As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

As I just typed the title of this book into the space for the blog title, I was struck by 

how unusual Alan Bradley's titles sound (A Red Herring without Mustard, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, etc.).  Bradley includes excerpts from great literature before each story and part of this excerpt winds up being the title.  However, these strange names also seem to set his books apart from the crowd and give them an eerie, old timey feeling.  They are weird and they work for him.

Another vacation read, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust is Bradley's seventh Flavia DeLuce novel.  I have read all 7.  

I started with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie a couple of years ago after reading that Jen Hatmaker loved the books.  I was completely hooked.  I devoured the ones that had already been published and then waited excitedly for the new books to release.  

The series follows 12 year old Flavia DeLuce as she solves various mysteries in the 1950's.  She is a chemistry genius and her home is an English manor complete with a lab she uses exclusively.  Bradley does a great job developing many of the recurring characters.  And Buckshaw (her home) feels so familiar.  

I seriously dislike series.  I avoid them like the plague (which is funny because when I was a kid I read almost all of the babysitter's club series).  However, my adoration of this series should speak to Bradley's ability with words--the books have not gotten stale or boring, they are only predictable in the ways they should be, and Bradley seems to have maintained his ability to eloquently craft a tight mystery.  

When I got the new book in January I didn't want to read it right away.  I wanted to hold off until summer so the wait for a new book wouldn't be so long (he seems to publish a new one each January).  So it sat on my shelf for a while and the anticipation was almost as fun as finding out what Flavia was up to again.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't my fave.  It was actually my least fave.  Flavia leaves her home and our usual cast of characters and enters a finishing school for girls where a mystery literally falls into her room on her first night there.  Flavia hates having to leave her home and she is constantly lamenting her banishment.  Constantly.  Perhaps this was the 12 year old girl voice in Bradley's head, but it got a little tedious for the reader.  Also, there were many page breaks and abrupt stops, "almost as if--" 

See it's not super fun.  Unfinished thoughts were often blamed on being out of sorts.  

While I understand, after six books, it may be time for a change of scenery, I missed the old characters and kept waiting for Dogger, Flavia's faithful butler, to pop out of a closet or something.  And while Flavia usually relies on facts and scientific evidence (though it's not mind numbing...I barely passed high school chemistry and still am completely smitten with Flavia) in this book she has more "feelings" that prompt her sleuthing.  Even she repeatedly tells herself that she needs to find facts and not just go on feelings.  

I'm not sure if this is the new direction for the series or not.  I will still read the next book (if there is another) and hope for the best.  I'm not terribly worried that I wasn't in love with this book--I mean, you have to have a least favorite and now I do, but I truly enjoyed and loved the others.  And with lines like this:

"Curse this life! I thought.

And then I remembered the dead body upstairs and I cheered up at once."

How can you not love Flavia?  Let's face it, we all went through a bit of an identity crisis at 12, right?

If you have never read this series, you should give it a shot.  It is fun and funny and mysterious and wonderful.  At least I think so.  

What's So Amazing About Grace

When you travel with your family I highly suggest reading something that will challenge you spiritually.  This is the third time I've done it and the results were fantastic.

Just when you start to think, "Ok, now I get to be selfish and demand my own way," you remember your book and stop yourself (most of the time).  

The book I read on our recent trip to Hawaii was What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey.  It was challenging and thought provoking and has changed my view of grace.

  

Yancey writes about the modern Christian experience with thoughtfulness and depth.  He does not leave any stone un-turned.  It was great to be reading along and have a question pop up and then have it answered in the next chapter.  He pulls from years of life experience and Bible study as he teaches about the grace of God and the grace we should have for each other.  I felt smarter reading this because every time I picked it up I learned something new about history, politics, or God.  

Grace tends to be something that seems too huge for me to distill into my daily life.  Grace is a big thing, not really necessary for the mundane.  Yancey encourages the opposite.  Every interaction can be processed through "grace-healed eyes" and even the way we perceive the things we read in the news can lead us toward a life of grace.  In our world committed to competition, "grace is not about finishing last or first; it is about not counting."  This is like a breath of fresh air.  

My two criticisms of the book were that the copy I read was slightly dated--I'm not sure if there is a more updated verison--and Yancey takes a little while to get started.  Most of the references to politicians and speakers were from the 90's.  This wasn't a huge problem, though, because so many of his examples could be easily reapplied to current events.  The first chapter of the book didn't grab my attention like I had hoped.  If I had been slightly less committed to finishing it or had other books lying around I think I would have been inclined to push this book to the side.  Fortunately, the deprivation of books while on vacation kept me focused and I pushed past the first chapter.  

 Philip Yancey must be an incredibly well read gentleman.  Throughout the book he talks about other philosophers and uses quotes from a variety of sources.  This helped to validate his claims about grace (and ungrace) and gave his writing a deeper dimension.  We are so used to reading blogs and books that just assert the author's opinion and it was kind of wonderful to read something that had been well researched.  Though it did take my brain a little time to adjust to the change.  Where were the catchy titles?  Why isn't he giving me a list of 10 things I can do to incorporate grace into my life today?  How can I possibly pin any of this???  Even searching for simple quotes to share was a little problematic because so many of his thoughts on grace are built up with the use of a few sentences.  

I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone curious about grace.  If you are a Christian you should know what sets your faith apart from so many other religious belief systems and grace is the heart of Christianity.  As I read this I became more aware of my need to forgive those around me and the role grace plays (or should play) in every day of my life--timely lessons for vacation with family...