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Meet a Reader: Sylvia Standaert

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Here’s August’s “Meet a Reader,”  the monthly feature that also appears on the Book Page of the Catholic Post.
If you have a suggestion of someone that would be a good subject for a future “Meet a Reader” column, please leave a comment!
Who:  Sylvia Standaert, librarian, Our Lady of Grace Academy (formerly St. Anne School), East Moline
I was born with Cerebral Palsy but because of my parents’ dedication and my determination and tenacity, it has never deterred me from reaching my goals.  I have worked in a Pre-school-8th grade school library (Our Lady of Grace Catholic Academy formerly St. Anne School) for 43 years.  The kids keep me going.  I have two older brothers, Gene and Jim, and enjoy their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  My hobbies include collecting Longaberger baskets, reading, shopping and travel.  I have visited 46 states and 14 countries.
Why do you love reading?
I have read voraciously since the first day I could read.  It might have stemmed from the fact that it was something I could do despite my handicap, but I can’t imagine being without a book.  Books can take you anyplace you want to go, and make you feel like you are part of the characters’ lives.   Books can teach you anything you want to learn about any subject imaginable.
What is your favorite book? 
My favorite book is The Bears Visit the Library, a book I wrote and my niece/godchild Michele illustrated. (Michele is an artist in Arizona).  The Bears Visit the Library is based on a program I do each year with the kindergarten class at our school.  When we started the kindergarten at the school, I thought using my extensive collection of teddy bears could be a great way to relay the importance of reading and using the library to a group of very inquisitive five-year-olds.   I usually start my bear curriculum in January, about the time the kindergarten teacher is doing something with polar bears.   As the school year progresses, brown bears appear, as do holiday, gardening and sports bears.
What are you currently reading? Mysteries are my favorite genre.   I just finished a Charlotte LaRue Mystery “Death Tidies Up by Barbara Coley.  Charlotte has a maid service and keeps finding dead bodies in unusual places.  I love the Abby and Ophelia mystery series by Shirley Damsgaard, including the latest in the series, “The Seventh Witch.”  Ophelia is a small town librarian, and she and her grandmother Abby have some very “magickal” powers.   Other favorite authors include Joanne Fluke, Mary Higgins Clark, Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts and John Grisham.

Grace Before Meals Offers Healthy Servings of Ideas & Recipes for Family Mealtimes

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Father Leo Patalinghug,well-known cooking priest, who defeated Bobby Flay on the Food Network’s “Throwdown,” has a new version of his book, Grace Before Meals,  as part of his ministry (www.gracebeforemeals.com) to strengthen family relationships around the dinner table.
So let me start by saying, bless us, Father Leo, for our family has sinned:
Sometimes, we eat fast food in the minvan.
Sometimes, we don’t eat together. 
Sometimes we eat in front of the television (but it’s always an educational show, I promise you—“ The Next Food Network Star” and “Gilligan’s Island” count as educational shows, right?).
Some of us eat pie for breakfast, when there’s pie around.
Some of the younger of us don’t like to stay seated.
I’m sure we’re not the only family to break the rules of what constitutes a “good dinner” or a “good meal.”   That’s why Grace Before Meals is such a great resource.
Grace Before Meals is not a “rule book,” but encouragement and some great tools to challenge families to gather around the table and create special traditions regarding mealtime.   Themed chapters focus on traditions and recipes for different times, from the common (New Year’s Day, Mother’s Day), to the not-so-common (sports teams, the Feast of the Sacred Heart).
Many things make this book worthwhile to have on your cookbook shelf, but two features stand out:
*First, the recipes.  While some are not exactly health-conscious, they are largely made with wholesome natural ingredients.  Available in the new version of Fr. Leo’s book is the secret recipe for his “fusion fajitas” with which Father Leo beat Bobby Flay on “Throwdown.”  My only “beef”  (pun intended) is that there are not photos of the finished dishes, something I love in cookbooks.
*Second, the “Let’s Talk…Let’s Listen” section at the end of each chapter.  The questions are great conversation starters, and “Let’s Listen” provide some scripture verses to look up and share regarding the topic.
For instance, in the Father’s Day meal section, questions include, “Do you think it’s harder to be a mom or a dad? Why? “ and “Which television fathers are the most realistic?”
Recently, I was part of a conversation with a group of moms about whether the old-fashioned “family dinner” is required for connected, happy family life.   Why not other mealtimes, like breakfast, or other activities, like game nights or excursions, to build closeness?
G.K. Chesterton, a man who clearly loved meals, pointed out, that meals are sacred, but so is all of life:
“You say grace before meals.  All right.  But I say grace before the play and before the opera, and grace before the concert and the pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing; and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
As Chesterton says, it’s not an either/or.  Family connections can be built around any sort of activity, though there’s something unique about cooking and mealtimes that foster connection and conversation. 
The cooking and the mealtimes are going to look different in every family, and Grace Before Meals reminds us to make those family connections and conversation a priority. 

A Month of Food for Thought: Your Family’s Favorite Grace Before Meals?

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This month’s theme at the Catholic Post Book Group is food, since the reviewed book for this month is cooking priest Father Leo Patalinghug’s new edition of Grace Before Meals, a cookbook that encourages family mealtimes for both spiritual and physical reasons.  I’m very enthusiastic about this book, and I have Fr. Leo’s famous Throwdown-winning fajita recipe  ready to try at our house sometime this month.  My review will post tomorrow, and also appear in in the print Catholic Post this weekend.

What I hope to do this month is share and learn ideas about food & mealtimes, and how that can enrich family life and family spirituality.  I hope you’ll join in and share!

First up:  what is your family’s favorite grace?  At our house we use the standard, “Bless us O Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen.”  Occasionally (or not so occasionally, for breakfast and lunch),  we are saying, “which we are receiving from thy bounty” when we forget to say grace before meals.  How about at your house?

First, What are You Reading? Volume 1, August 2010

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Without further ado, here are the questions and my answers for this first volume of “First, What are You Reading?”

If you want to read about my thinking for this new feature, read my previous post here.

First, what are you reading?

What do you like best about it?
Too often we think that we have to make big grand changes in life to really make a difference, but this book argues persuasively that small changes can make a huge difference in business, relationships, and health. 
Most fascinating in this book was learning that self-control is finite.  The authors quote numerous studies to show that once you “use up” your self-control resisting, say, chocolate chip cookies, you are less likely to persist in say, writing your next column, instead of checking Facebook or watching Gilligan’s Island episodes with your kids. (Not that I have any experience with either of those situations, LOL).
The authors show that if you can direct the rider (the self-control), motivate the elephant (the passions), and shape the path (control the environment), change becomes much easier.
What do you like least about it?
Not much.  It’s really that good. 
One funny story:  The book has exhaustive chapter notes at the back that are actually quite fascinating and informative.  One of the chapter notes recommends the book, “Divorce Busters” as a book anyone should read to strengthen relationships.  I immediately put it on hold online to arrive at our local library, and when it arrived it raised some eyebrows from the excellent library ladies who know me so well at our small library.
What is next on your list to read?
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.  I’ve seen several Facebook friends recommend this young adult  (YA) series, and so I’m planning to dive in.  It looks like not my kind of YA fiction, but I’m keeping an open mind.
I am also working my way through quite a few books about and by Cardinal John Henry Newman, as one of those books will be our September selection at the Catholic Post Book Group, since he will be beatified in September.
If you are a blogger, please consider using the Mr. Linky post at the bottom.  Don’t forget to link back to here so others visiting your blog can also join in the fun!
If you are not a blogger, please take a moment to leave a comment and share what you are reading—even just the title and author is fine, though your one or more sentence review would be great.

Here are the four questions again.  You can answer any or all:
First, what are you reading?
What do you like best about it?
What do you like least about it?
What is next on your list to read?

If you are a blogger, please consider using the Mr. Linky post at the bottom.  Don’t forget to link back to here so others visiting your blog can also join in the fun!
If you are not a blogger, please take a moment to leave a comment and share what you are reading—even just the title and author is fine, though your one or more sentence review would be great.

 

 

I look forward to hearing about your “reads.”

Upcoming New Feature for the First of Each Month: First, What are You Reading?

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On the first of every month, I want to encourage all us readers and/or reader/bloggers out there to share a little about what you have been reading.  I love getting book suggestions from others.  My library hold list and Amazon wish list grow every time I visit someone’s blog who recommends a book.
This is not just for Catholic books or Catholic readers, but truly, catholic (as in universal/everyone) readers and books.  So get creative!
I named it as I did because this is my default question when getting to know someone or to find out what a friend is up to lately, mind-wise.  “What are you reading these days?”  To me, it’s the easiest way to spark a conversation or find out more about someone I think I might know well.
You’ll see in my first post that I’ve only focused on one book, although like many readers, I have quite a few books going.  Also, I read this book earlier this summer, but I found so many good take-away points from it.  You may want to focus on one too, but by all means write about several if that suits your writing style or purpose.
Also, for the first month, I’ve kept my answers relatively short.  You may want to write longer about a book you love, or just give some quick responses.  It’s all up to you.

Here are the questions that will be asked of you every “first” of the month:
First, what are you reading?
What do you like best about it?
What do you like least about it?
What is next on your list to read?

When you do decide to write on your blog about what you are reading, there will be a Mr. Linky to link back to this blog, so everyone can share together.  If you’re not a blogger, you can leave a comment in the “First, What Are You Reading”post on August 1. 
I hope to see you there!

Did you know the Wardrobe Into Narnia is in Illinois?

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(Note:  I had intended to post today a compilation of other books along the lines of Mary Eberstadt’s The Loser Letters, but this post will have to wait for later, so I can report about finding here in Illinois a great gem of a museum featuring C.S. Lewis, whose Screwtape Letters inspired this genre of epistolary fiction.)


Did you know the wardrobe into Narnia is in Illinois?


I didn’t, until my husband took our family on a mid-summer trip to Chicagoland, one of his goals to show us a little-known center at Wheaton College.  A friend had told him that C.S. Lewis’ desk and other article belonging to a group of English authors, and he thought this would be a good chance to see the Center.

Of course, we are a huge C.S. Lewis family, having read Narnia multiple times as a family and seen the movies.  We are anxiously awaiting the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader December 10, and hoping it will be more true to the book than was Prince Caspian.   My husband is a particular fan of G.K. Chesterton, and I have loved Tolkien since I was a teenager.  

But we weren’t really sure what to expect at the  Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College.  

I am happy to report that it is really worth a visit for older children and adults, if just to see the famous wardrobe.



The photo is not the best, flash photography not being allowed.    The wardrobe was handmade and carved by C.S. Lewis’ grandfather, and is the wardrobe that inspired him in portions of writing The Chronicles of Narnia.  It was bought by the Wade Center at auction in 1973 and has been there ever since.

The Center is devoted to the writings of seven English authors:   Owen Barfield, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkein, and Charles Williams.  I know and have read all the authors except for Barfield and Williams, and am very happy to discover a few new authors I hope to enjoy.

The center is a small one-room museum (and much larger reading center with much scholarship and papers of the authors).  The museum has information and artifacts from all seven authors.  Most prominent are books and a desk of J.R.R. Tolkein, where he wrote The Hobbit and parts of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy; C.S. Lewis’ desk; and the famous wardrobe.

Here is the coolest thing about the wardrobe:  it opens.  My children, who are not particularly adventurous, could not resist trying to open the wardrobe (gently of course!), while my husband and I made jokes about, “Where are the parents of those children trying to get into the wardrobe?”



Inside the wardrobe, as you can see, are fur and other winter coats, and a small sign that reads something along the lines of, “The Wade Center is not responsible for any occurrences if you enter the wardrobe.”  


We spent a nice hour or reading about the authors, seeing the displays, including several cases of extremely interesting props from the Disney Narnia movies.  We bought quite a few postcards, notecards and other items from the small giftshop.  All in all, a nice visit and a worthwhile excursion.