A list of some of the books I'll be reading through over the first term of this school year...
- A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. This is a play written on the life of Sir Thomas More (author of Utopia), and specifically chronicles the stormy confrontation between More, a staunch Roman Catholic, and King Henry VIII, who broke with the Romish Church to divorce his wife...
- Fierce Wars & Faithful Loves by famous poet Edmund Spenser. This is Book 1 of Spenser's well-known The Faerie Queen. C.S. Lewis said, "Beyond all doubt, it is best to have made one's first acquaintance with Spenser in a very large edition of The Faerie Queen, on a wet day, between the ages of twelve and sixteen... To read him is to grow in mental health." And actually, the fantasy world of The Faerie Queen would serve as an inspiration and model for Tolkien and Lewis. Interesting, huh...
- Utopia by Sir Thomas More. In this famous work, "More describes a pagan, communist city-state governed by reason." Throughout the book, More addresses things like religious pluralism, women's rights, state-sponsored education, colonialism, and justified warfare. I'm sure this is going to trigger some blog posts...
- The New World by Sir Winston Churchill. The second volume of Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples. I read volume 1 (The Birth of Britain) last year, and loved it, so I'm looking forward to continuing through the series...
- Whatever Happened to Justice? by Richard Maybury. I read another of Maybury's books last year dealing with economics, and enjoyed his writing style very much. However, as with all things, I'll be measuring his thoughts on justice by God's thoughts on justice...
- How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler & Charles Van Doren. I am really looking forward to studying through this book! Adler and Doren detail step-by-step how to intelligently and thoroughly read a book, and instruct on how to X-ray a book, extract the author's message, criticize it, etc.
- To Have and To Hold by Mary Johnston. This is a historical-fiction novel set during the times of the founding of colonial Jamestown in the 1600's.
- Saints and Heroes Since the Middle Ages by George Hodges. This little book covers Luther, Cranmer, Calvin, Coligny, and many others.
- Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper. Written by the daughter of well-known novelist James Fenimore Cooper (The Last of the Mohicans), Rural Hours is a nature study/natural history book. We'll just have to see if Cooper's idea of nature matches up with the Scriptures...
- Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley. This looks to be a very intriguing historical fiction book. Kingsley's story is set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
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Persevero,
Scribe
My head is swimming. !!!! You have your work cut out for you. UTOPIA and TO HAVE AND TO
ReplyDeleteHOLD looks especially interesting to me. Good luck with your new school year. I'll be interested in all of your studies. You're so intelligent, you are going to do fine. Love and miss you, as always.
HUGS,
Memaw
Dear Scribe,
ReplyDeleteYour first term includes a wide spectrum of books! I can sense your excitement for the new school year. The fist book I would love to read is "How to Read a Book". From the description, it seems like it would open a whole new way of reading!
Persevero Scribe!
LoVe,
Aunt C
P.S. love the clip art!
ReplyDeleteAunt C