Historical Fiction, and My Next Book Announcement

If you’ve read The Man in the Box, you know that I am a huge proponent for combining fiction with reality. That’s probably why I loved Life of Pi so much. Now, to be sure, I’ve learned to be very weary of historical fiction books, such as Gingrich’s To Try Men’s Souls. 

But there is one I’d like to point out that was awarded the Newberry Award Medal back in 1990. It’s called Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. It’s a wonderful little book set in Denmark, 1943 about a little Danish girl, Annemarie, who must learn to be brave in the face of the Nazi relocation effort of the Danish Jews – especially since they’re looking specifically for her best friend Ellen Rosen.

It’s a wonderful piece of literature I plan on using as our first means of introduction to World War II with our kids. It chronicles the way life changed for so many in such a short amount of time in a kid-appropriate way. But I can’t see how adults couldn’t get pulled into this short read as well, and not walk away having learned some interesting facts about a particularly brilliant method many Danish people used to hide their Jewish neighbors.

I try not to be too random with my reading selections. Often, I find a piece of history I’m interested in, or a new work of fiction particularly catches my fancy, and I’ll dive in. It may seem kind of out of the blue that I chose a twenty-three year old kids’ fiction book about Nazis occupying Denmark.

Well, you’ll be seeing plenty more Holocaust-related books reviewed here on AdoptingJames in the next several weeks. And here’s why.

I’m proud to officially announce my next book project. Without giving much away, it will be a young reader’s fiction book that takes place somewhere in Austria around the time of the Nazi uprising. I’m being very intentional to make it so that your kids (and mine) will find it engaging and funny (watch Life is Beautiful – it can be done!), and adults will adore it.

I told Sarabeth with a deep sigh the other day, “I wish we had lots of money so I could fly to Germany and walk the streets and smell the smells of Europe, so I can better write this book.” But I’ll just have to do with what God has given me: A library.

Since I can’t go to Europe myself, what better way to smell the dew on the cornflowers, and taste the stale bread, and shiver by the stove cramped in the fireplace during a cold, dark winter in Nazi-ruled Europe than to read about it?

That’s the beauty of historical fiction. It does something that non-fiction books can only do with ultra-accomplished writers (such as Eric Larson and Gregory A. Freeman), and that’s this: They serve as a time portal, picking you up out of your comfortable chair, and placing you dead-center in the middle of history unfolding all around you.

That is what my book will strive to do for you and your children. And I can’t wait for you to read it.

Life of Pi: To Read or to Watch … That’s the Question, Isn’t it?

Sarabeth and I sat down to watch Life of Pi less than an hour after I finished reading the book. Having read the book of course, I was extremely excited for the movie – and curious as to how it had maintained just a PG rating.

I know some of my readers have yet to see the movie, or even read the book. Or maybe you’ve seen it, but not read it or visa-versa. So you’re wondering, is it worth reading or is it worth watching?

Allow me to share my thoughts on both written and visual depictions of the story by Yann Martel.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Let me tell you, the first few sentences had me hooked. Now, let me make clear to you: I’m not blind to the fact that this book’s cover may have well been a picture of those “Coexist” bumper stickers. (Somebody pointed out at church recently that we already do coexist, so what’s the point of the sticker?)

I read books with many different hats on. I found myself having to switch hats on many different occasions while reading this piece of work.

As a blogger and book reviewer, I couldn’t wait to share this exciting read with my readers.

As an author, I learned many  new tricks from Mr. Martel, and am indebted to his bravery of venturing into new territories, and am awed by his storytelling abilities. He truly has proved himself a master of fiction.

As a husband, I sounded like this throughout the last two weeks: “Sarabeth, this book has a lot of potential” … “Sarabeth, I don’t agree with his religious outlook, but he’s such a great writer, I don’t care!” … “Umm… this book is really gory. You might not be able to read it” … “I just threw up” … “I just cried like a baby.” … “Finished. Let’s start the movie.”

But as a Christian, I was not blinded to the overt inclusivistic themes of the book.

(To be sure, the movie hammered those themes much more than the book did.)

I will say that it was extremely fascinating to hear the account of Christianity retold through the eyes of a Hindu/Muslim (yes, the main character Pi subscribes to both religions, plus Christianity).

I am a huge proponent of seeing the world (and God) through the eyes of non-Christians, which is one reason why I think it’s pointless for Christians to only read theology-based books, or listen to only Christian music.

There are so many passages from the book I wanted to share on this post to you all, but space (and time) limit me. So for the sake of story, I truly hope many of you get a chance to read this book. I would be remiss in not warning you however, as I hinted above, that the book is extremely gory at times, and could be overly upsetting to many animal-lovers.

Life of Pi directed by Ang Lee. If anything stood in my way from watching the movie, it would have been director Ang Lee’s weak reputation as a movie director. Need I say more than 2003′s all-time disaster Hulk? That, and his insistance on being controversial, i.e. Brokeback Mountain.

But people have redeemed themselves before. Everyone deserves another chance.

I think Ang Lee did the story more harm than good. I don’t know if it was his decision to add all the weird New Age-y special effects, which really served as nothing more than a New Age mini-sermon disrupting the story, or Hollywood’s insistance to cash out on the 3d rage. Either way, the exagerated color schemes and light shows were all for naught, in my opinion.

I never felt that sense of hopelessness and fear and desperation that we should have felt from Pi since falling into the lifeboat. There was never that Cast Away feel of being alone and missing the life that has forgotten you thousands and thousands of miles away.

Danny Boyle, director of 127 Hours would have been a shoe-in for this project. He knows how to make the audience thirsty for a single drop of water. With a certain, magical way of filmmaking, he can trap every audience member’s hand between a rock and a wall, and convince us all to long for a knife to saw off our arm. That’s exactly the kind of director Life of Pi needed.

I would suggest watching the movie if you simply can’t get to the book. Because, in Lee’s defense, he does stay true to the story, despite his weird detours and out-of place special effects.

In summary. Despite my disagreement with Yann Martel’s vision of God, I will eagerly anticipate his next book.

I think Ang Lee has run out of chances with me.

What are your thoughts? Do you prefer the book or the movie?

The Loss of Innocence

A few weeks back, Sarabeth and I attended our first Andrew Peterson concert – one of the better concerts I’d ever attended. During it, he told the story of his son whom he found crying in his bed. When asked what was the matter, his son responded by holding out a book toward his father.

The book was The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Like any good father, Andrew picked the book up and began to read it to see what had troubled his son so badly.

As Andrew would have it, he found himself out on the front porch a few days later finishing the book in his hands that his son gave him. And, as he would have it, he was bawling uncontrollably.

Like a little boy.

His son came out onto the porch and said two words that bound father and son together in a mutual understanding: “The Yearling?”

Andrew Peterson nodded and said, with a choked voice, “The Yearling.” 

Being a sucker for sappy stories, I took this book recommendation as a great challenge. Many movies may move me to tears, but I can’t recall ever crying over a book.

Folks, if you read this book,

no matter how hard your heart is,

no matter how tough you think you are

…brace yourselves.

It’s a story more about the loss of innocence than about the loss of a childhood pet (whose death is quite more graphic in depiction than even Old Yeller, and anyone who reads it will be haunted for a while). 

The final few pages brought me back to my own innocent childhood and how that innocence has, somewhere behind the thick veil of time, flown away “somewhere beyond the sink-hole, past the magnolia, under the live oaks … and gone forever.”

It takes a few chapters to get past the Swamp People-esk dialect, and even a few more chapters for things to begin to unfold, but that’s not to say I ever really got bored. I enjoyed the lush descriptions of the Floridian sawgrass and swamps. I loved reading about the silly antics of Jody’s lovable father, Penny. And I savored the few moments Jody had with Flag, his yearling.

Andrew Peterson was so moved by this book that he wrote a song called, “The Ballod of Jody Baxter.” You can listen to it here.

I encourage anyone who needs to be moved, stirred, or even reminded of the carefree days that lay just in calendars past when all was well.

On a personal note, I know this was a timely book for me, as I’m struggling with accepting the corruption of the world, much less in myself. The Yearling taught me to remember days gone past when things were good. And even though they may be gone now, there is a day when I, when we, will share good days together again in the future…

The Best Book I’ve Ever Read is…

I have been waiting all year to read this book again. Ever since I read it last April, I’ve often daydreamed about it.

During the hot summer days of 2012, trapped behind a cash register at my day job, I often escaped to the frigid midnight setting of this masterpiece by poet-like author Dan Barry.

During the windy days of fall, my imagination still would not let me forget the Easter Morning images of a crippled ballpark in Pawtucket, New Jersey that was destined for record-setting greatness.

Even as Carols played in the car driving with my wife to Christmas Eve Service, I anticipated the day I would once again crack open the modest book about little-known McCoy Stadium, pregnant with soon-to-be greats such as Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs, and nurturing has-beens and never-quite-was’s, just dreaming of the day they could grace the filed of a major league stadium, if not for just a moment in time.

Sarabeth and I make it a point to read books with each other. She doesn’t like baseball much – hates it, really. But after reading just a few pages of The Bottom of the 33rd to her, she agreed that Dan Barry is a very good author. And if there’s anything to know about Sarabeth, it’s that she does not say something unless she means it.

So Baseball haters, I’m telling you that this book is so good, that even you should give it a chance.

With the number of books I’ve read in my lifetime, I believe I can qualify as a book critic if I wanted to (just got to figure out how, I guess). And this often-tough critic gives this book a certified 100% approval rating. Why don’t you take a moment to read a couple of select paragraphs from the Prologue to see if it convinces you to get this book:

“Three thirty in the morning.

“Holy Saturday, the awkward Christian pause between the Sorrow and the Joy, has surrendered to the first hushed hours of Easter. The cold and dark cling to the rooftops in a Rhode Island place called Pawtucket. Triple-decker houses, packed with three, four, six sleeping families, loom over its empty, half-lit streets, while the river that cascades through its deserted downtown releases a steady, dreamy sigh. Yet somewhere in the almost sacred stillness, a white orb disturbs the peace, skipping along the night-damp grass, flitting through the night-crisp air, causing general unrest at three thirty in the morning on Sunday, Easter Sunday.”

…

“Someone not here tonight could pose quite legitimate questions to the players and fans, questions that would naturally start with why. Why did you keep playing? Why did you stay? At two o’clock in the morning, and then at three o’clock, why didn’t you just – leave? The official answer, that some umpire refused to call it a night, would be so lacking in the weight of common sense that it might twirl off like a deflating balloon before the sentence could be finished. But the truer answer might be as unsatisfying to the outsider as it is surprising to these inhabitants of this in-between place, where time’s boundaries have blurred.

“Why did you keep playing? Why did you stay?

“Because we are bound by duty. Because we aspire to greater things. Because we are loyal. Because, in our own secular way, we are celebrating communion, and resurrection, and possibility.”

Do not delay this Easter Season. Get The Bottom of the 33rd on Amazon here.

Disclaimer: This book contains frequent use of the F-word.

I also recommend: Calico Joe by John Grisham and The Rookie by Jim Morris.

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Of Zoos and Books About Zoos

Sarabeth and I just read We Bought a Zoo together, after being intrigued by the movie. Written by Benjamin Mee, it wasn’t at all like the movie. The movie was more personable, funny, touching, and… interesting.

We felt that oftentimes in Mee’s autobiography, he was more suited to write articles on the subject of zoology and evolutionary sciences – which was clearly one of his passions. The few interesting anecdotes there were in the book were rather – anticlimactic.

After discussion, we agreed that I liked the movie better because it told more of a story. Sarabeth didn’t quite care for the book, but it made her dislike the movie for straying so far from the facts of real life.

Anyway, check out a post I did a while ago about the movie, and how the Christian life is indeeed, like buying a zoo:

Becoming a Christian is like buying a zoo. It is counter-intuitive, counter-cultural and counter-intelligent. Yes, becoming a Christian is absurd. You’re investing your life to a cause that will require your faith, devotion, finances, choices, soul and maybe even your life. Let’s look at some other absurd decisions made in history:

Read the rest here.

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Happy Birthday George Washington

On this day in 1732, a hero was born.

A hero

a frontiersman

a statesman

a president

a legend.

I’d like to take this time to draw your attention to one of my favorite biographies. Maybe not so much for the writing style, as parts of it did drag on (which really just put off the ending which I didn’t want to come), but for the life that it covered – and not only examining it, but etching out every finite detail we could ever wish to know about our first president of the United States.

Ron Chernow does a superb job at bringing this dusty historical hero to life. He doesn’t linger long on the president’s ancestry or childhood, which has proven to be quite sluggish in other biographies. The majority of the book centers around Washington’s generalship in the Revolutionary War. With the way Washington constantly carried himself, it’s no wonder people thought of him as a god. He struck fear and admiration in the hearts of men, sort of like an 18th century William Wallace.

Having a deep-rooted admiration for the man, I was glad that the author points out his flaws, one of them being that he was overly flirtatious with the opposite sex throughout his married life. This prevents me from worshiping the man in my heart, which I’m prone to do. This flaw proves that he may have been an honorable war hero, a trustworthy statesman and sound president,

but he was not a model husband.

It is referenced over and over that he and Martha shared a deep friendship but not much more.

Washington was a much more generous man than I ever would have known. He gladly adopted Martha’s children, and then helped raise their offspring. He paid for his son’s tuition, and even his nephew’s, even though they both proved to be sluggards and disappointed Washington in the ways of work ethic. He constantly had the door of his home open to guests and admirers. He repeatedly served his country in any way he was called to, though he was deeply reluctant to accept the presidency and much abhorred the idea of postponing retirement to his beloved Mount Vernon home – a sort of angelic destination he continually longed for throughout his life.

As with the issue of slavery, Washington straddled the fence, to say the best. It was as though in his heart he knew the practice was a deep evil, but he fooled himself (as had most other plantation owners), that it was an economic necessity. Even though he wasn’t as brutal as other slave owners, nor did he ever consent to breaking up slave families or condone selling them to other slave holders (though he had to resort to doing that in his later years due to a poor economic standing), no one can refute the fact that he didn’t better make known his abolitionist mindset. Instead, he put it off for future generations to deal with.

This book, Washington, A Life is a commitment, to say the least. It had taken me nearly a year to read in all its 817-page small-print glory. But don’t let the hefty weight scare you away. See it, instead, as a wealth of knowledge and thousands of juicy details about the life and times of one of America’s greatest heros of all time.

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Happy birthday, President Washington.

Every Day a Hay Day

Common phrases found in the Toy House:

“I love you.”

“No barking.”

“How’s your book?”

“Who has to go potty?”

“How’s the farm?”

…No, we don’t own a farm (nor farm animals; we have three dogs, hence the barking and potty), but we do own an app on our ipad that acts as though it’s as important as maintaining a real farm for profit.

Sigh. It’s called Hay Day. And it’s taken over my life.

It’s this dumb little game that keeps you locked in like an incredibly engrossing book, only you neglect it at your own peril. If you don’t collect the milk from the cows then you can’t make cheese from the dairy and if you don’t do that, then you can’t fill up the orders that neighboring towns are asking from you, and you don’t get experience points nor coins to buy more cows to make more cheese to fill in more orders…

It’s ridiculous.

And ridiculously addicting.

It’s Giga Pets on steroids. Remember those?

If you’ve read my blog for a while you might be under the impression that I am some super-Christian who reads crazy amounts of Biblical texts when I wake up in the mornings.

Not so.

When I rise early, my thoughts are rarely geared toward thanking God for another glorious day.

Instead, my first thoughts are, “Where’s the ipad? I’ve got to milk the goats!”

After all, the virtual church is asking for virtual cheese

-and I’m a virtual mess.

Maybe you’re a virtual mess as well. Maybe it’s not some free app you downloaded onto your ipad. Maybe it’s too much time thinking about your finances, or how you’re going to spend the weekend, or what sales are coming up at Target that are waiting to be taken advantage of.

Or maybe it’s something more serious. Maybe the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning is your pills, your drugs, your porn. Maybe you shop too much, eat too much, drink too much.

Allow me to direct your attention to a piece of literature about a man who struggled with the same sort of problem. Not with drugs or alcohol, but with a cardboard box.

It was the one thing standing between him and his wife, and his chances of ever becoming the father he once dreamed of being. But then, there was so much unfinished business in Reveloin. He still hadn’t found the castle on the ocean, and…

No! Life inside the box wasn’t real. Even if it were, nothing about it or from it would aid him in being a better man here, in the real world. The point was, it wouldn’t be fair to Rosalynn or the kids if he kept the box around because there was no way he could resist the temptation of going back every time.

Robbie, who is constantly drawn back to a fantasy world he had discovered inside the box just cannot seem to tear himself away from it, and it’s hurting his family – and his whole life.

Download a free copy of The Man in the Box for your Kindle today (the last day to do so … and did I mention it’s free?), here on Amazon.

Oh, and I’d better warn you, it’s pretty addicting.

You can also get a hardcopy mailed to your house on Amazon.

Here’s what people are saying about The Man in the Box, and when you finish it, a review from you on Amazon or Goodreads would mean the world to me and my family and help boost sales. 

“Expect dinosaurs and giant creepy-crawlies. And if that kind of thing scares you, then you’re like me, which means you’ll go ahead and read the book anyway, with no one to blame but yourself for all the flinching you’ll do … There was no going to bed until I’d reached the end. The suspense had me on the edge of my seat with worry about how everyone was going to get out of this, heart thumping out of control the whole time, except for that one minute where it almost stopped.”

-Danielle E. Shipley, author and blogger

“Andrew Toy has created a unique and interesting story that spans several genres from mystery and adventure to fantasy … Toy’s debut novel will leave readers talking and will make them instant fans of his storytelling abilities. This will surely be a must-read for every adult that once created a world of their own when they were young, just by using their imaginations.”

-Nicole McManus, reviewer and blogger

Read more reviews here. Or, just get it already, you know you want to see what happens!

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