How About 2 MORE Christmas Gift Ideas and, Signing Off….
Friends! Happy Advent season!!! I’m writing today on Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent (12/7), and am praying we all will endeavor to savor every day and cherish the reason for the season: Christ’s birth.
So, I have two more Christmas gift ideas🎁 for you! Both are for adults, and one perhaps more for males, however, I found this book especially interesting. Funny, the first book we’ll discuss was recommended to several of our friends via a retired ninety-year-old minister who’s obviously very well-read.
The book? The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-year-old Man by David Von Drehle.
Spoiler alert (if our boys are reading this, LOL): I’ve ordered them a copy of this book for Christmas. It’s filled with astonishing stories and loaded with pearls of wisdom. The other amazing thing about this book is the author, David Von Drehle, didn’t even meet Charlie until he was 102 years old. Ponder that!
Let’s also consider some of David’s endorsers. How about this one from none other than Tom Hanks? “I gotta recommend this book, filled with history, wisdom, common sense, and laughs galore. I wish I had lived across the street from Charlie AND that I make it to 109!”
Forbes magazine said, “Excellent…Von Drehle gave his kids, kids in general, and people in general a how-to on life, and an important look back to the way life used to be. Hopefully it will alert them to how good they have it now. And is life ever good now! Read The Book of Charlie to see why.”
Early into the book we discover the impetus for David to write this. He realizes his children are growing up way too fast and wanted to find a way to write a book for them, “unlocking the secrets of life inside the storm.” He reveals, “I would’ve gone to the ends of the Earth to find such a tale. But that proved unnecessary, because one blazing August morning I looked up from my driveway and saw my story standing there, just across the street.”
There was Charlie White, at a robust 102 years of age, washing his girlfriend’s car (yes, I did say girlfriend!) all the while using a pitching wedge for a cane and “carrying it with panache.” We readers fall in love with him instantly.
Plus, we become blessed by our author David’s writing. It’s clever and compelling on every page. His extensive career in journalism clearly enhances our reading experience, his most recent stint being with the Washington Post.
We quickly learn several admirable traits about Charlie:
“Life seems to rest more lightly on him than on other men.”
“ He possessed the distinctive quality of grateful attention to the details of life—a joie de vivre.”
“Life can be savored even tho’ it contains hardship, disappointment, loss, and even brutality. The choice to see beauty is available to us at every moment.”
“He made an art of living.”
“He was a case study in how to thrive.”
Let’s also consider Charlie’s age (he lived to be 109 years old) and what all he lived thru’. I found this jaw-dropping—check this out:
“Charlie was among the last living Americans from the presidency of William Howard Taft,
Among the last surviving officers of World War II,
Among the last physicians who knew what it was like to practice medicine before penicillin,
Among the last Americans who could say what it was like to drive an automobile before highways existed,
Among the last people who felt amazement when pictures moved on a screen, and sound emerged from a box.
By the time Charlie passed, he lived nearly half the history of the United States.
Born years before Walter P. Chrysler built his first car, Charlie was still around more than seven decades after Chrysler’s death.”
Charlie was raised on a farm in Missouri and his father was a preacher. He must’ve had a profound effect on Charlie as he quoted many of his Father’s sermons to David. One favorite quote is:
A fun fact I adored discovering is Charlie’s Dad attended the University of Kentucky. (CATS! CATS! CATS!). It only follows he’d choose to go into the ministry. Kentucky is a religious experience after all. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
When Charlie was only eight years old, his Father died in a freak accident leaving his mother with five children to raise. David said Charlie’s tone changed after sharing of this tragedy.
It was his Mother’s confidence in him that spurred him on to be quite the resilient overcomer. You won’t believe some of his antics he tackled and with great success, of course, including wild stories from his medical school days. (Don’t miss these!) This book is a must-read, and would be a stellar gift for your friends or family this Christmas.
My discovery of the 2nd book recommendation for you came from a Bible study class I recently attended. My friend, Lynn, brought a book to show our friend, Mary, who in turn showed it to me! A gorgeous coffee table book, it offers two beautiful activities:
First, the text in the book is written by retired minister, Robin Jennings, from St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church, here in Louisville. He pastored their church for thirty-five years. His text is by and large reflections from the psalms. The photographs are taken by Bill Blodgett and will take your breath away.
The title is: Look at the Birds of the Air: Find Inspiration from Creation to Lift Your Soul and Spirit. Text by Robin T. Jennings and Photography by William L. Blodgett, Jr.
Here’s the beautiful cover:
Mary and I got to meet with Robin one afternoon in his home. Such a treat! We each purchased a book for our husbands for Christmas plus I got one for our new neighbors in Naples (one of which also hails from Louisville) who adore birds like we do. My current Florida favorite is the majestic egret. The below pic was taken in our back yard in Naples:
Robin shared with us it was his ten-year-old grandson who got him thinking about a “picture book.” His grandson visited Robin one afternoon in his office which houses many of the books Robin’s written. While reading a little of one book, he said, “Papa these books are hard to read. You should put pictures in them.” Out of the mouths of babes, right?!
Robin told us, “Just one day later, I received an email from Bill Blodgett with a photograph of a bird and a caption. Bill sends weekly bird photographs….so on the heels of my grandson’s comment, and looking at Bill’s email, I called him and encouraged him to collect his photographs he’s been sending and put them into a book. He wasn’t sure how to go about developing a book and asked if we could collaborate on such a project. This was the beginning of a new adventure for two retired guys.”
I’ll also go so far as to say this book is grand for all ages. Case in point: our six-year-old grandson was looking thru’ it and loves it. He “marked his page” for when he comes back to visit. He was amused to see a chipmunk on one page as well as an iguana on another—so there are more than just birds in the book!
Robin tells us, “the title of the book is from the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus tells his listeners to ‘Look at the birds of the air’ (Matthew 6:26)…This is one of the learnings I take from the book. Yes, there are times I do worry. I’m not alone. Worry leads us into a dark place.
Look at the Birds of the Air has been an encouragement for me to change my lens—much like a photographer. Rather than focusing on the matters of darkness, change the lens which celebrates the gift of Creation and brings light.”
Robin adds, “By looking at the birds thru’ the lens of light both around us and within, the reader will naturally look for beauty, wisdom, majesty, and all that is good with the world.”
Don’t miss this exquisite book! You’ll want to share it with your friends and family!
One last word, which is really my last word: I’ve recently had an “aha” moment realizing I’ve been blogging/reviewing books since 2012. How can that be?!! While I still have a pile of books I’d love to share with you, I feel this “page” of this season has closed this “book.” Will I write more? I pray so. And, I plan on continuing helping with a couple of Bible studies, plus I’m in the early stages of writing a children’s book for each of our grand angels, Lord willing…
Finally, I have two “right hand men” to thank: 1 is my sweet husband of almost forty-two years, John Hoagland, Sr., a/k/a “Editor Extraordinaire.” He catches typos like professional fishermen catch fish. And the other, is my dear friend and techno wizard who’s really a “right hand woman”, a/k/a Kelly McDonald. Nancy Tinnell gifted me with Kelly, lo these many years ago, and she’s assembled every post I’ve ever posted. God bless her and thank you, Kelly!
Kelly’s just gotten a new job which prohibits her from working on these posts during the week, plus she’s super busy with her family on the weekends, so between her need to “retire” from this and my feeling of “this has run its’ course,” I’d like to thank you all for your sweet comments and sharing of these posts, etc. The whole experience prepared me to write a book and to engage with many authors on many occasions. It’s been a beautiful blessing. I’ve learned just when you think you cannot do something, the Lord willing show you otherwise!
To God be the Glory!
Amen.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are “affiliate links.”