitly) in the past century and into the current year. Bl. Miguel gives us an example of how to live faithfully, joyfully, and devotedly in a modern world seeking our destruction. He did not take arms against an unjust government, instead serving the persecuted through the sacraments and gifts of food and clothing.

This book seems to be reasonably well-researched, though not as a scholarly work. There are quite a few resources in the bibliography, but they are not specifically referenced in the text. It also doesn't seem like there are original sources (like the letters), though it's likely those would be difficult to research by an American traveling in Mexico at the current time. There is no translator mentioned for either the letters or the prayers and poems included in the appendices, so I assume the author translated them herself. Despite these minor shortcomings, this is a good book for a late middle school or high school student on Bl. Miguel Pro.

I purchased this book directly from the publisher and received nothing in return for this review.

Gritty Martyrdom: The Power and the Glory

The Power and the Glory 

by Graham Greene

I only took two books on our big camping trip: The Man Who Was Thursday and The Power and the Glory. I'm not sure they are the most appropriate books for a camping trip, but they were both enthralling.

Graham Greene's book follows the last priest in a beleaguered state of Mexico during a recent persecution, a priest not of courage but one of fear and failure. Pursued by a lieutenant determined to rid his state of misleading Catholic priests and their lies, this priest becomes like an animal and yet is always something more by virtue of his priesthood. To the priest's dismay, villagers accept arrest and even execution rather than revealing him to the lieutenant.

The power of Reconciliation is a recurring theme of the book. Though the priest hears confessions wherever he goes, there is no priest to hear his.

Now that he no longer despaired it didn't mean, of course, that he wasn't damned -- it was simply that after a time the mystery became too great, a damned man putting God into the mouths of men: an odd sort of servant, that, for the devil. His mind was full of a simplified mythology: Michael dressed in armour slew a dragon, and the angels fell through space like comets with beautiful streaming hair because they were jealous, so one of the Fathers had said, of what God intended for men -- the enormous privilege of life -- this life.

During his wanderings and ill-fated attempts to leave the state, he encounters a poor filthy scheming man who discovers his secret and follows him in the hopes of a reward for leading authorities to him. He's not Catholic, but attempts a confession to lead the priest to reveal himself.

How often the priest had heard the same confession -- Man was so limited he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died; the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death. It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization -- it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt. 

One of his greatest sins lead to the birth of a daughter, one who scorns him and yet has his steady love. Her very existence brings him joy, a secret warmth in his heart.

He couldn't say to himself that he wished his sin has never exited, because the sin seemed to him now so unimportant and he loved the fruit of it. He needed a confessor to draw his mind slowly down the drab passages which led to grief and repentance.

As the book progresses, the priest appears to fall farther and farther from his previous life. He becomes dirty, disheveled, losing all of his Mass articles. At one point, he is arrested on a minor charge and believes he will be executed as soon as they figure out who he really is.

Once he glanced quickly and nervously up at the old crumpled newspaper cutting and thought, It's not very like me now. What an unbearable creature he must have been in those days -- and yet in those days he had been comparatively innocent. That was another mystery: it sometimes seemed to him that venial sins -- impatience, an unimportant lie, pride, a neglected opportunity -- cut you off from grace more completely than the worst sins of all. Then, in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone; now in his corruption he had learnt...[His thoughts are interrupted here by the lieutenant.]

In the end, he is captured. He had traveled to a lonely spot, a trap, but there was a hardened criminal who wanted to confess. Even he seems unsure whether it was courage or pride that led him to the trap. As they journey back to the city, the lieutenant and the priest talk, of the people.

The lieutenant said, 'Those men I shot. They were my own people. I wanted to give them the whole world.'

'Well, who knows? Perhaps that's what you did.'

They talk of love. The priest says:

God is love. I don't say the heart doesn't feel a taste of it, but what a taste. The smallest glass of love mixed with a pint pot of ditch-water. We wouldn't recognize that love. It might even look like hate. It would be enough to scare us -- God's love. It set fire to a bush in the desert, didn't it, and smashed open graves and set the dead walking in the dark. Oh, a man like me would run a mile to get away if he felt that love around.

Confused, the lieutenant can't understand why the priest feels he is damned. If he were his "boss" (as God is), he'd give him a promotion or honor him for the sacrifice he is making.

'I'm not as dishonest as you think I am. Why do you think I tell people out of the pulpit that they're in danger of damnation if death catches them unawares? I'm not telling them fairy stories I don't believe myself. I don't know a thing about the mercy of God: I don't know how awful the human heart looks to Him. But I do know this -- that if there's ever been a single man in this state damned, then I'll be damned too.' He said slowly, 'I wouldn't want it to be any different. I just want justice, that's all.'

In the end, he feels himself a failure, a failure as a person, a failure as a priest. His end is ignominious, not a glorious martyr's death.

What a fool he had been to think that he was strong enough to stay when others fled. What an impossible fellow I am, he thought, and how useless. I have done nothing for anybody. I might just as well have never lived. His parents were dead -- soon he wouldn't even be a memory -- perhaps after all he was not at the moment afraid of damnation -- even the fear of pain was in the background. He felt only an immense disappointment because he had to go to God empty-handed, with nothing done at all. It seemed to him, at that moment, that it would have been quite easy to have been a saint. It would only have needed a little self-restraint and a little courage. He felt like someone who has missed happiness by seconds at an appointed place. He knew now that at the end there was only one thing that counted -- to be a saint.

Though perhaps it is a martyr's death. A young boy is the city, one who mostly scorned the saint stories his mother reads, is intrigued by the whiskey priest's execution. His mother, discomfited by the priest when he was alive, acknowledges him as a martyr. The idea of faith grows in the boy's eyes and he is emboldened and proud when a new priest arrives at their door.

Unlike books on saints or biographies of saints, this fictionalized account of the situation in Mexico (with which the author was familiar as journalist) provides a gritty reality of a sinful man who happens to be a priest. His pride and his despair, his courage and his cowardice, intermingle throughout the book.

The figure of Coral Fellows seems minor but is fascinating. She's a young American girl living with her disillusioned parents (a father who fails to manage the business well and a mother who fails to manage life well). She's an atheist, but instinctively knows it is right to protect the priest from the authorities. The reader can only guess at the events that transpire outside of the book that lead to her presumed death, but it seems clear the American criminal to whom the priest travels for his final confession was involved. Perhaps she sheltered him as well, and suffered death at his hands. Or perhaps she was sheltering the criminal and was killed by Mexican authorities in the crossfire. What does it mean that this young girl was willing to risk her own life for the priest? What does it mean that her life was taken? I wonder.

Preschool Reading Around the World: Central and South America

In our third term of preschool this year for First Daughter (age 5) and Second Daughter (age 3), we continued Reading-Around-the-World. (In our first term, we read around Africa. In our second term, we read around Asia.) This term, we read books set in Central America and South America.

As before, my goal is to expand our horizons a little, so I give a preference to books from our library. I'm not trying to impart knowledge of a geographic or political nature; if we learn something of the culture along the way, that's fine. My real goal here is to give my girls exposure to wonderful stories set around the world. I'm sure there are other books that would be just as good or better. Please share any ideas you have! I have younger children who would benefit (no to mention that little picture book problem I have myself).


Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown is such a delightful book about a man who takes books by burro to children in rural Colombia on the great blessing it is to read a good book and to share with those who do not have access to libraries like ours.

How Night Came from the Sea: A Story from Brazil by Mary-Joan Gerson and illustrated by Carla Golembe is the story of a Brazilians goddess who longs for darkness and sleep. It was a fine book, but not one of our favorites.

The Two Mountains: An Aztec Legend retold by Eric A. Kimmel and illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher is the legend of the volcanoes in the Valley of Mexico named Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl. I am generally hesitant to share stories of children disobeying their parents, but I really wanted to read about these volcanoes because I lived near them and could even see El Popo from my bedroom window when I lived in Puebla for a language study program. I also liked the illustrations.

The Pot that Juan Built byNancy Andrews-Boebel with pictures by David Diaz is a rhythmic repetitive book based on a real Mexican potter, Juan Quezada. Smaller text on each page gives detailed information on him and the methods he developed to replicate the pottery of an ancient people who had long ago disappeared. Juan Quezada was a dedicated man who persevered and taught others how to better themselves and the world. A section at the end of the book shows how the pottery is made.

Cuckoo: A Mexican Folktale by Lois Ehlert is illustrated in her typical bold and bright style. I enjoyed this folktale and especially liked that the text is shown in both English and Spanish.

Love and Roast Chicken: A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains by Barbara Knutson is a fun story of a cheeky Guinea Pig who outsmarts a fox but gets caught by the farmer. He manages to escape in the end, though, with a silly story the kids always enjoy.

The Fiesta of The Tortillas by Jorge Argueta and illustrated by Maria Jesus Alvarez (translated by Joe Hayes and Sharon Franco). In this story, the author tells of his youth in El Salvador when his family owned a comedor (a restaurant) in their home. Everyone in the extended family worked together to prepare the food. I selected this book because my sister-in-law is from El Salvador and many of the foods described in the story are ones she has shared with us. It is important to note, for those that worry about such things, that the heart of the tale is a mysterious clapping as of someone preparing tortillas. Eventually, they decide it is the Spirit of the Corn reminding them of the joy of a family working happily together. The text is shown in both Spanish and English.

Erandi's Braids by Antonio Hernandez Madrigal and illustrated by Tomie dePaola is a sweet story of a young girl of Patzcuaro who sells her beautiful hair so her mother can buy a fishing net. It's a story of love and sacrifice. dePaola's illustrations for this story are among his best.

So Say the Little Monkeys by Nancy Van Laan with pictures by Yumi Heo is the retelling of a Brazilian tale explaining why a certain type of monkey live in thorny trees even though they must be uncomfortable. It's silly but instructive, with lots of funny sounds. I think the monkey illustrations are so cute.

Miro in the Kingdom of the Sun by Jane Kurtz with woodcuts by David Frampton is a retelling of an Incan folktale in which a young girl shows great compassion and bravery to save her brothers who foolishly attempted to mislead the Sun King.

Tap-Tap by Karen Lynn Williams and illustrated by Catherine Stock (one of my new favorite illustrators) is a delightful story of a young girl who accompanies her mother to the market in Haiti, longing to ride in a tap-tap, a brightly decorated bus. My children loved this book, especially First Daughter who begged me to read it again.

Borreguita and the Coyote by Verna Aardema and illustrated by Petra Mathers is a fun retelling of a Mexican folktale of a little lamb who outsmarts and eventually beats the coyote. (I liked how some of the same tricks appear in this story as in Love and Roast Chicken. It's interesting to think about how myths and legends travel, change, and are adapted by other people.)

I loved this course of study for my girls in preschool. I loved it so much, in fact, that we're going to continue it next year. First we'll read picture books set in Europe, then Australia and New Zealand. In our last term next year, we'll find some books set in Canada, Antarctica and the Arctic Circle. I only have a few books in mind so far; it looks like I'll be checking out a lot from the library to find the right collection. Suggestions welcome!