What I Read January - July [From the Book Pile 2020]
We’ve made it mid-way through 2020 and that’s an extraordinary achievement this year! I normally don’t wait six months to share what I’ve been reading, but “normal” isn’t exactly the standard any of us are living by right now, is it? While I was digging through my photos to find an image for this post I kept thinking “Why don’t I have any pictures of me reading books out in public or the bookstores I’ve visited like I usually share here?” Seriously, I kept swiping for a while, and then it dawned on me.
Oh, right. Pandemic.
Same thing when I looked at the assortment of reading I’ve done so far this year. I mean it’s not a bad collection by any means, but other than a few titles kind of an odd assortment of older and even obscure titles.
Oh, right.
Like the rest of you, I haven’t been to the library in ages and I decided to (mostly) catch up on reading the books I’ve gathered through the years from used bookstores and library sales. The ones that caught my eye because I appreciate the author or the title intrigued me. Whenever I happened to be in the same general location of friends’ homes, I raided their shelves, too. My tag line for these reading updates “From the Book Pile” has never been more literal.
I hope you enjoy this dive into the long-neglected titles on my bookshelves and find something that piques your interest.
Happy reading,
Tamara
p.s., Last book post I shared a photo of my unpacked home office from a couple of weeks after we moved into our new place. The good news in 2020 is that I’ve had time to organize. So here’s the “after” picture for your enjoyment.
What've YOU been reading lately? Drop me a comment below!
You can see my 2019 reading list here. | You can see all my reading lists since 2006 here.
One other note: A couple years ago I began using Amazon affiliate links as a way to bring in some pocket change from the books I share on the blog. I was challenged by an independent bookseller to reconsider this strategy as Amazon has a horrible reputation in its dealings with authors and other members of the book industry. I want to champion local business and humane working relationships and so I've included an IndieBound link that will direct you to purchase any of the following books from an independent bookseller near you. I've also included the order link for one of my new favorite booksellers, Hearts and Minds Books. Using the link I've provided you can order any book through heartsandmindsbooks.com, a full service, independent bookstore and receive prompt and personal service. They even offer the option to receive the order with an invoice and a return envelope so you can send them a check! Brian and I've been delighted with the generous attention we've received from owners Byron and Beth Borger. We feel like we've made new friends! (I also highly recommend subscribing to Byron's passionately instructive and prolific Booknotes posts.)
Spiritual Non-Fiction / Theology / Spiritual Disciplines
1. Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith
By Kathleen Norris (Riverhead Books, 1999. 384 pages)
Amazon | IndieBound | Hearts & Minds Booksellers
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Cloister Walk, a book about Christianity, spirituality, and rediscovered faith.
“Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgment," "faith," "dogma," "salvation," "sinner"—even "Christ"—formed what she called her "scary vocabulary," words that had become so codified or abstract that their meanings were all but impenetrable. She found she had to wrestle with them and make them her own before they could confer their blessings and their grace. Blending history, theology, storytelling, etymology, and memoir, Norris uses these words as a starting point for reflection, and offers a moving account of her own gradual conversion. She evokes a rich spirituality rooted firmly in the chaos of everyday life—and offers believers and doubters alike an illuminating perspective on how we can embrace ancient traditions and find faith in the contemporary world.”
Micro Review: Kathleen Norris is one of my favorite authors so I snagged this title at a library sale a couple of summers ago. While I loved the concept of this book - short theological and literary reflections on the language used so often in Church it’s picked up baggage along the way - this isn’t my favorite title from Norris. I felt like her ruminations were inconsistent in actually opening readers’ hearts and minds to the theological grounding for much of the language we use. Ms. Norris excels in providing literary and historic context with a beautiful balance of gravitas and cheekiness, but I found the theological substance of her reflections sometimes more reductive than illuminating.
Notable Quote:
“‘I just don’t understand how you can get so much comfort from a religion whose language does so much harm.”
…I realized that what troubled me most was her use of the word “comfort,” so in my reply I addressed that first. I said that I didn’t think it was comfort I was seeking, or comfort that I’d found. Look, I said to her, as a rush of words came to me. As far as I’m concerned, this religion has saved my life, my husband’s life, and our marriage. So it’s not comfort that I’m talking about but salvation.”
2. At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us
By Margaret Guenther (Seabury Books, 2006. 183 pages)
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“From informal versions of the Rule of St. Benedict to Twelve-Step groups and Weight Watchers, the basic human need for guidance and structure in the quest for wholeness is palpable and real. Out of her long experience as a spiritual director, mentor, and teacher, Margaret Guenther offers a warm and sensible guide for the rest of us -- singles, couples, parents, extended families, members of churches -- to create a helpful and balanced rule of life to help us in our search for faith.
She explores ancient and contemporary meanings for the classic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, along with the distinctively Benedictine ethos of stability and conversion, pointing out the pitfalls of each. A series of short essays follows on the different elements of a rule of life -- such as authority, money, pleasure, stinginess, friends, enemies, and living through hard times. The final chapter gives practical ideas for crafting a rule of life that encourages each of us to grow, stretch, and flourish.”
Micro Review: I read this to help me prepare for the series, Cultivating A Rule of Life, I offered my patrons at A Sacramental Life Community on Patreon at the start of the year. Margaret Guenther’s Holy Listening was a core text for my certification as a Spiritual Director and one of the titles I most appreciated. I found this book inspiring, encouraging, and practically helpful - a wonderful combination of qualities for those wanting to develop the spiritual practice of living from a Rule of Life. Recommend!
Notable Quote:
“Since we are always changing and - I hope - growing, a rule does not need to be perfect or complete. Remember it is a provisional document, neither a constricting garment we can outgrow nor a rulebook to be consulted anxiously before every move. Rather, I prefer to treat my rule of life as I treat my grocery list. I organize it meticulously, separating dairy from produce, and baked goods from cleaning products. If I am feeling especially fussy, I organize the menu according to the layout of the supermarket: fruit and vegetables along the near wall, meat and poultry in the middle, dairy along the far wall.
Then I go off to shop and leave the list on the kitchen counter. I already know what’s in it.”
3. Wisdom Distilled From the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today
By Joan Chittister (HarperOne, 1991. 221 pages)
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“Wise and enduring spiritual guidelines for everyday living –– as relevant today as when The Rule was originally conceived by St. Benedict in fifth-century Rome.”
Micro Review: Another title I read to help me prepare for the series, Cultivating A Rule of Life, I offered my patrons at A Sacramental Life Community on Patreon at the start of the year. I heart Joan Chittister big time. She always manages to bring nuance, hear, intelligence, and elegant simplicity to subjects (e.g., The Liturgical Year) other theologians and authors tend to present in dense, academic terms. I found this book as encouraging, enlightening, and accessible for those wanting to connect the life and practice of an ancient monk to the spiritual practices we engage in our everyday life. Highly recommend!
Notable Quotes:
“The spiritual life... is not achieved by denying one part of life for the sake of another. The spiritual life is achieved only by listening to all of life and learning to respond to each of its dimensions wholly and with integrity.”
4. Contemplation in a World of Action
By Thomas Merton (Doubleday, 1971. 396 pages)
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“The American Trappist monk outlines means of reorganizing monastic life to meet the needs of contemporary man.”
Micro Review: I can’t figure out why I haven’t read more of Thomas Merton by this point in my life. His work and writing seem to intersect with so much that I feel called to live out in my own life. This was a decidedly odd place to start reading Merton, but I found it at a library sale and felt compelled by the title “Contemplation in a World of Action.” The title invites something deep in my heart. Unfortunately, the book is more suited for those giving energy to the world of monastic life. I’m not saying I had nothing to learn, but still. I think I’ll keep the book on my shelf because I love the title so much but move on to another Merton title for a more proper introduction. Any suggestions?
5. Who Am I? God’s Restoration of Our Lost Identity
By Penny Wiser White (Christian Faith Publishing, 2020. 180 pages)
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“God called me into the ministry of inner healing decades ago and from that came a passion to see people set free in Jesus Christ like I was. One of the most troubling concerns in my thirty-five years of pastoral lay ministry has been the issue of identity in both men and women. Most Christians do not know who they are in Christ to one degree of another. We all wear false labels or identities which can lead to a lot of confusion, loneliness, anxiety, failure, insecurity, depression, and fear, with a ripple effect that goes into our families and all interpersonal areas of our lives. Add to that once Satan can take the child of God down in the area of our image, he wins as we become isolated, depressed, ineffectual in life, and ultimately hopeless that we'll never change, or our circumstances will never change. This false identity also hinders us from putting the past sins, hurts, and deprivations behind us. And since insecurity and fear are at the top of the list for most of us, it leaves us not trusting in the One who created us in his image, in his likeness--to have purpose, to serve, to love and be loved, and to share in the abundant life the Father promised his children. The Bible says in John 8:32, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be freed indeed." But it takes identifying what the false labels/identity is, then removing those labels and walking in the fullness of who our Lord always meant for each of us to be.”
Micro Review: Our dear friend Penny wrote a book! When it’s not Covid-time, I have a regular tea date with Penny to listen to her stories and learn from her wisdom. She’s given her life to helping folks walk through various issues and trauma. When we first interviewed at Church of the Apostles, we met her and recognized kindred desires that everyone could live from their truest, God-created selves, free from shame and healed from wounding. I’m grateful to Penny for her courage and diligence to write all that she’s learned into a place where future generations who don’t have the privilege of talking over tea with her, can glean from her hard-fought and won wisdom.
6. The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion
By Barbara Brown Taylor (Cowley Publications, 2000. 90 pages)
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“In these essays on the dialogue between science and Christian faith, Barbara Brown Taylor describes her journey as a preacher learning what the insights of quantum physics, the new biology, and chaos theory can teach a person of faith. She seeks to discover why scientists sound like poets and why physicists use the language of imagination, ambiguity, and mystery also found in scripture. In explaining why the church should care about the new insights of science, Taylor suggests ways we might close the gap between spirit and matter, between the sacred and the secular. We live in the midst of a "web of creation" where nothing is without consequence and where all things coexist, even in such a way that each of us changes the world, whether we know it or not. In this luminous web faith and science join on a single path, seeking to learn the same truths about life in the universe. "For a moment," Taylor writes, "we see through a glass darkly. We live in the illusion that we are all separate 'I ams.' When the fog finally clears, we shall know there is only One”
Micro Review: I enjoy Barbara Brown Taylor’s writing style as well as the essay as a literary form. I enjoyed this book as a series of ruminations about the conversation (literally and figuratively) between science and religion. I suspect those more versed in either side of that conversation would find much to quibble about, but if the reader chooses to not take herself too seriously there’s much to enjoy in this book.
7. Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture
By Makoto Fujimura (NavPress, 2009. 176 pages)
Amazon | Hearts & Minds Booksellers
“A collection of essays, thoughts, and prayers from award-winning artist Makoto Fujimura, Refractions brings people of all backgrounds together in conversation and meditation on culture, art, and humanity.”
Micro Review: Makoto Fujimura is a breath of fresh air wherever he goes in the world and this collection of essays is no different. Beginning with his experience living a few blocks from the towers that fell on September 11 and including his trips to his beloved, yet scarred Japan, Mako Fujimura’s words and perspective in these essays are another gift. This is the kind of book I’ll keep handy to read and re-read as an encouragement to see and make beauty rather than despair at the world’s turbulence and chaos.
Social Justice
8. Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience
By Sheila Wise Rowe, Foreward by Soong-Chan Rah (IVP Books, 2020. 90 pages)
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“People of color have endured traumatic histories and almost daily assaults on our dignity. We have prayed about racism, been in denial, or acted out in anger, but we have not known how to individually or collectively pursue healing from the racial trauma." As a child, Sheila Wise Rowe was bused across town to a majority white school, where she experienced the racist lie that one group is superior to all others. This lie continues to be perpetuated today by the action or inaction of the government, media, viral videos, churches, and within families of origin. In contrast, Scripture declares that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made. Rowe, a professional counselor, exposes the symptoms of racial trauma to lead readers to a place of freedom from the past and new life for the future. In each chapter, she includes an interview with a person of color to explore how we experience and resolve racial trauma. With Rowe as a reliable guide who has both been on the journey and shown others the way forward, you will find a safe pathway to resilience.”
Micro Review: In the weeks leading up to both the pandemic shutdown and the news of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd’s killings I was part of a team of leaders at our church helping a group of multi-ethnic men and women comes to terms with the ways their lives have been wounded by others. My church context has been dominated by white folks for my whole life as has the work I’ve done helping women seek healing for areas of shame, guilt, wounding, and abuse. I knew I needed more help understanding the particularity of racial trauma as I listened to the stories and experiences (some, via translators) of black and brown women. I will never fully understand, but Sheila Wise Rowe’s important book has become essential to my calling as a wounded healer. I recommend it highly for anyone wishing to give care and support to people of color in their lives, communities, and congregations.
One more note: In case the word “trauma” seems like a narrow description, here’s a list of the chapter titles to give you a sense of the range of symptoms Rowe and her interviewees explore:
Wounds
Fatigue
Silence
Rage
Fear
Lament
Shame
Addiction
Freedom
Resilience
9. How to Be an Antiracist
By Ibram X. Kendi (One World 2019. 320 pages)
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“Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.
Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.”
Micro Review: I’m reading this along with my son and daughter-in-law and a group of their friends. Kendi’s strength seems to be putting complex realities into the simplest of terms so that there’s little room for misunderstanding. Having a common language for racism is more important than ever. While I’d recommend other books for a deeper, more complex dive (Between The World and Me, by Ta-Neihisi Coates comes to mind.) the language in Kendi’s book is, particularly around the term “antiracism”, is important right now.
Essays
10. Standing By Words: Essays
By Wendell Berry (Shoemaker & Hoard, 1983. 226 pages)
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“An urgent, visionary, and heartfelt collection of essays focused on recovering deeper, time-honored values against the ravages of modern society. In six elegant, linked literary essays, Berry considers the degeneration of language that is manifest throughout our culture, from poetry to politics, from conversation to advertising, and he shows how the ever-widening cleft between the words and their referents mirrors the increasing isolation of individuals and their communities from the land.”
Micro Review: Oh my goodness, I loved this book. I littered these pages with book darts and dog-eared pages. As much as I want to resist the contrarian Wendell Berry, he continues to inspire, teach, and compel me toward deeper truths about the interconnectedness of the earth, culture, and social relationships. The fact that he does this in the context of the way we use and appreciate language hits a bulls-eye for my need to think, feel, and physically engage with the world around me.
Notable Quote:
“Only the action that is moved by love for the good at hand has the hope of being responsible and generous. Desire for the future produces words that cannot be stood by. But love makes language exact, because one loves only what one knows. One cannot love the future or anything in it, for nothing is known there. And one cannot unselfishly make a future for someone else. Love for the future is self-love - love for the present self, projected and magnified into the future, and it is an irremediable loneliness.”
11. To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction
By Phillip Lopate (Free Press, 2013. 240 pages)
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“Distinguished author Phillip Lopate, editor of the celebrated anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, is universally acclaimed as “one of our best personal essayists” (Dallas Morning News). Here, combining more than forty years of lessons from his storied career as a writer and professor, he brings us this highly anticipated nuts-and-bolts guide to writing literary nonfiction. A phenomenal master class shaped by Lopate’s informative, accessible tone and immense gift for storytelling, To Show and To Tell reads like a long walk with a favorite professor—refreshing, insightful, and encouraging in often unexpected ways.”
Micro Review: So, so good. I’ve been struggling for about a year to find my writing way during a difficult season for our family and now for our world. Phillip Lopate reminds me how much I love literary nonfiction (his preferred term to “creative nonfiction”.) I’ve been working my way through The Art of the Personal Essay, an anthology Lopate edited, since taking an online writing course several years ago. I’m keeping both books next to me at my writing desk from here on out.
12. A Room of One’s Own
By Virginia Woolf (Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc., 1957. 118 pages)
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“In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf imagines that Shakespeare had a sister—a sister equal to Shakespeare in talent, and equal in genius, but whose legacy is radically different. This imaginary woman never writes a word and dies by her own hand, her genius unexpressed. If only she had found the means to create, argues Woolf, she would have reached the same heights as her immortal sibling.
In this classic essay, Woolf takes on the establishment, using her gift of language to dissect the world around her and give voice to those who are without. Her message is a simple one: women must have a steady income and a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create.”
Micro Review: Speaking of personal essays, here’s another library sale find from a few years back. This is now when I admit that, occasionally, I’ve confused Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath in my mind. It’s not a crazy stretch, based on their oeuvre and era (and, sadly, tragic deaths). I could hear the value of these essays, but I found reading this book during the pandemic and racial oppression in our current events was not a good combination. Honestly, it just made me grumpy. I 100% applaud Ms. Woolf’s courage to face the patriarchal academy and publishing world. Also, how could I ever completely dislike a book that captures one of my driving motivations, the freedom, and the reward of writing words in a room of one’s own?
Novels / Mysteries
13. Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel
By Maria Semple (Back Bay Books, 2013. 352 pages)
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“A misanthropic matriarch leaves her eccentric family in crisis when she mysteriously disappears in this "whip-smart and divinely funny" novel that inspired the movie starring Cate Blanchett (New York Times).
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect; and to 15-year-old Bee, she is her best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette vanishes. It all began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle -- and people in general -- has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, and secret correspondence -- creating a compulsively readable and surprisingly touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.”
Micro Review: Borrowed this from my daughter-in-law and read in about two days. So fun. I also watched the 2019 film version starring Cate Blanchett. I liked the book better, but the film was also a lot of fun. Enjoyable “escape” reading.
14. A Conventional Corpse: A Claire Malloy Mystery (Claire Malloy Mysteries Book 13)
By Joan Hess (Minotaur Books, 2001. 308 pages)
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“Farberville, Arkansas is playing host to its first ever mystery convention. Sponsored by the Thurber Farber Foundation and held at Farber College, Murder Comes to Campus is playing host to five major mystery writers representing all areas of the field. Dragooned into running the show when the original organizer is hospitalized, local bookseller Claire Malloy finds herself in the midst of a barely controlled disaster. Not only do each of the writers present their own set of idiosyncracies and difficulties (including one who arrives with her cat Wimple in tow), the feared, distrusted, and disliked mystery editor of Paradigm House, Roxanne Small, puts in a surprise appearance at the conference. Added to Claire's own love-life woes with local police detective Peter Rosen, things have never been worse.
Then when one of the attendees dies in a suspicious car accident, Wimple the cat disappears from Claire's home, and Roxanne Small is nowhere to be found, it becomes evident that the murder mystery is more than a literary genre.”
Micro Review: I tend to only purchase nonfiction books and use the library for my fiction reading which is, in normal times, a fine solution. After too many months of not being able to use the library, I got desperate and raided my friend Amy’s used bookstore finds for some lighthearted mystery reads for vacation. This did the trick!
15. Damsels in Distress: A Claire Malloy Mystery (Claire Malloy Mysteries Book 16)
By Joan Hess (Minotaur Books, 2008. 336 pages)
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“A Renaissance Fair is coming to the relatively quiet college town of Farberville Arkansas, which is not the sort of news that usually sets local bookseller Claire Malloy's heart racing. But with Caron, Claire's perpetually petulant teenage daughter, being pulled into volunteering (or face the horror of doing homework over the summer) and her fiancé, Police Lieutenant Peter Rosen, away, Claire finds herself drawn into the strange inner workings of the group putting on the fair.
But just as Claire has decided that her time might be better spent fretting over the details of her upcoming nuptials, one of the volunteers helping with the Ren Fair falls victim to arson, her body found burned in the wreckage of her rented home. Even stranger, none of the members of the local chapter of The Association for Renaissance Scholarship and Enlightenment (ARSE) – the group putting on Farberville's first RenFair – had ever met the woman in the flesh and can't provide any information about who she is and where she came from. However, someone is definitely dead and the fire looks very suspicious – but is it murder? When the fair opens, tensions expose the dark secrets and malevolent schemes that lurk beneath the superficial congeniality of the ARSE members. The lords are leaping, the ladies are lying, and the knights are fighting--while someone is committing murder most heinous. And with Claire's dreams of a blissful wedding hanging in the balance, she has no choice left but to fling herself into the battle and match wits with the killer…”
Micro Review: I tend to only purchase nonfiction books and use the library for my fiction reading which is, in normal times, a fine solution. After too many months of not being able to use the library, I got desperate and raided my friend Amy’s used bookstore finds for some lighthearted mystery reads for vacation. This did the trick!
16. A Stitch in Time (A Needlecraft Mystery)
By Monica Ferris (Berkley, 2000. 256 pages)
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“When a damaged tapestry is discovered in a small-town church closet, needleworkers join to stitch together the clues which lead to a crafty crime.”
Micro Review: I tend to only purchase nonfiction books and use the library for my fiction reading which is, in normal times, a fine solution. After too many months of not being able to use the library, I got desperate and raided my friend Amy’s used bookstore finds for some lighthearted mystery reads for vacation. This did the trick!
Plough Book Reviews
17. That Way and No Other: Following God through Storm and Drought (Plough Spiritual Guides: Backpack Classics)
By Amy Carmichael, Introduction by Katelyn Beaty (Plough Publishing House, 2020. 144 pages)
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“Amy Carmichael left everything to become a missionary in India. But then seven-year-old Preena, fleeing sexual slavery, threw herself on the newcomer’s protection. Could Carmichael relinquish a religious vocation to become a “nursemaid”? A picture of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet came to her mind, and “the question answered itself and was not asked again.” Joined by a growing team of Indian women, Carmichael founded Dohnavur, a community of households that has provided family for hundreds of girls who might otherwise have been sold into prostitution.
A modern-day saint, Amy Carmichael has inspired generations of missionaries and activists. The practical wisdom in these selections, taken from her many books, confirms her as a trustworthy spiritual guide for anyone honestly seeking to follow God’s path.”
Micro Review: Some of my earliest memories of Sunday School include stories about Amy Carmichael. In my memory a teacher held the extra-large story book and I was fascinated by the story of the woman who darkened her skin with tea bags in order to disguise herself to rescue children trafficked in prostitution in India. I’m not sure how my child-brain processed the part about rescuing children, but I felt an affinity for Amy Carmichael who wished as a little girl to have blonde hair and blue eyes but ended up thanking God for her dark hair and eyes. Plough Publishing has once again refreshed the stories of the spiritual giants of our Christian history in the welcoming compactness of a book we can read in one sitting and revisit often. My first memories of the treasured life of Amy Carmichael arrived in oversized illustrations that captured my imagination and now Plough’s and author Carolyn Kurtz in this backpack-sized book managed to enlarge the story and my own heart. Thanks be to God.
Notable Quotes:
“The Gloriosa Superba is native to South India. During the autumn rains you find it shooting in the lane bordered thickly by huge cactus and aloe. Here and there you see it in the open field. In the field it will have a chance, you think; but in the lane, crowded down by cactus and aloe, great assertive things with most fierce thorn and spike, what can a poor lily do but give in and disappear? A few weeks afterward you see a punch of color on the field, you go and gather handfuls of lovely lilies, and your revel in the tangle of color, a little bewilderment of delight.”
“Can you find a promise that if we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, life is going to be fairly easy? I do not think we shall find even one. But we shall find ever so many promises assuring us that however things are, we may count on strength to make us brave and peace to keep our hearts at rest.”
Englewood Review of Books Reviews
18. Andalusian Hours: Poems from the Porch of Flannery O'Connor (Paraclete Poetry) (Volume 1)
By Angela Alaimo O’Donnell (Paraclete Press, 2020. 128 pages)
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“Andalusian Hours: Poems from the Porch of Flannery O’Connor is a collection of 101 sonnets that channel the voice of celebrated fiction writer, Flannery O’Connor. In these poems, poet and scholar Angela Alaimo O’Donnell imagines the rich interior life Flannery lived during the last fourteen years of her life in rural Georgia on her family’s farm named “Andalusia.” Each poem begins with an epigraph taken from O’Connor’s essays, stories, or letters; the poet then plumbs Flannery’s thoughts and the poignant circumstances behind them, welcoming the reader into O’Connor’s private world. Together the poems tell the story of a brilliant young woman who enjoyed a bright and promising childhood, was struck with lupus just as her writing career hit its stride, and was forced to return home and live out her days in exile, far from the literary world she loved. By turns tragic and comic, the poems in Andalusian Hours explore Flannery’s loves and losses, her complex relationship with her mother, her battle with her illness and disability, and her passion for her writing. The poems mark time in keeping with the liturgical hours O’Connor herself honored in her prayer life and in her quasi-monastic devotion to her vocation and to the home she learned to love, Andalusia.”
Micro Review: I had the privilege of reading and reviewing this new release for Englewood Review. You can read my thoughts as well as some of my favorite excerpts here:
Apostles Reads Selections
You can read more about what our church’s reading group, Apostles Reads, enjoyed together in 2019 and the types of books we select here.
19. Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
By Annie Dillard (Harper Perennial, 2013. 176 pages)
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"Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings."
Micro Review: While the reviews from our reading group were decidedly mixed with most not enjoying the essays. It’s so good for me to hear other’s perspectives. I realized as I listened to their feedback that Annie Dillard (at least in this collection of essays) isn’t really hospitable to her readers. Much of her noticing comes across as detached in ways that can leave a reader feeling alone with their questions. While I still love her writing - her ability to craft sentences with so much precision - I also realized that some of what I initially loved about this book, in particular, didn’t hold up as well in the light of my friends’ experience. (You can read a bit from my friend Walter here: https://chainsgone.com/blog/three-kinds-of-books-three-reviews)
Here’s what I wrote after my first reading back in 2010: Dillard is one of those authors who looks, really looks at the world, and then writes it in a way that's both poetic and pragmatic. The art and the science of the universe. A writer who throws out sentences like I have been reading comparative cosmology. And then a beat later, a sentence like The mountains are great stone bells; they clang together like nuns.
I love that. I'd like to write like that.
This collection of essays could be considered a collection of noticing. Trekking cross-country with her husband to experience an eclipse: I saw, early in the morning, the sun diminish against a backdrop of sky. I saw a circular piece of that sky appear, suddenly detached, blackened, and backlighted; from nowhere it came and overlapped the sun. ("Total Eclipse")
Winsomely comparing her new church experience (Catholic mass) to historically grand, but oft' misguided arctic expeditions: ...nobody said things were going to be easy. A taste for the sublime is a greed like any other, after all..." ("An Expedition to the Pole")
Some people I know think of her essay "Living Like Weasels" to be an almost mandatory text for those living in conflict about calling: The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse.
The truth is, next to the holy Scriptures, the other words I think I should be memorizing are Annie Dillard's. Of all the words in this book, the ones I find most affirming in my current life as a crafter of corporate worship services are these most brilliant gems of Dillard-words from "An Expedition to the Pole" :
On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.
...and this...
A high school stage play is more polished than this service we have been rehearsing since the year one. In two thousand years, we have not worked out the kinks. We positively glorify them. Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter. Week after week, we witness the same miracle: that God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens. Week after week Christ washes the disciples' dirty feet, handles their very toes, and repeats, It is all right -- believe it or not -- to be people.
Who can believe it?
20. The Sabbath (FSG Classics)
By Abraham Joshua Heschel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 144 pages)
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"Elegant, passionate, and filled with the love of God's creation, Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath has been hailed as a classic of Jewish spirituality ever since its original publication-and has been read by thousands of people seeking meaning in modern life. In this brief yet profound meditation on the meaning of the Seventh Day, Heschel introduced the idea of an "architecture of holiness" that appears not in space but in time Judaism, he argues, is a religion of time: it finds meaning not in space and the material things that fill it but in time and the eternity that imbues it, so that "the Sabbaths are our great cathedrals."
Micro Review: This was a re-read for me in order to follow along with Englewood Review of Books’ Lenten online reading group. I facilitated one of the sessions. You can see my questions for Chapters 7-9 here.
Here’s an excerpt from my reflection following the first time I read the book (back in 2015):
“Even though I'd always meant to read it because Abraham Joshua Heschel is quoted by almost every author I've ever read (usually from this book), I'll admit it was seeing an image of the cover art that finally got me to purchase the book. The prints of wood engravings by Ilya Schor on the cover and at the beginning of each chapter provide an elegance to Heschel's graceful words about the beauty of Sabbath time to Jewish faith and life. Heschel's words are poetic (at times, even, mythical) which I found captivating enough, but especially so when paired with his daughter's prologue to the book which explained in more day-to-day (week-to-week, rather) terms of what a Sabbath practice looked like in her father's home.
Beautiful.”
21. Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith
By Michelle Van Loon (NavPress, 2016. 240 pages)
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"Michelle Van Loon helps us treasure our time as a gift and a spiritual responsibility, and God as faithfully present in all our moments and days.
People rarely slow down to experience their days, and so they feel rushed through life even as they begin to suspect that life lacks significance. By introducing (and reintroducing) us to the feasts and festivals of the Bible, as well as the special celebrations of the Christian calendar, Moments and Days restores a sacred sense of time throughout our year, enriching our experience of each "holy day" and enlivening our experience of even the most "ordinary time."
Micro Review: in 2019, our congregation was welcomed to share a building with a large synagogue in our city. They had more room than they needed and we had no place to call our own. We’ve been amazed and delighted by the sweet relationship we’re enjoying with our Jewish friends. Right around this time I discovered Michell Van Loon had written ab took in 2016 that feels custom-fit for Church of the Apostles right now. Throughout the year, we’re reading selections from Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith by Michelle Van Loon. By introducing (and reintroducing) us to the feasts and festivals of the Bible (still celebrated by our Jewish neighbors), as well as the special celebrations of the Christian calendar, my hope is that Moments and Days will help us enter each season and celebration more fully at Church of the Apostles and as neighbors to our friends at Rodeph Sholom!
Go to my reading lists page to see my reading lists from 2018 and previous years.
Here's my Goodreads page. Let's be friends!
Linking up with another good reading resource: Modern Mrs. Darcy's monthly Quick Lit post.
p.s. This post includes affiliate links in this post because I'm trying to be a good steward, and when you buy something through one of these links you don't pay more money, but in some magical twist of capitalism we get a little pocket change. Thanks!