Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile

by Gloria Houston, Illustrated by Susan Condie Lamb

Review by Brenna B. (demiducky25)

I saw this book in a display at the library and the cover image immediately caught my attention.  In concept, it reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books, Clara and the Bookwagon, so nostalgia caused me to pick this book up.

This book tells the story of Miss Dorothy, a young woman who grew up with a love of books.  She went to college and studied hard with the hopes of one day becoming a librarian in a library similar to the one in her town.  However, Miss Dorothy got married and ended up moving far away with her husband to a very rural town without a library.  After living in the community for a while, Miss Dorothy spoke at a town meeting to convince everyone that they needed a library.  The townspeople agree, and a collection was taken to purchase a bookmobile.  It’s not what Miss Dorothy wanted as her dream was to work in a brick library like the one she grew up with, but it’s a start.  Eventually, Miss Dorothy’s bookmobile becomes an important fixture in the community, and she provides a service that the people in this spread out rural community wouldn’t have had otherwise, but will Miss Dorothy come to see that it isn’t the physical structure that makes a library a library, but rather the love and enthusiasm that the librarian brings to the people?

The colorful illustrations in this book really help to bring this story to life.  Although the exact time period is never stated in the story or in the author’s note afterwards, you do get a sense that it is in the past from the illustrations, but nothing is so clearly “dated” that you can really even estimate a time-frame.  The author’s note at the end does provide some information about the real Miss Dorothy, Dorothy Thomas, but the only hints in figuring out that the events in the story happened quite a long time ago was the fact that it was mentioned that she had died and no one today seems to know where she’s buried.

Being the history buff that I am, of course I had to research the real Miss Dorothy so I could find out anything else about her life.  I’m still conducting my search, but there were very few references to her that I could find.  One reference I found was a quote by a Dorothy B. Thomas, librarian in North Carolina from an article about interlibrary loans written sometime in the 1950s and a county officials list from North Carolina written in 1967.  I’ve estimated her years of service to be 1948 with the start of the bookmobile to sometime after 1967 if that list of county officials refers to the same Dorothy Thomas (perhaps she served until the early 1970s or so).

Besides those brief references, the only two other sources that I could find with some information were an article about the county libraries celebrating their 50^th anniversary of joined services: http://averyjournal.com/Centennial/story/AMY-at-50-joins-in-Averys-Centennial-Celebration-id-008643

And an article written in the Yancy community paper about the same event (on the second page there is a picture of Dorothy Thomas with the bookmobile): http://www.yanceytimesjournal.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=46&Itemid=18

Otherwise, the information on Dorothy Thomas has been fairly sparse.

Although Miss Dorothy and her Bookmobile is meant for ages 6-9 according to the book jacket, I recommend this book for any child (or adult), especially those who just love books.  It gave me a warm feeling of happy nostalgia since it reminded me of the bookmobile book that I enjoyed growing up, and I hope that reading this book will help a child out there today discover their love of books.  The dedication page says “For all Librarians, who bring the world to our door(s).  So thank you, Dorothy Thomas and all the other librarians out that for opening those doors for us! 🙂

Waking Hours by Lis Wiehl with Pete Nelson

Review by Cynthia M. (clariail)

Book Synopsis:
All towns have secrets. Some have demons. — Welcome to East Salem. A deceptively sleepy town where ancient supernatural forces are being awakened. A local high-school girl is found murdered in a park amid horse farms and wealthy homes of northern Westchester County, New York. The shocking manner of her death confounds the town and intrigues forensic psychiatrist Dani Harris, who is determined to unravel the mystery. All the suspects are teenagers who were at a party with the girl, yet none remembers what happened. Could one of them be a vicious killer? Or is something more sinister afoot — something tied to an ancient evil?

But it’s not just her waking hours that challenge Dani. Each night, her eyes open at 2:13 due to troubling dreams. Dreams filled with blood, water, and destruction. Is it a clue — or a supernatural sign?

Across town, former NFL linebacker Tommy Gunderson finds his state-of-the-art security system has been breached by an elderly woman. Mumbling threats in Latin, she attacks him with an uncanny, preternatural strength. Before he has time to process the attack, someone close to him is implicated in the girl’s murder at the park. He agrees to help and finds himself working with Dani, the only girl who could resist his charms years ago when they were in high school.

A heavy darkness is spreading. Yet a heavenly force is also at work.

My Thoughts:
I love to read Christian Fiction, especially mystery/thrillers. I also like to read books that have elements of spiritual warfare in them. This book contains both.

One of the two main characters in the story is Dani, forensic psychiatrist. I wouldn’t say that she is a non-believer but she looks are everything from a scientific stand point. If she can’t explain it scientifically then she more readily accepts the spiritual application.

Tommy is the other main character for the story, who is a believer and sees things from the view point of faith and what the bible says.

Both of these come into play as the story goes along and I did like reading the discussions between the two view points.

Even though the book was written by two people, I thought that it flowed very well. It was a slow reading book to me but it kept me intrigued to see what was going to happen. The mystery part of the book concerning the murder was resolved by the end of the book but I believe that the ground work was being laid for the next book in the series as far as the spiritual elements were concerned as there wasn’t any resolution or explanation for the events that had taken place.

The only complaint that I had, and not a real biggie, was that they used words occasionally that I either wasn’t familiar with or thought that they were using a fancier word than necessary. For instance, instead of saying they were running blood tests, they used serology. That’s just me though.

The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming

by Masanobu Fukuoka

Review by Jennifer (mywolfalways)

Masanobu Fukuoka left his job as a customs inspector at the age of 25 to become a farmer.  Making plenty of mistakes along the way, including killing an entire grove of his father’s citrus trees, Fukuoka found a life of self-sufficiency possible.  Even more astounding is the fact that he managed to remain self-sufficient and still have food leftover to sell at markets without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and many of the other modern conveniences most farmers use.  But how did he do it?

Through careful analysis and deconstruction of both traditional and modern technique, he learned what was necessary.  He found that many of the traditional techniques only caused more damage to crops, as did many things that are so popular in modern technique.  He discovered that the many insects, plants, and animals that are commonly considered as pests can actually be utilized to encourage growth.  Many times when his neighbors’ crops were devastated by swarms of insects, despite having used insecticides, his crops were saved by natural predators, like swarms of spiders or large infestations of reptiles.  Oddly enough, Fukuoka found that nature takes care of itself.

Fukuoka was generous with his knowledge.  In fact, until a few years before his death, Fukuoka let others join him at his farm. While many visitors were only tourists with a passing curiosity, many of them came to live alongside him and follow in his footsteps of self-sufficiency.  He would teach them his way of living.  His way of teaching was not through the traditional means of a step by step process, but instead by total immersion.  He believed this was the best way to illustrate his beliefs and practices, while at the same time helping to free the minds of his visitors from the common misconceptions of farming taught by modern agriculture.

Like the buds of life that peek through last year’s straw, seeds of Fukuoka’s wisdom reveal themselves in the most unlikely places.  While reading, I found that many of the simple techniques he applied to his fields could also be applied to keeping my mind and spirit healthy.  Perhaps the most important lesson that can be gleaned from this text is that nature must be observed and studied as a whole being, rather than just focusing on select parts.  We must focus on how all of its parts interconnect and work together and in doing so, we can do the same for our whole being as well.

First published in 1978, this book on self-sufficiency has proven it’s worth even today.  The latest publication date for this book is listed as 2009.  Masanobu Fukuoka’s wisdom is so treasured that another book is being published postmortem entitled “Sowing Seeds in the Desert” (ISBN: 1603584188).  There is even a website kept by Larry Korn to share the ideals of Fukuoka at http://www.onestrawrevolution.net .  I hope that many others will read “The One-Straw Revolution” and find it useful to their own goals of self-sufficiency and mindful action.

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

Review by Jerelyn (I-F-Letty)

A little bit of magic and genius; is Mary Stewart’s take on the Merlin myth.  When I read this book for the first time it was in the late 1970’s, and it was a revelation. The Crystal Cave is one of those books that I just have to take out and re-read.  It is timeless and still as good today as it was when published.

We meet Merlin as a six year old boy, the bastard grandson of a Welsh King. The myth about him starts very early because his mother refuses to name the boy’s father.  She allows people to think that he is no man’s son, thinking to protect him, but it only places him in danger. There was something about the small boy, separateness, something dangerous, and something to be feared.  He has the sight and untrained he cannot control it. Then as now what men do not understand they fear.   The Romans have only just abandoned Britain  The Saxons have come, Christianity is still very new to Wales and the old ways still hold sway but times are changing. The Saxon King Vortigern is aging and fears his much younger enemy in Brittany, who has spent his time gathering and training an army to take back is birth right.

Merlin meets his first teacher one day having escaped his tutor who has a bit of a drinking problem.  Galapas the hermit has things to teach the boy whom he has waited for, living within the crystal cave of the hollow hills.  Over the years, Merlin learns language and music and mathematics from Galapas, he learns herb lore and healing, and is beginning to understand his psychic powers, while the dangers of war come closer and even members of his own family want him dead.  Finally he must flee into the unknown world, after an attempt on his life.  He puts his faith in the Gods that he realizes have been guiding his path all along.

The Gods are good and Merlin finds himself in the house of Ambrosius and Uther Pendragon, in Brittany.  Ambrosius has a claim on the throne of Britain and had plans to unify the many kingdoms into one.  Under one High King himself.  He too has been waiting for a sign; a sign which is Merlin.

I think the thing I love about this book and the others that follow is the completely different take on the Merlin myth, and Arthurian legend.  Stewart is a master story teller and these books were a departure for her.  She had been know up to this point for a genre she pioneered, romantic suspense. With the Merlin series she tried her hand at historical fiction/fantasy and it worked out very well Crystal Cave, Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment and the last The Wicked Day where her best selling novels. Crystal Cave is one of my 5 star reads.  If you or your teen loves the dark ages and historical fantasy I really believe you will enjoy this book as well. It is already considered by many as a classic.