52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 4: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

In this story, Lucy and Edmund return to Narnia, along with their highly disagreeable cousin, Eustace Scrubb. The three are looking at a photo of a ship on the ocean that becomes more and more lifelike, until they find themselves actually becoming a part of the photo. They end up in the ocean, and are pulled up onto The Dawn Treader which turns out to be a Narnian Ship, led by their friend, King Caspian. (Whom they met in "Prince Caspian").

Three years have passed in Narnia, since the last time the children were there. Caspian has undertaken a voyage to find seven Narnian Lords, loyal to Caspian's father, who were sent away by Caspian's usurping uncle Miraz. In order to get them out of his way, Miraz sent them on a voyage to explore the unknown Eastern Seas beyond the Lone Islands. After defeating Miraz and successfully establishing his Kingdom, Caspian has set off to fulfill a vow he made to discover what has become of these noble men.

They encounter many fascinating adventures during this trip, as they travel into uncharted territory. On each new island, they discover clues about the 7 lords, and encounter a variety of interesting people and creatures.

One interesting theme that runs through this book is the theme of temptation. Eustace is tempted by greed, which results in his transformational experience on Dragon Isle. Caspian and Edmund are also tempted by greed on Deathwater Island. Lucy is tempted to eavesdrop, and give in to vanity during her visit to the island of the Duffers. At the end of their journey, Caspian is tempted to abdicate his throne in order to continue on - to find "the end of the world". Whether they end up giving in to the temptation or not, it is always Aslan who brings them through it.

This is one of my favorite books in the Narnia series.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Books 2 & 3: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Price Caspian

I chose to review these two together, because I believe that anyone who is reading this blog (all 3 of you :-)) has already read these books, and has probably seen both of the movies. So, I will simply mention a few of my favorite moments from these two books.

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

My favorite quote from this book is the conversation between the children and Mr & Ms Beaver when they first learn about Aslan.

"Is-is he a man?" asked Lucy.

"Aslan a man!" said Mr Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the Great Lion."

"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

The story of Edmund's bewitching by the evil Queen, and his subsequent betrayal of his brother and sisters (especially his malicious undermining of Lucy when the two of them return after his first trip into Narnia) is one of the most poignant story lines in this book.

Prince Caspian

In this story, after the children have returned to Narnia, have met the dwarf Trumpkin, and are traveling to meet Caspian, one of the more interesting moments occurs when Lucy sees Aslan & no one else does.

They are in a wood that they do not recognize, on the edge of a gorge that is between them and their destination. They have to decide whether to go up or down to find a way across the gorge, and they choose to go down. Lucy sees Aslan higher up on the gorge & knows that he wants them to go up. No one else sees him & they do not believe her. The group takes a vote, and all vote to go down, except Edmund. He sides with Lucy because, "When we first discovered Narnia, it was Lucy who discovered it first & none of us would believe her. I was the worst of the lot.... yet she was right." They go down & eventually encounter scouts from King Miraz' army & have to retreat back up the gorge. That night, Lucy wakes up in the middle of the night & encounters Aslan. He tells her that they must go up, and start right away. She must wake the rest of the tired group & tell them to follow Aslan up, although, as the Lion tells her, she is the only one who will be able to see him at first. After a struggle getting them to wake up & convincing them to follow her, eventually, one by one, they begin to be able to see Aslan.

This story is a great illustration of how we are often required to act on faith, before we can see. The order in which the others begin to be able to see Aslan is related to their willingness to believe Lucy, or perhaps a reflection of their individual level of faith in Aslan.

It is also about doing what we know is right, even when no one else supports it. Lucy is told by Aslan that she should have followed him when she first saw him, even if no one else had come with her. That would have taken a tremendous amount of faith and strength from her, as she was the youngest of the group, and had the least authority. It took a lot of strength for her to go wake them up & tell them to follow her, as she followed Aslan.

Sojourner

My Cop-Out

Ok. In order to catch up as quickly as possible, it has been my goal to review a book every 5 days. I accomplished this with my first book. The book I chose to read 2nd is Randy Alcorn's 494 page "If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil". It is a very good book, and I'm finding that it's not one that I want to read through quickly. One hundred pages a day would be a reasonable goal at certain times, but with no weekend free time in this 5-day period, and the Olympics occupying our evenings, it is just not happening. After 3 days in this book, I am on page 113.

So, yesterday, I went through the house looking to find a few books I could read through more quickly. I came across my beloved set of The Chronicles of Narnia, which I fell in love with in the 3rd grade, and have re-read every few years since then. I have never, as CS Lewis predicts in the forward to his dear Lucy, grown too old for fairy tales. So, I will once again be re-reading these classic children's tales, and posting reviews to them, which I hope will get me "caught up" in the next couple of weeks. Then I can slow down & work on reading one book a week.

One very important side benefit of pulling these books out, is that my just-turned 6 year old son, Josh got very curious about them when he saw them. For the last year, we have been searching for good quality chapter books we can read to him that will hold his attention. It has not been easy. "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" was our first try, and that went really well. But, since then, the books we found have either not held his interest, or had too many pictures to accomplish our goal. We want him to see that learning to read paragraphs and pages full of words with no pictures can reap great and wonderful rewards that he will not find in picture books. But it has been hard to find books of good quality that hold his attention. I have been quite disappointed in the section labeled "Chapter Books" in our local library. If you have any good suggestions, I'd love for you to leave them in the Comments section.

I have been hesitant to introduce him to the Chronicles of Narnia too early, fearing that they would not hold his interest & that later on he would reject them, remembering that he didn't like them the first time. Yesterday when he asked me about "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", I said, "Let's read a chapter & see if you like it." I read him the first chapter, and then it was time for his "quiet time" in his room - a practice we put in place after he stopped taking afternoon naps. After quiet time, he had the option to play or watch some of the Olympics that we had recorded from the previous night. Instead, he pointed at "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and said, "Can we read some more of that book?". (YEA!!!)

I had also pulled out "Prince Caspian", which has a picture on the front of Peter dueling with King Miraz. Josh pointed to it and said "I want to read that one."

"We will", I promised, "But we have to read this one first, so you will understand what happens in the 2nd one. Don't worry - there's an exciting battle coming up in 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe', too."

"With the Witch?"

"Yes, and the great lion, Aslan"

"Does the Witch win?"

"No - the lion and the children on the good side will win" (Why was I revealing the end to him? I have no idea.)

"Does the Witch die?"

"Yes - Aslan will kill her"

"How does he kill her?"

"Well... he just jumps on her"

"Does he bite off her head?"

"Um... no... It doesn't really doesn't give us that much detail."

Boys.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 1 - "A Chance to Die" by Elizabeth Elliot

A Chance to Die - The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elizabeth Elliot

Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) was a missionary to India who founded the Dohnavur Fellowship: a home for orphaned and abandoned children. Most of the children taken in were in danger of being sold & put into service in the temples.

From a young age, Amy determined that she wanted to follow Christ, whatever the cost, and wherever He would lead her. She had a driving desire to do evangelism, and bring the light of Christ into the darkest places in the world. After responding to the Lord's call to go to India, she eventually became aware of the plight of young children who were taken into the Hindu temples, sometimes as infants, and groomed to become temple slaves and prostitutes. She began rescuing these children, and founded the Dohnavur Fellowship to house, raise, and educate them.

Any modern day Christian who reads this biography will be challenged by Amy's full and complete surrender to the Lord's will, no matter the cost. She always sought to follow the "soldierly" way, and not the easy way. She was uncomfortable in places filled with earthly conveniences and preferred to live in the most basic, simple settings. She was distressed by the nominal "Fashionable Christianity" that she saw both in her native Ireland, amongst Indian Christians, and even her fellow missionaries. Above all, she valued love. Discipline, service, and love.

Most of the material in the biography is taken from Amy Carmichael's own writings. She was a prolific writer, publishing newsletters and, eventually, 35 books. She rarely, if ever wrote of her own personal feelings or inner struggles, and she is known to have burned a number of her personal journals. But there is still much that can be learned about her life, her motivations, and desires from these writings.

This biography gives us a shining example of a hero of the faith who truly gave her all for Christ.

Sojourner

A Sojourner's Travels - 52 Books in 52 47 Weeks

The other night, a friend convinced me to join her in a commitment to read 52 books in the 52 weeks of 2010. Of course, starting in the 2nd week of February, I am immediately in catch-up mode. Given that I still have taxes to do and there's a pile of paperwork that I need to tackle, this may not have been the smartest idea. But, in an effort to reverse a trend in my life in the last few years: watching more & more TV and reading fewer & fewer books, I decided it was worth a shot. In order to participate in this challenge, you have to create a blog & post reviews of the books after you have read them.

I chose the theme of A Sojourner's Travels because of my love for travel. I have done a fair amount of actual traveling around the world in my life. But, since childhood, one of the things I have loved about reading is that you can do so much vicarious traveling & adventuring through books. You can travel back through history and delve into the lives of courageous heroes. You can experience the great events - both wonderful and terrible - that have shaped our world. You can travel into space, or to fantastical, fictional lands. I will be reading and reviewing some non-fiction books, but the majority will probably be biographies, fiction, and historical accounts.

I also chose this theme because of a recent conversation (chat, actually - it's the same thing, isn't it?) with another friend who is also a former college roommate. We are both in our early 40s, and have lived in different places at different times, accumulating experiences and friendships that are tied in our memory to those locations. And we have felt a nostalgic desire to return to those places, only to find out when we do return, that things are not the way way we remember them. People change. They move away. Institutions and groups morph into something different, or disband. As the saying goes, "You can't go home again." As followers of Christ, my friend and I discussed the fact that this world is, in fact, not our home. We are strangers and aliens here, as the Scripture says, and we are not to hold too tightly to anything here. The definition of Sojourner is "a temporary resident". That is exactly what we are, and that longing for "home" is actually a longing for a better place, our true and permanent home, which we will not find in our limited time on this earth.

So, here on A Sojourner's Travels, I will be posting reviews of the books I am reading, and, maybe other posts, if I get industrious, and if I think anyone else will care to read them! I hope to have my first review up within 5 days. Of course, the 1st two books I have chosen to read are 380 pages & 528 pages. Brilliant plan for playing catch-up, isn't it?

Sojourner