the unlikely orange

do you love the smell of a used bookstore? if you are walking down the street of some small town and you see an untidy little book shop nestled between some boutique for old rich women and a great grey square bank, do you feel that the universe might collapse in on itself if you don't go inside and possibly even buy something? do you think that stories are more than just little black squiggles on a page?  that they have the power to change us...to move us...to connect us in ways we desperately need? if your answer to any of these is "yes," then i have just finished a book that you should read. "the storied life of a.j. fikry" was an unexpected gift to me from a friend, and it turns out that one of the best gifts imaginable is a book you didn't know existed.  further, it turns out that said book can captivate your imagination and, if the timing is right, do far more than entertain you for a few hours.  heck, it even turns out that it might just ...

this weekend our little caedmon turned eight years old.  our family tradition is to have a bigger birthday party for their eighth birthday party, and you may remember jackson's a couple of years ago.  normally, we just have family parties, but when they turn eight they get to invite their whole class from school and we go all out with a theme.  some may say that we go "over the top," which may indeed be the croatian meaning of "milinovich," but we can't be sure.  regardless, like any pole-vaulter worth their salt will tell you, there's only one way to go, and that's over the top. cade wanted a narnia theme, so we worked hard to make the entrance to the church basement the wardrobe door, which, when opened, revealed a rack of coats and furs.  Once you passed through the coats, you came to a group of evergreen trees, in a snowy white room, punctuated proudly by a beautifully handmade lamppost, which actually lit up!  many thanks to shannon...

a couple of weeks ago, after encouraging jackson to read it, i was inspired to read a series i had read before in my early teen years, and i am so pleased that i did. i had read lloyd alexander's "prydain chronicles" some 25 years ago, but had forgotten a great many of the details of the story that make this such a rich literary adventure.  reading it again, here in my late 30's, was just as rewarding as i remember it being when i was a teenager, if not more so. the series consists of five books, admittedly aimed at younger readers, (but literature aimed at younger readers in the 1960's feels a bit more advanced than much of what is aimed at 13-year olds today), which tell the story of a young man who lives and operates under the undistinguished title of "assistant pig keeper."  this lowly position is held by a boy named Taran, who wants more than anything to be a hero.  eventually, the adventures of his life afford him the opportunity to become j...

attention potterheads:  in case you missed it, j.k. rowling has written a (very) short little vignette as a tasty update on the harry potter stories. it appeared on her pottermore website under "the daily prophet" section, and is written as if that nosy, nebbing reporter, rita skeeter, was reporting on some potter "gossip" at the quidditch world cup. rita writes about harry and ginny, ron and hermione, now in their mid-thirties, with children of their own, taking some time off to get away with some friends (neville longbottom, luna lovegood, etc.) to catch a big quidditch match. the piece offers some tasty morsels and updates on what has happened to the crew since we last said goodbye (tearfully, in my case) to them, and also, at least for about 150 seconds, makes you feel like you are back in rowling's amazing world of magic. finally, the final paragraph of the pice COULD be construed as a hint that there is more harry potter material down the road. one can onl...

okay, i'm not really a book reviewer, and i really don't know the first thing about what a book review is "supposed" to be like.  i simply like to reflect after reading a book about what was worthwhile and what was not.  in this case?   wow. laura hillenbrand (author of seabiscuit) has written an unbelievable story of one man's life, and it would be unforgivable if you chose not to read it.  i am unlimited in my praise for this story.  okay, enough uns. but seriously, this book is ridiculous.  shannon had read it awhile ago and said that of all the books she has read, this one really sticks with her perhaps more than any, and she really wanted to me to read it.  so i did.  and boy am i glad, too.  it is a biography of the life of louis zamperini, whom, if you are like me, you may have never heard of.  which is a darn shame.  he should be more famous than lady gaga, miley cyrus and justin beiber combined. the story is so am...

evangeline   it is a word that comes from the latin "evangelium," which means 'gospel.'  literally, though, it is a combination of the words "good" and "news." good news. evangeline  is also the name of an epic poem by henry wadsworth longfellow, published in 1847.  sometime in late 1996 or early 1997, i bought a beautiful copy of the poem, in hardcover, in a little curiosity store north of pittsburgh.  i had a plan. i was already planning on asking shannon, whom i had courted with reckless abandon, to marry me.  we were going to go to pittsburgh to see a production of les miserables, and i told her that my parents had won tickets and weren't able to attend.  i planned to take her to a fancy restaurant on mt. washington, attend the show, then head back up the incline, where i would ask her to marry me.  i knew that if she said yes, it would mean about 14 months of engagement, and i had a sense that i wanted to keep a log of that time s...

just finished a really fun book (at least for me) called "the silver chalice" by one thomas costain, whom i confess to know nearly nothing about.  i had seen this book turn up on shelf after shelf of book sales and finally decided to give it a try, and boy am i glad i did!  it was a new york times best seller back in the early 1950's, and was subsequently turned into a motion picture, starring paul newman (in his film debut). "the silver chalice" tells the story of basil, a young boy who, by a strange turn, enters into an entitled life of luxury and power, but has it all unjustly ripped away from him.  the book, then, becomes a story about his coming to faith in the first century after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  the story begins in antioch, but has significant sections in jerusalem, in rome, and in the areas between.  as a work of historical fiction, it is a wonderful little portrait of first century christianity, even if it does feel like its be...

i'm not sure how i ended up with a copy of bernhard schlink's "the reader" on my shelf, but there it was, and, looking for something to read this weekend, i picked it up and read it.  in one 24 hour period. it's not that it is that gripping, but that it is indeed that short.  i don't know what the official literary distinction is between a novel and a short story, but this must be near the boundary lands. however, just because it is short doesn't mean it doesn't pack a punch.  it does.  and, in my opinion, it lands said punch right to the gut with powerful force. i knew nothing about this book going into it, but i must offer full disclosure at this point that the first part of the book details a love affair between a 37-year old woman and a 15-year boy.  while it is certainly consensual, the law doesn't allow for consensual sex with a 15-year old, and so it should be clear that this is an illegal act, and that sexual abuse, in any of its m...

i just finished reading the 600+ page book "the host" by stephenie meyer, author of the twilight series, and thought i would share my thoughts on the book briefly.  "the host" is the story of a not-too-distant future in which aliens have taken over the earth.  these aliens are called souls, and they don't so much destroy the human population as "possess" them, in a way.  i won't give away too much about the process here, but you might be able to deduce on your own that the humans become hosts for the alien species. in the case of our main character, the question becomes one of identity (among other things).  who is the person?  is she the human body and memories, or the animating spirit from another planet?  when elements of both show through, the question becomes the guiding conflict in the book, manifesting itself in all sorts of ways. while i am fairly certain that this isn't the direction meyers was going with her work, as a Christ-f...

last night i finished reading dan brown's "inferno," and i can't say i loved it that much. don't get me wrong, i love the classily brownian twists and cryptic clues, leading a trail across history, geography, science, religion, art, and literature, but this particular book felt to me like it kept getting slowed down by long sections of exposition. and while i was particularly interested in what brown might be saying about hell, the dante stuff felt a bit forced to me at times. i mean, i get it: i understand that brown is making the point that some (maybe him?) think that we are already in the inferno of population growth and overcrowding, but i had been hoping for more of a commentary on the afterlife from brown's humanist, futurist perspective.  so i didn't enjoy this as much as "angels and demons" or especially "the lost symbol," but i will say that the transhumanism stuff, with its bent towards genetic engineering, is a bit terrifyin...

a couple of weeks ago i was lucky enough to find some great tickets at a good price to go to pittsburgh and see the steelers play the chicago bears.  going to pittsburgh at any time is like a pilgrimage of sorts for me, so getting to drive dawntawn and ride the "t" over to the northshore was an absolute holy experience.  before the game, there are all sorts of pregame "festivities," including a neat setup over at stage AE, a concert venue next to heinz field.  at stage AE they have tv's everywhere, showing other nfl games, the wdve crew is there doing their live pregame stuff, there are plenty of beverages flowing, and games and concessions, and so forth.  i wandered around to check out the whole scene, and one of the things i did was fill out a survey about what radio stations i listen to.  after a while i wandered over to the stadium, and had a blast, even though the steelers folded.  i felt lucky just to be there and take it all in.  still, the ...

over the last several months i've been reading the entire chronicles of narnia by c.s. lewis to my oldest son at bedtime.  we started with the lion , the witch, and the wardrobe, and finished just two nights ago with the last battle, and while i have read them all before, it was so much better to read them with my son, to see his reactions, and to experience them as a child myself.  what a great joy.  the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe might just be my favorite, only because it is where i first walked through that wardrobe and felt the fur turning to pine needles.  it is where i was first struck by the sight of that lampost there in the woods, and mr. tumnus walking by with his arms full of packages.  no other discovery  in the series had quite the magical impact as that one.  plus, no other book in the series inspired a full-length album by a band called "the second chapter of acts" which still gets play on my turntable to this very day! (wa...

hello there!  i AM alive!  in case you had given me up for dead, i thought i would check in here at the old blogstead and verify my survival.  i was camping last weekend in the hellishly humid tropical rain forests of panama (okay, so it was really elysburg, pa), and haven't gotten my act together to write yet.  this summer has been an absolute whirlwind, as evidenced by the hundreds of pictures on my camera that need to be gone through, but shall have to wait until such a time as i can breath (also known as september).  in any case, i'm back, and here is a post about a book i read while slow-cooking in the july sun (in a tent).  there is some great secret about Jesus.  there is someone who might just be able to discover the secret, and they are on the run, being chased by those who would do anything to protect the secret.  there are twists and turns, archaeological digs and dogmatic didactics.  and i'm not even talking ab...

i just finished reading "the fault in our stars" by internet superstar john green last evening, and i found it to be a difficult experience.  it was like listening to someone present an argument that you really disagree with, but being amazed at how well, or how beautifully, they stated their belief.  but in the end, i'm still sad that he believes what he believes, and that the universe for him, isn't this incredible broken gift that doesn't point towards futility and nothingness, but beauty and life, the same kind of beauty and life that he has so wonderfully written about.  (i just reread that last sentence and realized how convoluted it was.  what i mean is this: i am saddened by his despair, especially when he obviously has such an eye for beauty).  it is a story of teenagers and cancer, and if you want to find out more about that part of the book, just look it up, well anywhere.  it has become a huge issue online about whether this is a cance...

just in case you've forgotten my profound love of that fashion underdog, the sweatervest, here is a picture of the one i wore yesterday, complete with half-windsored orange tie, oddly enough.  i know you were all dying to see it.  just like you are all so anxious to know what i've been reading and listening to.  well, who am i to make you beg?  this is what i've been reading.  it's called "divergent" by veronica roth.  it is the story of a dystopian world broken in which society has been organized into factions, based on dominant parts of each individual's personality.  i very much enjoyed it, both from the psychological/sociological viewpoint of imagining a world in which we are organized in such a way, and from the characters of the story, their agency and relationships.  it was a very easy read, and entertaining.  there are apparently two more to complete a trilogy, so i'll get right to those.  i'm sure it won't be long til t...

i finally finished this book that i've had for awhile, "one thousand gifts" by ann voskamp.  it took me awhile to get through, but i finally closed the back cover the other night with a long exhale.  this was not an easy book.  i will say this: it was exquisite.  i mean, its like pure poetry much of the time.  she writes about her simple farm life, her maternal and domestic orbit from day to day, but the way she writes it and tells it makes it feel so cosmic and artful.  in a sense, this extravagantly gorgeous way of writing serves her point well: that every moment is latent with opportunities for giving thanks.  but it is also a bit heavy handed at times, almost beating the reader over the head with beauty.  still, as you can see, i underlined a lot.  i scribbled in the margins, awed at times by her use of words.  most of the time i felt compelled to want to be a part of something as meaningful as she, but there were other time...

    finished.    this morning, just a few minutes after midnight, i finished a very compelling series of books by the man who has not only maintained his post atop by "favorite author of all time" list, but has staked a claim to that spot that will likely keep him there forever: frederick buechner .  the series is comprised of 4 books by the names of "lion country" (which i already wrote about here ), "open heart," "love feast" and "treasure hunt," and they are sometimes printed together in one volume entitled "the book of bebb" as you can see below.  as i mentioned, i already reviewed 'lion country' here on my blog, and in some ways, it was my favorite of the series, at least as a stand-alone book.  as the series goes on and the characters' deeper flaws and failures are revealed, i see more of my own ugliness in them, and maybe it feels a bit too much like a full-length mirror showing all the m...

  well, after finishing dan brown's '"the lost symbol" last week, i decided i wanted to keep devouring books, so i grabbed a buechner book off the shelf.  i've been meaning to read it for some time (probably like 9 years or so), but for some reason, i never got to it.  actually, it is the first in a series of 4 about a crazy character named Leo Bebb.  The first book is called "Lion Country" written in 1971, and it tells the story of Antonio Parr, a bit of a lost soul trying to make some sense of his mod-podge life.  Responding to an ad in the newspaper promising ordination as a minister of the gospel for a small fee, Antonio gets ordained through the mail by one Bebb.  Thinking that this might just be the break he needs to get his life on track, Antonio heads to Florida to meet Bebb and to expose him not only as a shyster, but maybe even something more salacious.  instead, however, Antonio finds that Bebb's religion and family are much messier a...

have you been wondering where i've been?  probably not.  but i'll tell you anyway.  i've been in washington dc, solving a set of cryptic riddles and puzzles made generations ago by freemasons trying to protect some ancient, secret knowledge.  okay, not really.  but i did stay in a holiday inn express last night. okay, not that, either.  but i did read a book about it.  not the holiday inn express, but the first one.  it was by dan brown, the author of the davinci code (insert the sound of christian fundamentalists shaking with a peculiar mix of fear and rage here), and the book is somewhat of a  mystery to me because it was being used as a riser under some Christmas decorations that shannon had on our piano. when we put away the decorations, there was this book.  i had never seen it, or even heard of it, before.  but there it was.  the lost symbol.  so i started it on saturday night.  and 508 pages later, ...

here at the milinovich house, we read almost every night before bed, and are always looking for new and engaging stories to help us explore the world, learn new things, laugh, and feel deeply.  as a parent, i want to instill in my children a love of reading that will last for them into their adulthood, while at the same time helping with their development and modeling the importance of reading.  i tend to read dramatically, so they can hear the voices of the characters and really feel that they are meeting new people when they read.  plus, i love doing it, so it works out well.    recently we had borrowed a huge book (533 pages!) from the library, and thought we'd delve into it.  it is called "the invention of hugo cabret" by brian selznick, and is probably better known to many as "hugo" which was the name of the movie adaptation by spielberg and martin scorcese.  more on the movie in a moment.  first, the book.    we loved th...