Patrimony: A True Story by Philip Roth

I thought I couldn't have asked anything more for myself before he died - this, too, was right and as it should be. You clean up your father's sh-- because it has to be cleaned up... why this was right and as it should be couldn't have been plainer to me, now that the job was done. So that was the patrimony. And not because cleaning it up was symbolic of something else, but because it wasn't, because it was nothing less or more than the lived reality that it was.

There was my patrimony: not the money, not the tefillin, not the shaving mug, but the sh--.
-Patrimony by Philip Roth

Philip Roth has written a poignant tribute to his father. This was a very moving book about the last years of his father's life. This is Roth in completely different form. There is less inner monologue than I expected. Roth remembers his father as he was and reverences the everyday bravery and heart that it takes to raise a family, provide, and simply live a life.

Although I knew that this book was about the end of Herman Roth's life, I still cried when he died. Roth's love for his father shines on each page.


Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters by J. D. Salinger

For the first time in several minutes, I glanced around at the tiny elderly man with the unlighted cigar. The delay didn't seem to affect him. His standard of comportment for sitting in the rear seat of cars - cars in motion, cars stationary, and even, one couldn't help imagining, cars that were driven off bridges into rivers - seemed to be fixed. It was wonderfully simple. You just sat very erect, maintaining a clearance of four or five inches between your top hat and the roof, and you stared ferociously ahead at the windshield.

I re-read this one just for fun. I remember during college reading this aloud with a friend on the way to Salt Lake and just laughing at the description of the little man.

This is great stuff. I love Salinger's straightforward way of writing. It is funny and sad. At the same time.


Good Faith by Jane Smiley

Eh. I liked it, but I didn't love it like I usually love Smiley's work. I felt like she built things up to a point where I cared, and then let them dangle for so long I stopped caring.


Cradle and Crucible History and Faith in the Middle East by National Geographic Society

Great book. The first half of the book chronicles the history of the Middle East from ancient to modern times. The last half deals with the religious history and faith of Judaism, Islam and Christianity in the Middle East.

Read with the Kiddos


Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman

"This whole world, it will all change... I think it is a shame. I had always thought that this was a magnificent age, because of the knights in armor on magnificent chargers, the beautiful ladies, the minstrels. I had expected to see beautiful churches being built and guild processions, but it was all so different. I have barely seen the inside of a single castle, I haven't been to a tournament and I have tried to avoid meeting armed knights. But I have seen the countryside, the peasants, the beggars, the deserted children. It is the ordinary people I have come to know, not the famous men one reads about in books. And the people I have met - sometimes they were cruel and stupid, sometimes they were so kind and good... I have learned so much."
- Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman

I read this book when I was a teenager. It really gives you a sense of the world in the Middle Ages and creates a vivid picture of what the Children's Crusade may have been like. Rudolf, a 14 year boy from Amsterdam, is stranded in the Middle Ages after time traveling. He winds up traveling with the Children's Crusade in 1212.

My girls and I really enjoyed the book, but as we got deeper into it I started questioning if this was the best choice. The Children's Crusade was disastrous, and I wasn't sure how my girls would do with the ending. This book is about the German crusade, but does mention the French crusade (which ended in most of the children being sold as slaves or drowning).

My girls did well with it (and I'm sure the Children's Crusade will be something that will stick out when they think of the Middle Ages), but I hesitate to recommend it for younger kids. I think it is more appropriate for kids 12 and older. Children drown, die of disease, war, and other mishaps.

I paraphrased part of a book about the real Children's Crusade (there is an unknown man who led part of the German crusade and we liked to imagine that was Rudolf), but I skipped some of the grittier details.


A Story Book of Jesus by Enid Blyton

This is a sweet book that tells the story of Jesus' life from birth to resurrection. Blyton keeps true to the Bible story, but embellishes things here and there to create more of a fluid narrative.


The Sailor Who Captured the Sea: A Story of the Book of Kells by Deborah Nourse Lattimore

This tells the story of three brothers who worked on the Book of Kells. It is a nice introduction to the Book of Kells.