Autobiographies

A friend asked me on Facebook for recommendations on good autobiographies to read. After thinking about it, and writing it all down, I realised it would be too much text for FB. These are still short reviews for me but I hope that between my words and further reviews that are linked from Amazon, you'll be able to decide whether these books are also ones you'd like to read.

The Vow – the book is so much better than the movie! The movie changes who these two are and the motivations behind the way they act aren't always clear, though the message of love and commitment through difficult circumstances remains. The book is a Christian one and the movie isn't!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Vow-Events-Inspired-Movie/dp/143367579X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1364445168&sr=8-4&keywords=the+vow

Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Andrew read this last year and someone else we know well is plowing through it. It’s on my list to take away on holidays. A long book but worthwhile, by all accounts.
http://www.amazon.com/Bonhoeffer-Pastor-Martyr-Prophet-Spy/dp/1595552464/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364445671&sr=1-3&keywords=dietrich+bonhoeffer

Diving Bell and the Butterfly – was just given this for my birthday and I read it in one day. Incredible story of a man who survived a stroke but was locked inside his own body, unable to communicate, except by blinking one eye. For a man at the top of his profession (as an editor of Elle magazine in Paris), this would have been all the more galling. Haunting, reflective, powerful, chilling, fantastical and poignant. It reminded me at times of my Grandfather and how he must have felt to be able to comprehend what people said but not able to communicate his own thoughts to others after his stroke. I was on the verge of tears several times, just thinking through some of those memories. It is a sober portrayal and one not to shy away from.
http://www.amazon.com/Diving-Bell-Butterfly-Memoir-Death/dp/0375701214

The Happiest Refugee – Anh Do
Wonderful, upbeat story about the challenges and privileges of living in Australia and how to make it home. My lack of words should not take away from this book - I highly recommend it!
http://www.amazon.com/Happiest-Refugee-journey-tragedy-comedy/dp/1459616057/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364446156&sr=1-1&keywords=happiest+refugee

Making the Cut – Khadra
How to mix poetry, poignancy and petty hospital drama into a telling and fascinating autobiography. Set at an unnamed Sydney hospital, it  is telling at times. I have stolen these words from the Amazon summary as they are so good:

In this compelling and beautifully written memoir, Mohamed Khadra recounts stories from his life as a surgeon, from the grueling years of training to the debilitating sleepless nights on call. He looks back at the doctors and patients who shaped his career; at the endless stream of humanity—courageous, pitiful, admirable, and dislikable—who passed under his knife; and at the shattered lives of doctors defeated by the stresses of the job. This dramatic account of a surgical life shows what happens when extraordinary events overtake everyday lives.


http://www.amazon.com/Making-Cut-Dr-Mohamed-Khadra/dp/1741668441/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1364446045&sr=8-7&keywords=making+the+cut

II own all of these, except The Vow so let me know if you want to borrow any of them :)

Posted on on March 29th, 2013

Pearls of Lutra Day - June 2009

I am WAY behind with my blogging and hope to do some back-dated entries soon to catch up.  I’ve finally uploaded a whole stack of photos onto shutterfly, so I’ll get onto this soon!

On Friday 29 May, we had the long awaited "Pearls of Lutra Day".  It had effectively been postponed twice, so it was great to finally celebrate this book with a group of friends.

The Redwall Book Club here is always changing as some move away and others join so it was lovely to see that dynamic at play.

As usual, we started with introductions but this time, I asked the children to mention their fav part of the book.  We got some interesting and hilarious answers!!  Food and a naughty little Arven rated highly in the responses.

Stevie as Clecky, Zac as Rasconza, Adam as Gowja and Mark as Arven

After some indoor games, we walked down the street near the dam and had a sword tournament.  One of the mums had asked for the swords to be more than decoration, so we put our thinking caps together and came up with the tournament idea.  Stevie then took over and worked out all of the rounds, based on the child’s age/ability.  Here’s a couple of photos from that:

The contest of the tournament.  These two were locked in combat for most of the tournament until we finally had to institute "sudden death".

We only had one sword casualty, and it was Stephen’s sword that cracked in half.  Most of the children survived in good humour, so that was good.

The next item on the agenda was a pearl hunt.  The children were divided into groups and given clues to start them off.  Following the clues in the book, they then had to find where all the other pearls would be hidden, either down by the dam or at the Burnet’s house.  It was a good idea, in theory, but in the rush to get it all organised the night before, I numbered the clues incorrectly which threw everyone out.  A bit of re-explanation en-route saw most groups able to continue and work out the rest of the hiding places.

We then went inside, compared notes and each group had a turn at saying the Sister Cicely tongue twister on a time limit.  After this, the fav part of any Redwall Day occurred – the feast!!

The horde listening to Mrs Kirky give the wonderful food introductions…

…and of course, some quick snaps of the food on offer -


We had a lively quiz time after lunch – with chanting that has been louder than I’ve experienced before – they really got into it!  Then, in the same groups as earlier, teams went out and practiced acting out a scene from the book to present to the rest of us.  This was a lot of fun and there some great choices.

At the close, we probably shouted out the neighbourhood by doing all the war cries from the books – my ears were certainly ringing for a while!

Most took their time packing up and going home and one little Dibbun just couldn’t wait any longer for a sleep…

We had a great day and thanks go to the kitchen crew and the Burnets for hosting us.  That family has been sick this week, so thanks for rising above the oncoming symptoms to have us for the day.

A special mention to some of the older ones who really helped out and my own older boys.  Stephen and Zac typed out a lot of clues, the door welcome was Zac’s creation this time and Stevie organised the whole sword tournament.  All these things made it easier for me and much more fun for everyone.

So, until next time………REDWALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on on June 4th, 2009

Outcast of Redwall Day ~ 7 November 2008

Hello good creatures and welcome to this day of fun & food!

Who are you?

If you have good intent, our gates are open to you – 
whatever your weapon, 
whatever your race,
especially if you are
SUNFLASH THE MACE!

Knock, come and enter this day of fun. Food and games.  Show 10 fingers (claws) and come in…

Okay, come anyway, even if you are Sixclaw or Veil
Brother Stephen, recorder at Redwall Abbey

Well, that was our welcome sign for those who came along to share in this day with us.

On Redwall days, we usually start with introductions.  We had some great character line-ups this time.  Even though I took a photo of everyone, I’ll just include a few here.

Zac was Ruddle, Mark was a bankvole, Stevie was Sabretache and Adam was Jodd.

We had a beautiful and dare I say, almost regal, Abbess. 

We had not one…but two Sunflash the Mace characters.  One emphasised the mace and the other, just doing as he was told, emphasised his golden stripe:

It was nice to have a dad along for the day.  This dad, Pete was actually celebrating his birthday but we will get to that later…

After the customary character bingo game, we went outside for a scavenger hunt.  I made our parents work a little more this time and they all seemed to do well at the tasks I asked them to perform.

The first "station" or place to find was the Dubbo-Lingl cave.  They had clues to solve throughout the hunt, activities to do and things to collect.  The first one was to find a leaf and blow through it as a leaf-whistle.  No group quite managed it but after their best attempt, their next clue saw them find the "Gates of Spring" song in the cave and then have to perform it.

I think this parent (who shall remain nameless) relished her role as taskmaster for this part of the hunt.  You can certainly see her at her "conducting best" below.

After getting a "snowdrop" card to place in their bag, they then had to move along to the next challenge.  Like the phantom warriors, they had throw some stones. 

The target was the burned out tree on the other side of the gorge and some found this easier than others.  After the appropriate amount of practice, they solved another clue about Sunflash moving the boulder for the otters.  That led them to their next destination – the trampoline.

After pushing their "boulder" through a narrow crack in the side, they then moved on to making a leaf talisman.

Using string, a square piece of foil, and a green marker pen, they had to construct their own design and put it in their bag.  We had four groups and they all did it differently.  Two had leaf designs but they weren’t alike, one shaped theirs like a triangular stone and the other did theirs as a long tube around the string.  It was encouraging to see some creativity in this activity.

The last challenge was to do a character name unscramble.  Ten names were written on the paper and groups had to work together to solve all of it.  One group got 9 of them right…though I did have a few hard names…

After this, we compared the bags, the time spent completing the tasks and I thought two groups should take the honours.

Next, of course, was the lovely Redwall Feast.  What Redwall Day would be without it?  Yet again, the mums really did such a great job of providing excellent food.  I made sure that introductions on food were done this time, we shouted the "cut the cake for goodness sake" grace, followed a real returning of thanks, and then got down to scoffing!

I took photos too early for the full presentation of food and then, of course, it was too late as the food was soon demolished.  We certainly had some great desserts as you can see above and below:

and they were thoroughly enjoyed…

After this, we had a final outside game of captain ball.  I pinched Donna’s idea and there was a letter inside each balloon, which together, would make up a key word from the book – Salamandastron.

It was the only game that Mark took part in and it was so lovely to see him being helped.  Actually, a few of the older ones were just great on the day and made sure the younger ones joined in the fun and had a great time.  It was so lovely to see and I just want to commend them again for their caring attitudes – well done!

After discovering the word was Salamandastron, they then had to make as many words as they could from this one word.  There was a riddle about this in the book, "Sand alas not an arm…".

It kept them so busy we almost ran out of time for the quiz at the end, which would have been a shame as coming up with questions while going through the book is kinda fun (and actually, quite time consuming…)

Well, our day was not at an end.  There was still the birthday cake to do…

and the birthday boy to get….

Poor Pete!  As soon as the singing was done, the cake was whisked off the table and the kids began their water gun onslaught!

Don’t feel too badly for him.  He managed to defend himself a little and really coped with it well.

After this, we were all invited to stay and have a swim in the pool as well so it ended up being a longer Redwall Day.

Thanks for all the help on the day, guys.  Our family had a great time.

Euuulllaaaaaaalia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on on November 11th, 2008

Bellmaker Day – 3 September 2008

Wednesday the 3rd of September was the date set for the next installment of Redwall!

For those who don’t know, a group of us have been reading through these books by Brian Jacques and having fun "book club" days.  Up until now, they have been hosted by the Luptons.  With their early departure to the USA (sob),  The Bellmaker Day was rescheduled to September. 

Our household had to "gear up" as I had offered to take over from Donna as the organiser of the day.  The boys helped with the preparations in the week preceding.  We made a Pinata in the shape of a bell.

Stephen made up some introductory words and we had people identify the characters from their pictures as a condition of door entry. The picture is not coming up on shutterfly right now so I will have to try and reload it…

Once we got to our friends’ house, her children and mine helped to fill water bombs for one of the games – even though it was …brrrr…cold….

We decorated the place with maps, posters and books from the series and everyone came dressed as their favourite character from the book.

Stephen was Rab Streambattle, Zac was Finnbarr Galedeep, Adam was Blaggut and Mark was Mousebabe.

Everyone else explained to the group why they had chosen their character.  I must say that this is one of my favourite parts of the whole day as I hear why the children have liked the various characters.  It was also great because this was the first time that Mark stood up and spoke up for himself – he seemed so grown up!

We had some colourful characters too.  Urgan Nagru dressed with great style…

and one who chose her character because her mother told her to!!!

Maybe that’s because she couldn’t make up her mind which character to be…and now I can’t remember which one she said she actually was!!!  Ummmm, can you tell I was laughing too hard at the time???

I could go through all the characters but it would take me too long, besides, the children are in other photos as well so you will see the costumes on the way through.  Needless to say, we did have one Bellmaker so he needs to get a mention here:

After this introduction time, we played bingo with the character names and then divided into groups for a "who said what?" game.  There were some intense expressions as the problem solving got under way…

Some had a more "laid back" approach…

although it didn’t help them solve it faster than anyone else!

After some good rousing (or should I say ear-piercing?) war cries, we were off outside to conquer an obstacle course.  I was too busy making sure everyone was doing the obstacle course to take photos at this point.  Each team member had to run down into the gorge, across the dry river bed, up to the rock hill, pick up a weapon, run back, jump through some hoops, dodge some water bombs and tag their next team member so they could run the next leg.  Apart from a couple of scrapes and some over-eager water-bombers, this worked out okay.

The next activity was to use the words of the "Shrum Song" and staying in groups, come up with a nice tune to sing just before lunch.  I thought this would be a good idea as most hadn’t managed to get the audiobook for this one and wouldn’t have heard the song before.  Zac had typed it up for me beforehand and each group had ten minutes to try and sing the same tune as their team members.  I made the parents the judges for this one.  Here’s some photos of the groups in action:

Two Meldrums were in this group and their song was proclaimed the winner.

After a quick prayer, we started lunch.  I was pulled up for being the rookie I am by Mother Liz, who works so hard in the "kitchens" – I had forgotten to let her introduce all the lovely foods which made up our feast for the day…  I also didn’t get to photograph it all before everyone tucked in.  Maybe that’s why it was easier when I was photographer for Donna because she was too busy to take some of the shots!!!

Anyway, here’s what I got:

We had such lovely offerings (and this was not all of them): Veggible quiches, Haversack crumble, Strawberry fizz, Autumn oat favourites, Damson wine, Hotroot soup, Harvest Vegetable Soup, Summer Salad, Cheese and onion hogbake, October Ale, Spiced Gatehouse Tea Bread,Apple Fizz, Spring Garden Salad Delight, Dibbuns’ Delights, Spring kiwi ale, Warriors’ Staples (aka sausage rolls made by one of the dads), Cheerful Churchmouse Berry Crisp, crusty bread and these beautiful hedgehog rolls made by one of the girls:

After the feast, it was time for the quiz, an animal match-up game and the pinata.

Of course, I should have blindfolded them all because it cracked after two people…at least they had fun chasing down all the sweets!

and even though this was the end, I think they all had fun.  I know that our family did and we are hoping to get an earlier start on reading the next book!

So…watch this space because in November, we plan to have the next day forOutcast of Redwall.

Posted on on September 5th, 2008