Books read in 2011

My Grandma told me to write down every book I read so I can remember which ones I liked. This year I read 64 books. The ones highlighted with dark green you absolutely must read, at all costs. There are only 3 on this list so you can do it. The ones with light green are also excellent books. Unless otherwise noted the rest should be yellow. See Book Ratings Guide. These are listed in the order I read them.

1. Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling
2. A Dog Named Slugger - Leigh Brill
About a woman with cerebral palsy and her service dog. Interesting at the end, when the dog helped train his successor.
3. Pilgrim’s Progress - John Bunyan
4. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith
Fairly good story for fans of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. A bit slow-paced.
5. Love & Freindship (sic.) - Jane Austen
Written by a 14-year old Jane. Interesting because it is not much different from her more mature stories; the characters have the same ridiculous traits, but more pronounced.
6. The Tale of Despereaux - original story by Kate DiCamillo, graphic novel by Matt Smith & David Tilton
Newbery Medal winner 2004. Charming fairy-tale-esque story with an excellent plot and characters and all the loose ends get tied up in the end.
7. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Good for fans of Austen.
8. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Classic. Several loosely connected short stories.
9. The Hungry Stones and Other Stories - Rabindranath Tagore
Interesting and sometimes weird short stories.
10. Picadilly Jim - P.G. Wodehouse
Highly entertaining story in Wodehouse’s typical style of miscommunications, bumbling errors upon errors.
11. Surprised by Joy - C.S. Lewis
One of my favorite books of all time. So beautiful and genuine. Autobiographical.
12. Rex: an autistic child - Cathleen Lewis
A blind and autistic child musical prodigy.
13. Beauty Restored - Me Ra Kah
14. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Don’t bother with this. Just read the children’s book “The Treasure” by Uri Shulevitz. Same basic story, less kooky, a lot shorter, and a Caldecott Medal winner.
15. Phantastes - George MacDonald
Fairy tale/fantasy that is not for the phaint of heart. The book that led C.S. Lewis to Christ. See if you can figure out how/why and then tell me.
16. Regarding Ducks and Universes - Neve Maslakovic
Interesting idea, poorly written.
17. The Complete Father Brown Mysteries - G.K. Chesterton
Great mystery stories, similar to and yet totally different flavor from Sherlock Holmes.
18. Gitanjali - Rabindranath Tagore
Beautiful poems translated from Bengali about worship and devotion and pursuit of God and goodness.
19. Imaginary Jesus - Matt Mikalatos
Surprisingly acceptable even though I barely ever can stand to read contemporary Christian fiction, especially if it’s moralistic.
20. Matilda - Roald Dahl
Children’s classic must-read.
21. Anthem - Ayn Rand
Short story that I think sums up some of Rand’s philosophy, but I haven’t read anything else by her so I can’t say for sure.
22. Thinking in Pictures - Temple Grandin
Memoirs of Grandin growing up and succeeding in her field of livestock handling despite being autistic in a primarily nonautistic world.
23. A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
24. In the Year 2889 - Jules & Michel Verne
Written in 1889 by father and son about what they imagined the world would be like one thousand years from then. Interesting ideas, some not too far off from present day. And it’s short
25. Lady Susan - Jane Austen
Shorter and less gripping than her other novels.
26. The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World - E.L. Konigsburg
27. Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know - ed. Hamilton Wright Mabe
And every adult should know.
28.Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
Another favorite book of all time. Heart-breaking story where you will see what is at the root of each person.
29. Bud, Not Buddy - Christopher Paul Curtis
Newbery Medal winner 2000.
30. Love Among the Chickens - P.G. Wodehouse
Slower moving than his other books, but still a good read.
31. The Story of Pip - C. Collodi
Bizarre, yet entertaining.
32. The Story of Pinocchio (abridged) - C. Collodi
Bizarre, yet entertaining.
33. The World’s Last Night and Other Essays - C.S. Lewis
All excellent essays, especially one about prayer.
34. Perelandra - C.S. Lewis
Gripping story, makes your imagination go to work.
35. Clouds of Witness - Dorothy L. Sayers
Mystery novel by intellectual friend of C.S. Lewis.
36. I Loved a Girl - Walter Trobisch
Subtitle: A private correspondence between two young Africans and their pastor. Excellent true story that addresses race, culture, gender roles, and the meaning of relationships.
37. Medea - Euripides
38. Their Mutual Child - P.G. Wodehouse
The most mature of his stories that I have read. Deals with serious relational issues, not just light greivances between people. Yet still very entertaining.
39. Same Kind of Different as Me - Ron Hall & Denver Moore
About a rich white man and a poor black man who both started out geographically and economically in a similar place and were drawn together by genuine love.
40. Alfred & Emily - Doris Lessing
The author imagines what it would be like if WWII had not happened and her parents’ lives were different. And yet, her parents lives weren’t much better and the young men still found wars to go off to, so I ask, why?
41. Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Schaffer & Annie Barrows
Warm story with historical insight into lives of people during WWII
42. Under the Greenwood Tree - Thomas Hardy
Supposedly about social change. Not that remarkable to me.
43. Condorito: La Aventura Comienza
My first book in Spanish: punny comic strips.
44. The Magician’s Elephant - Kate DiCamillo
Good magical story, includes theme of forgiveness and restoration.
45. Howards End - E.M. Forster
Good story, just plain well-written. You could start reading anywhere and it sounds like poetry, but read straight through because the plot as a whole is good.
46. St. Athanasius: the father of Orthodoxy - F. A. Forbes
Historical biography.
47. When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead
Newbery Award winner 2010. Nice magical story with a tidy ending
48. Amish Grace - Donald Kraybill
Somewhat of a treatise on forgiveness in general and specifically about the massacre of Amish girls at their school by a gunman.
49. Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry
Disappointing supposed prequel to “The Giver.”
50. The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog - Bruce D. Perry
Stories from a child psychiatrist. Very informative about brain chemistry, child development and disorders.
51. All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes - Maya Angelou
Learn about some history from the perspective of an eye-witness person who fits into two “minority” categories: black and female. Good story for anyone who feels like they are searching for home.
52. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Classic must-read for children and adults, but maybe not small children.
53. Whose Body? - Dorothy Sayers
Less of a springing surprise than Sherlock, more a story of the development and unfolding of a solution to a mystery.
54. 26 Fairmont Avenue - Tomie DePaola
Great children’s chapter book for fans of DePaola. Autobiographical.
55. Animals in Translation - Temple Grandin
Very interesting information for those who love animals and those who love autistic people.
56. Amos Fortune: Free Man - Elizabeth Yates
Newbery Medal winner 1951. I wouldn’t have given it a medal, but maybe it was the first of it’s kind: a book from the perspective of a black slave. Now they are a dime a dozen.
57. A Damsel in Distress - P.G. Wodehouse
Cute, fun, entertaining love story.
58. Letters: C.S. Lewis, Don Giovanni Calabria - translated and edited by Martin Moynihan
Good insight into Lewis’s personal side.
59. Letters to an American Lady - C.S. Lewis
Very good insight into Lewis’s personal side.
60. The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy has very fine-tuned perception of people’s feelings and mindset in general and about death.
61. Call it Courage - Armstrong Sperry
Newbery Medal winner 1941
62. Mike - P.G. Wodehouse
Cricket story, boys boarding school story. Makes you like cricket.
63. Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Interesting, extremely emotional
64. The Everything Harmonica Book - Lichterman, Brocksmith, Dorfman
Best parts are about harmonica theory and legendary players of harmonica

Authors of whose books I read more than one this year:
C.S. Lewis (6)
P.G. Wodehouse (5)
Kate DiCamillo (2)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2)
Dorothy Sayers (2)
Temple Grandin (2)

MKs and Hyperactive Elementary Kids

It’s been a while since I last updated people about what’s going on. So I wanted to catch you all up on what’s going on in my life. While you’re reading this letter, please pray for the matters in bold throughout the letter.


Missionary Kids (MKs)
Every Monday night we have a youth group for Wycliffe MKs that are in the Dallas area whose parents are involved in Bible translation all over the world. Some of their parents are based here in Dallas and support Bible translation through creating computer programs, or doing linguistic research or other support ministries. Other families are here for a year at a time on furlough. During our youth group meetings we have a time of worship, a message, and then we divide up by age and gender into small groups to discuss things and pray. I’m a small group leader for freshmen, sophomore and junior girls.

We’re planning a retreat on Labor Day weekend for all of the kids. It should be a really great time of getting to know them and an excellent start to the school year. I’m in charge of planning the games for the weekend.

We as a staff are currently working on writing new curriculum which addresses specific MK issues, like identity. I’m really excited about it! I hope it will be a great learning experience for the kids as they talk about all these things.

Coach Staab
This past semester, I subbed in the Dallas suburb of Duncanville. For the last five weeks of the school year, I subbed for a PE coach, thus, for the first time in my life I was called “Coach Staab.” This is a religious area of the country, but my guess is most people are not saved even if they say they are. Praise God that I’ve been able to share the gospel many times to many classes. Probably about 200 kids have heard the gospel in the past few months. Please pray for me as I consider how to lead them to the next step of faith.

This summer I’m working on getting into a program which will allow me to do a teaching internship and then get certified to teach. I’ll hopefully be teaching Special Ed as an intern in the fall at the school where I was formerly known as “Coach Staab.”

I’m subbing and getting a teaching certificate to support myself at this time, but my heart is really in the MK ministry. I wish I had more time to devote to that, but right now I have to work in order to have money to continue serving in this MK ministry. Would you please consider helping me out financially so that I will have more time to devote to the MK ministry? Your support will allow me to serve the MKs and further the work of Bible translation. One-time donations are very much appreciated, and monthly donations even more so. If you are able to donate, please go to this page of my website: www.rachelstaab.com/donate. Because of my volunteer status, these donations will not be tax-deductible.

I really appreciate your praying for me as I serve in this ministry! Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Haiku of the Day - Nov 9, 08

If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.

Good gift-giving dad
A steamroller of goodness
There’s no stopping him

Haiku of the Day - Oct 27, 08

Hope

i lost my nosering
it could be anywhere but
it’s within my grasp

a glint off a gem
that thing i’ve been longing for
it’s within my reach

Haiku of the Day - Oct. 19, 08

first one in a long time...

Sunday Day of Rest Haiku

rice pudding and tea -
dreams of uninterrupted
nothing is hard work

work at nothing-ing -
let us make every effort
to enter that rest [Heb. 4:11]

rest on this Sunday -
stare out the window and eat
rice pudding and tea

Back in Classes

I joined Wycliffe in May, but then I resigned in June because I’m really not sure what I want to do. What I learned at Training Camp in June is that I really like Wycliffe and everything that they are involved in. I want to be involved in Wycliffe in the future when I have more direction. I will still be able to rejoin Wycliffe and I will not have to go to Training Camp again. They are willing to let me just pick up where I left off. I’m praying for direction either toward a place or a field of work.

Chelsea, the girl who I was thinking of being partners with is now planning on finishing one more semester here (she will be my roommate) and then going to Central Asia where she has already been. I’m really excited for her because she’s going to have a great impact there.

Right now I’m taking a class called Language & Society which is pretty interesting. It is about attitudes that people have toward various languages, about how language use can change, about how language forms a person’s identity and other such topics. In a couple weeks I’ll start another class where I will learn how to learn a language and then I will take a class about analyzing the grammar of that language. After the semester is done in December I have no idea what I will do. Please pray for that with me.

Done with Bimester #1

I am now a Wycliffe member! After a long process of filling out the application, etc. I have been accepted. So now I’m planning on going to Training Camp in Orlando where I will learn about Wycliffe policies, next steps and such.

For my Cultural Anthropology class that I just finished I had to visit a cultural setting six times, so I chose to go to a Korean church called Binnerri Presbyterian Church. I also had to interview someone from that setting. I interviewed my friend’s mom who is a Korean lady who came to the States when she was in her 20’s. She has an amazing testimony. One thing she repeatedly said was that she wished she had known how to read the Bible and grow spiritually. Though she was saved when she was 33, she said she didn’t “find the Bible” until she was 50 years old. Then she started going early to church every week so she could read the pew Bible before church started. Her testimony reminded how important the Bible is for spiritual growth. It’s the main way that people can have a direct relationship with God and grow to know him better on their own. So I’m more excited about being involved in Bible translation.

This summer I will be doing some traveling. I’m going to Wycliffe Training Camp in Orlando from June 14-28. Five of my friends from here are also going. Then the plan right now is to go to Charlotte, NC to see my grandparents, then Knoxville, TN to see my brother and some friends, then Ohio to see my other brother and some other friends, then Indiana, then Des Moines to see my parents and then it’s back to sunny Dallas to work and start classes again on July 23.

Please pray for:
* safety in travel and good times with friends and family
* wisdom re: decisions about a future project location and partner (see last update)