The Good News About Bad Behavior

The Good News About Bad Behavior

Chris Mathers Jackson
Reading & Parenting

Anyone struggling with the massive disconnect between the amount of information today’s parents have available and the amount to which modern kids misbehave will likely find this book worth reading. Parents today face the troubling statistics that the majority of children today mature into addiction or mental illness by the time they reach adulthood and are grasping to find successful ways to raise strong adults.  Lewis’s model of taking the time to connect and communicate with our kids effectively, in order to grow their capability (which can only be done by teaching them skills and giving them the independence to practice, fail, and grow) offers an insightful alternative to the antiquated overly-authoritative and the reactionary overly-permissive modes of modern parenting. 

Go Set A Watchman

Go Set A Watchman

Chris Mathers Jackson
Contemporary Fiction, The Classics

Last week I listened to the audiobook of Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman narrated by Reese Witherspoon (HarperAudio, 2015) as I finished a baby quilt.  As I stitched and cut and ironed, Witherspoon’s lovely reading brought Jean Louise Finch to life.  And some of Lee’s passages were so moving, I paused in quilting to listen to them over and over again, writing them out for use here. 

Once Upon A River: A Novel

Once Upon A River: A Novel

Chris Mathers Jackson
Contemporary Fiction

Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon a River: A Novel came out in 2018, but as I began to float through its pages, it felt very Victorian in style.  Appropriate for its nineteenth-century setting, Setterfield populates her lyrical narrative with characters who embody archetypal roles: good or evil, liminal or privileged, young or old.  Also, like Dickens or Hardy, Setterfield’s novel unravels slowly as she introduces various characters whom the story eventually brings together—like tributaries of the river Thames—and it took me a while to get into the flow of the story.  

Letters from Yellowstone

Letters from Yellowstone

Chris Mathers Jackson
Reading The West, Contemporary Fiction

Diane Smith’s Letters from Yellowstone (1999) is a delightful, compelling and educational story about a fictional botany expedition into the wilds of late-nineteenth-century Yellowstone National Park. Smith inserts historically accurate details about the early years of Yellowstone National Park including cavalrymen stationed at the park and a young Native American family living quietly in its back country.

Puritans & Whalers: Reading Coastal Massachusetts

Puritans & Whalers: Reading Coastal Massachusetts

Chris Mathers Jackson
Travel Reading, The Classics, Contemporary Fiction, Nonfiction

In the weeks leading up to Halloween 2018, my family headed east to Boston and coastal Massachusetts. In addition to the Boston downtown (and all its Freedom Trail historical glory), we visited both Salem and New Bedford, Massachusetts. In preparation for our trip I chose to read Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables and Sena Jeter Naslund’s Ahab’s Wife: or, the Star Gazer (1999).

Aloha, Hawaii

Aloha, Hawaii

Chris Mathers Jackson
Travel Reading, The Classics, Nonfiction

While my husband scours the Lonely Planet and Moon guidebooks for the islands and my first grade daughter eagerly listens to geographical and historical information set out in the Hawaii: The Aloha State book (one of a set of the fifty states) she found in the children’s section of our library, I opt for more literary preparation: Sarah Vowell’s Unfamiliar Fishes, The Story of Hawaii by Hawaii’s Queen, Jack London’s Hawaii stories and Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii.

A Literary Tea Party

A Literary Tea Party

Chris Mathers Jackson
Cookbook, Nonfiction

Alison Walsh’s 2018 literary cookbook, A Literary Tea Party: Blends and Treats for Alice, Bilbo, Dorothy, Jo, and Book Lovers Everywhere, is one of the best books I stumbled upon at my public library last year. Published by Skyhorse Publishing, Walsh’s book combines beautiful pictures with easy-to-follow recipes inspired by some of my favorite stories.