It's Home Ec, right?

We haven't started "school" yet for the year, but instead we're engaged in moving our household! This is going to be the "SchoolRoom", and Hypatia is really excited by the built in bookshelves. She put all the books up on them, and has been telling folks that "we have our own LIBRARY!"

Top 100 SciFi/Fantasy Books, as compiled by NPR

I like this list, and I thought I'd post it here with the ones that I've read bolded, and a star next to my favorites.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert

5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin

6. 1984, by George Orwell

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan

13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore

16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein *

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss

19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut *

20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick

22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood **

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke

25. The Stand, by Stephen King *

26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut **

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman

30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams

33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey

34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller

36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne

38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys

39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells

40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings

42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson

44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White

48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke

50. Contact, by Carl Sagan

51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons

52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

54. World War Z, by Max Brooks

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman

57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett

58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson

59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold

60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett ***

61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind

63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy **

64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke *

65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist *

67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks

68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard

69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb

70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson

72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne

73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore

74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi

75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson

76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke

77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey

78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin

79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson

82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde

83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks

84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart

85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher

87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn

89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan

90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock

91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury

92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley

93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge

94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov

95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson

96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville

99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony

100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

So there are some ideas for the next time I have time to read fiction! What are you shocked I haven't read? What do I simply HAVE to put on my TBR pile?

“Gearing Up” for Back to School

(This is what I wrote for the church newsletter this month)

In the cycle of the year for most families, the school schedule is a driving force. And here we are, in “Back to School Season”, with the kids going back to school, the young adults headed off to college, and an adjustment in everyone’s schedules and routines. We follow that same schedule for the church year, so there is a gear up of church activities and programs as well.

I am currently being inundated with catalogs for all my Back to School Shopping. Catalogs full of backpacks, kids clothing, lunch boxes, and art supplies are stuffed in my mailbox, along with schedules from ballet schools, the community center, the YMCA, and multiple other places my kids could go take an extracurricular class this fall. The stores are full of it all as well. And yet a friend recently commented that she wished she could “buy a good attitude at [giant box store]”.

You can’t buy a good attitude from a catalog or a box store. There is no line on the Back to School shopping list for “curiosity”, or “cheerfulness”, or even “energy and resiliency” (although good nutrition and sleep might help that one). And yet all of these intangibles will probably matter more than what brand of jeans your daughter is wearing or whether your son has a cool lunch box or not.

It’s not just this time of year that presents us with this conundrum. As our culture is increasingly consumer-oriented and materialistic, every time of year presents us with a new shopping list and a chance to go out and buy something, and most projects or goals come with a shopping list as well. Want to get in shape? Buy a new workout outfit. Want to get organized and clean the house? You’ll probably need to go buy some cool plastic containers first. But you still can’t buy the motivation or the follow-through to actually get those projects done.

So I am making a Back to School list that has nothing to do with shopping:

• · A lively sense of curiosity and desire to learn
• · A welcoming and safe community for all our children
• · Trustworthy and inspiring adults in every child’s life
• · Enough time to Just Be
• · Silliness and laughter and fun
• · Time spent Outside, in connection to nature
• · Acceptance of each child’s special uniqueness
• · Dreams to dream, ideas to ponder, and mysteries to explore

I suppose a pencil and paper wouldn’t hurt, as well, but there you have it. How can we give that to our children? How can that be there for ALL children? That is the Back to School project we should give our time and attention to. And that is what I hope all our children will find as they go back to school this month. Happy Back-to-School to you all!

The coolest castle I've ever seen

Vadjahunyad Castle. Amazing.

Hiking in Torda Gorge, Romania

We had a lovely little hike while we were in Romania, through the Torda Gorge.

Unitarian Pilgrimages in Transylvania

Transylvania was the cradle of Unitarianism, so my recent trip with some of our high school youth was a pilgrimage. Francis David founded the first Unitarian church in Transylvania, and was apparently a very compelling preacher leading to the conversion of the King, John Sigismund, and most of the population.

The city of Kolozsvar is the center of Transylvanian Unitarianism, and it is here that Francis David is said to have stood on this rock to deliver the sermon that explained the tenets of Unitarianism and was so inspiring that it converted the whole city.

The rock is kept in the First Unitarian Church of Transylvania, in Kolozsvar.

But the King, rather than mandating that all should be Unitarians, instead issued the Edict of Torda, that declared toleration for all the churches and that people could choose what religion they wished to follow. This was during the Reformation, and this was unheard of - to say that all the churches would be tolerated side by side.

Here is an embroidered version of a famous picture of Francis David speaking before the King and the court:

Here is the Church of the Edict, subsequently reclaimed as a Catholic church again:

It all only lasted a few years, however, for King John Sigismund died young without a son, and the next King was Catholic and lead a counter-Reformation. Francis David's theology was deemed too dangerous, and he was imprisoned in the fortress of Deva, where he died. The trip up the hill to the fortress of Deva was pretty amazing, but the fortress itself is a ruin:

It wasn't exactly earth-moving to see these historical places, but I did feel a sense of deep satisfaction, for want of a better word, to journey back to the beginning, to see these old places, and to think about the remarkable struggles that occurred during that time period.

Related posts from my trip last year:

Church Sanctuaries

And a Bit More Unitarian Content

Kopjafa

I'm Back!

Traveling is fun, but Home is Sweet.