BOOKISHGAL

This was my lovely little princess cat, Pieces, whose mom I was for 16 years. Here she’s being all scholarly and all, sitting on my big ol’ German-English dictionary.

Despite the low-key nature of the action in Beverly Lewis’s latest book, The Secret , I couldn’t put it down.

You don’t normally expect that reaction to a story following an Amish family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

But the drama in this book is personal, as we watch the main character, Grace Byler, try to keep her family together and deal with her mother’s mysterious departure and her father’s near-collapse, all the while trying to decide whether or not she should marry her beau.

The Byler family’s crisis, centred on their mother’s secret, is played out against the way of life in the Amish community itself. This world view is presented with deep respect, not portrayed as “old fashioned” so much as it is merely simpler, with much more sharing of both joys and burdens. There is never any condescension. Nor is there any judgement of the “outside” world; the reader never feels condemned for living differently. In fact, you might actually feel a little envy.

But there could have been some condemnation, because there are two plotlines in this book: the main one, focusing on Grace and her family, and another that follows Heather, a young woman from outside, who faces a troubling medical diagnosis. The two stories seem unrelated at first, but finally intersect near the end, when Heather comes to stay at a bed and breakfast within the Amish community. If anyone begins to question the lifestyle and pace of the outside world, she’s the one, and yet even she may come to recognize and choose the best of both worlds in time.

There are undoubtedly tensions in the Amish lifestyle, though, as Grace discovers while she tries to handle her family’s crisis. Despite the simplicity of that way of life, relationships remain complex, and deep feelings are difficult to navigate, as they are in any society. But this community’s rules, and their teachings against preoccupation with “self,” collide with the fact that in this crisis, the community members need reassurance of their worth. They need comfort.

And the secret, when it’s finally revealed, might leave a reader from the outside world wondering why the fuss was quite so great. Not that the secret is minor, but we “outsiders” are more used to dealing with this sort of thing. Yet the very rules of the community in which Grace and her mother live are what have made this secret so difficult to face, made it loom so large.

This book, it turns out, is something of a “stage-setter,” because it’s only the first in Lewis’s new series, “Seasons of Grace.” So although some questions are answered — Grace does decide whether or not to get married, we do learn her mother’s secret, and Heather does come to live in the community — nothing is entirely resolved. We’ve only just begun to plumb the depths of all these relationships, and these stories will continue into later books.

This disappointed me at first, since I hadn’t realized (my own fault) till late in the book that these plots weren’t going to be wound up right away. But now I just can’t wait for the next book. While Beverly Lewis is herself a Christian (though not raised Amish), her faith never comes through as preachy or in your face. She strikes an excellent balance, simply telling the story of people of faith while never saying to the reader, “You’d better adopt this faith too.”

The story was foremost — sweet without being saccharine, a tale of a culture that values community, good food, hearty work, and decent living.

(And I confess — after the beautiful picture Lewis paints, now I really want to visit Lancaster County, PA, to see this lovely region from which my own Mennonite ancestors migrated to Canada, over a century ago.)

(And P.S. - if you read my “Wondrous Words ” yesterday, you’ll see that the woman in the picture on the book is wearing a “kapp,” the hair covering Amish women wear.)

Today’s Wondrous Words are brought to you by the letter “K,” and by the books The Secret, The Know-it-All, and A Golden Age.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog. You take note of new words you’ve encountered in your reading during the previous week, and post about them, complete with definitions.

I didn’t encounter any this week, that I recall. But here are three that I ran into in three different books over the past while.

1) kappa - This was a cool word I learned in The Know-it-All by A.J. Jacobs, who wrote about his year of reading the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica. Here’s what he says about the word:

The strangest type of supernatural being I’ve encountered so far: a “vampirelike lecherous creature” from Japan that’s obsessed with cucumbers, resembles a monkey with fish scales, and refuses to lower its head for fear of spilling the magic water it keeps in the holes on top of its skull. I don’t know who came up with this, but I can almost guarantee those weren’t shiitake mushrooms he was eating.

2) kapp - This was from Beverly Lewis’s new novel (released yesterday!), The Secret, about an Amish family. This is clearly related to “cap,” because it’s the head covering worn by Amish women. Here are some examples at the Plain-n-Simple website (”Proclaim the plain & simple truth that you are a woman of God”). (Um…the Amish have internet access now? I’m clearly behind the times.)

[Note: there’s another picture of the “kapp” in the photo of the book, The Secret, that I review here.]

3) katha - This was from Tahmima Anam’s book, A Golden Age, published last year. The book was about the Bangladesh fight for independence from Pakistan in the 1970s, and one thing that was mentioned was that the women would take old saries and other cloth items and make them into blankets for the men who were fighting against the troops of Pakistan. The women would go up onto the roof of the house and make “kathas.” I’ve looked for information about this, but I’m still not sure what it refers to exactly. It may not be an actual garment or blanket, but it may refer to the type of sewing work used. I found links to this sort of work, one of them for this garment worn by a woman, and another for this tapestry. So “katha” may refer either to a type of design or a method of sewing. If anyone out there can give me more specific information about this, I’d love to know more.

And those are today’s helpings from the wonderful feast of words in our books. Happy reading!

Alas, I must confess my shortcomings right up front: I was somehow born without the remotest trace of the zombie gene. Yes, yes, I know. It’s a lack. Like that gene that allows you to roll your tongue into a hollow tube. You either have it (and can) or don’t have it (and can’t). (That one? I have.)

But zombies? As in, me being interested in any way whatsoever, let alone liking such stories? Don’t have.

This Daily Beast piece, Monsters vs. Jane Austen,  has a fun quote or two:

She watched as Mr. Darcy drew his blade and cut down the two zombies with savage yet dignified movements. He then made quick work of beheading the slaughtered staff, upon which Mr. Bingley politely vomited into his hands. There was no denying Darcy’s talents as a warrior.

Can’t you just see it? Colin Firth with just a few hairs out of place as he methodically does away with the zombified kitchen staff at Netherfield. Mmmm…. Colin Firth….

Where was I? Oh right. Zombies.

I just don’t get the fascination with animated rotting flesh, vomiting, the braaaaaains thing, all that. It’s not that I even dislike zombies. I’m just not interested. And when I think of turning Pride and Prejudice into a zombie story, I’m not even outraged like some of the Austen purists. I’m more like, “Oh, okay, whatever.” Or at most, I’d be like, “Um, why?”

But hey. People are loving the idea, and others are already bidding on the movie rights. (”Um, why?”) It seems to be a big thing. For some reason. I’m terribly amused as I watch it going on, but I’m utterly disinterested in seeing such a movie, or reading the book.

That means you can have my copy! How’s that? Maybe read some amusing bits to me, like that quote above. But really — you can have it.

In fact. If you want to buy it, feel totally free to buy it here! Because getting a wee little commission does perk my interest. Win-win!

Or better yet - buy the real book:

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Canadian readers! Got a home or garden you’re thinking of fixing up, with a little help from Canadian Tire and a bunch of duct tape?

Raincoast Books has had a contest running that I only just found out about, where you can win a library of Do-it-Yourself (DIY) guides from Oxmoor House and Sunset Books. The problem with my just finding out today is that you only have through March 31 to enter.  So that’s tomorrow!

You’ll enter by emailing contest@raincoast.com, with “DIY Contest” in the subject line. One entry per person, and you have to be a resident of Canada.

Meanwhile, while you’re there, you can sign up for the newsletter from Raincoast, to be kept informed about other promotions and upcoming books. Obviously, that’s what I should do too, isn’t it?

So…remember last week when I posted that the author bloggers for the week on the Moments in Crime blog of Minotaur Books were Olen Steinhauer and Brian Freeman? I swear, they really did have Brian Freeman listed as “blogging this week.”

But that was a mistake, whoever made it. Mr. Freeman is blogging there this week, about his book In the Dark. So check out his first post of the week, in which he explains why his psychological suspense novels are set in Duluth, Minnesota.

It’s Sunday! So it’s time to see what the rest of my little book world has been up to in the past week. Let us choose our first partner…

Hopeinbrazil at Worthwhile Books just reviewed Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. That’s a kids’ book you don’t see much these days. Reading the review, I was reminded again of C.S. Lewis’s belief that you should often provide kids’ books that give them something to aspire to, and reach up toward, rather than keeping them always at the level they’re at now. I feel we’re “dumbing down” kids’ books way too much, and could be raising a generation of people with stunted intellectual capacities, who never had to stretch and grow that much. I frequently breathe a “thank you” to my aunt, who gave me Lord of the Rings to read when I was ten.

Over at The Printed Page, Marcia has a long but fascinating post on “faith-based” novels, and whether they’re any good, or too preachy, or what. She has given them a very good shot, reading several of them (or long sections of them), trying to make a fair assessment of each. I’ll let you nip over and see her conclusions for yourself. My own thought is that if the person is a writer first, aiming to craft a good story first, and a believer second (i.e. not viewing the story merely as a tool for converting people and preaching at them), then this sort of writing can work. But it’s rare that a fundamentalist or evangelical author can do that; the goal is always “How can I use this to change the readers to my religious viewpoint?” (I’m an ex-fundie. Trust me, I know.)

Melanie at The Indextrious Reader has a link to an interesting website and trailer for Tanya Egan’s new book (due in May), How to Buy a Love of Reading.  I’m not sure it sounds like the sort of book I’d like, but the website has an interesting look. And there’s one section there where you can submit a story of how you believe reading saved your life. So…has it? What do you think? It’s an interesting question.

Later on, Melanie reviews La’s Orchestra Saves the World, a new book by Alexander McCall Smith (he of No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency fame). This dovetails nicely with the post from Lisa, at Minds Alive on the Shelves, where she notes that starting tonight, HBO is beginning the broadcast of a new series based on these novels. If you’re a fan and you have HBO, you might want to check out the show.

Flit, at Flitting on Fiction, discusses various ebook readers, and whether she should get one. The answer: but of course! There’s actually a lot more to the discussion than that, including the fact that Amazon thinks Canadians are chopped liver (I agree with her). Meanwhile, her review of one of Robert Sawyer’s books, End of an Era, led me to Sawyer’s blog, on which he mentions that his new book, Wake, will be launched at two parties in April, one in Ottawa and the other in Toronto. Since I live in Toronto, I should add the launch to my calendar, and see if I can go.

Meanwhile, over at Books and Movies , Carrie gives a summary of how she’s doing on her Reading Challenges for 2009. I  haven’t managed one Challenge so far, so I get kind of exhausted at all the one’s she’s participating in. She seems to be doing pretty well, though. She also talks about some of her favourite mystery series, and asks readers to chime in with their own favourites.

Sheri S. at Bookopolis has discovered a really interesting site GraphicNovelReporter.com which, naturally, covers the growing graphic novel (and manga) phenomenon. If you’re interested in graphic novels, bookmark that site, but read Sheri’s post for an excellent summary of what happens there. I’m going to follow this one for sure!

At The Book Zombie, Joanne is positively giddy about the just-concluded blog tour by Carrie Vaughn, who writes the Kitty Norville series. Joanne’s reviews are always so thorough, and have all sorts of extra goodies. This time around, as well as her reviews, she posts a drop-down list of all the other blogs that Ms. Vaughn visited, as well as a BlogTalkRadio link to an interview with the author. And she’s got a book giveway too! Where does Joanne find the time to do such a detailed job of this?? Rush over and have a look and enjoy.

Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog does several book reviews, but I’m most struck by the recipe review with which she starts this week: a Pork Tenderloin with Plum Salsa. It’s from this Runner’s World page, by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, authors of The Flavor Bible, which Kathy had previously reviewed. Talk about a delicious perk of being a book reviewer!

Over at Alpha Heroes, Nicola lets us know about a “virtual signing” you can register for, for J.R. Ward’s latest book, Lover Avenged. Since. Ms. Ward doesn’t fly, and rarely goes out of the U.S. midwest, this is a great compromise for fans who wanted their book signed, but can’t get to Ward’s in-person events. Meanwhile, you may recall that Nicola was designing bookmarks to trade and give out, connected to her blog, and she’s decided on a final design. Send her an email if you’d like one.

And finally, the Weekly Geeks challenge is a very good one for this week, involving  pointing readers to the book reviews you’ve done, asking them to leave comments about their reviews of the same books on your own posts, and going to other reviewers’ posts and leaving your own links. Look at the Weekly Geeks site for a clearer explanation.

And that’s it for this week! So much going on, one almost hates to spend time doing other things. But take a swing around the book blogosphere and enjoy a good read.

I don’t do posts very often that have nothing to do with books in some distant way, but I did create that category just in case I run into things I can’t resist posting. And this is one of those cases.

I and a visiting friend spent a lot of time at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto two weekends ago. And one of the galleries we visited was the Gallery of Minerals — which I really didn’t expect to enjoy, since I’m more into stars than rocks. But I loved it!

Remember when I posted about my Winnie-the-Pooh books, some of my Books Without ISBN? I mentioned then that Pooh was actually Canadian — a real bear named “Winnie,” in fact, named after the Canadian city of Winnipeg. And of course Christopher Milne liked the bear so much that he named his teddy bear after her, and the rest is history. Winnie-the-Pooh (or more properly, according to Pooh, Winnie-ther-Pooh) became a very British bear.

Well, now he and the other denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood are being translated into Scottish, by writer James Robertson. Check out the article: Why I Made Pooh Bear a Scot.

He’s literally translating the text of Winnie-the-Pooh into a Scottish dialect, so young Scottish children can relate better to the book. In the article, he gives a sample from the first line of the book: “Yon’s Edward Bear, comin doon the stair noo, dunch, dunch, dunch on the back o his heid …”

This new Scottish version of Pooh is from the publishing company Robertson founded with Scottish poet and novelist Matthew Fitt: Itchy Coo.

I’d love to see this book! After all, Pooh has been translated into many languages already: Winnie La Pu (Esperanto); Pu Der Bar (German); Winnie Puh (Spanish); Winnie Ille Pu (Latin); and Vini-Der-Pu (Yiddish). Why not Scottish too?

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I haven’t done this yet on this blog, and don’t know how much I’ll be able to (I don’t have that many pics of cats with books, heh), but just for fun I thought I’d follow a wide blogging tradition and do it today.

This is the late, deeply lamented Kashi. Who was a very bookish cat.