What I Read and Watched in April

We've had some busy months and I miss writing leisurely blog posts. In spite of the busyness, I've been able to read a lot on busses and in cars as we've zipped around. Much of what I read was for the Literary Life 2022 challenge:

I read three fiction titles: The Enchanted April was fun though I had a few reservations about it (reviewed here). The Fair Miss Fortune by D. E. Stevenson was also a nice break from some of the heavier books I'm reading (reviewed here). Lastly, I finished Paradiso as part of the 100 Days of Dante challenge. I barely scratched the surface of this classic and hope to revisit it now that I've gotten over my trauma about reading it. 

My three non-fiction titles were: Israel, Palestine and Peace by Amos Oz (reviewed here), Key Principles of Biblical Fasting by Kay Arthur (reviewed here), and The Narnian by Alan Jacobs (reviewed here). 

We didn't have a lot of time for TV or movies, but we watched one episode of The Chosen each week leading up to Easter. My husband hates rom-coms, but I convinced him to watch Finding Normal because Candace Cameron Bure always makes a fluffy movie better. Our son showed us the first three episodes of Hawkeye (a new Marvel series), which would have been wonderfully family friendly except for all the swearing. If you watch a lot of TV it won't bother you, but somehow I don't think that is true for most of my readers. Last of all, I found the movie version of The Enchanted April on YouTube, but did not love it as much as the book.

What about you? Did you read or watch anything you can recommend?

Blessings,

April 23 - World Book Day

On April 23 (St. George’s Day), 1616, Miguel de Cervantes breathed his last, on exactly the same day as the death of William Shakespeare. It was singularly and surely providentially appropriate that the brightest jewels in the golden ages of Spanish and English literature should have taken their respective last bows together. It was also singularly appropriate that these slayers of dragons should have died on the Feast of St. George, true knights as they were, who had wielded their pens like lances in the service of the good, the true, and the beautiful.  

Quoted from Joseph Pearce in Crisis Magazine 1/1/22

(Another reason I like to celebrate World Book Day is that two of my favorite authors were born this week. Charlotte Brontë on the 21st and Elizabeth Goudge on the 24th. Lots of reasons to eat cake!!)

Blessings,

The Narnian by Alan Jacobs

"Without self-forgetfulness there can be no delight."

This is Alan Jacob's thesis for his biography of  C. S. Lewis, The Narnian.  He introduces the book by saying, Lewis's mind was above all characterized by a willingness to be enchanted and that it was this openness to enchantment that held together the various strands of his life - his delight in laughter, his willingness to accept a world made by a good and loving God, and his willingness to submit to the charms of a wonderful story... to the point of self-abandonment.

He goes on to show how this theme resonated in all of Lewis's writings, even his non-fiction (such as The Abolition of Man) where Lewis convincingly shows the failure of modern education to reach children's hearts and imaginations.  

Jacobs quotes a 1935 letter from Lewis to Arthur Greeves in which he describes a pampered little boy who nevertheless had been neglected: I often wonder what the present generation of children will grow up like. They have been treated with so much indulgence yet so little affection, with so much science and so little mother-wit. Not a fairy tale nor a nursery rhyme. 

I appreciated Jacobs' thorough overview of Lewis' life and his obvious love for the Lewis canon. I loved little tidbits of information like the fact that Warnie was at Dunkirk and that Jacob's thinks that Lewis's greatest book is English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (a book that hardly anyone has ever heard of.) And I enjoyed his careful explanation of Till We Have Faces, since that is a book that I find intimidating. Lastly, I got a kick out of his connection between the ending of The Last Battle and Dante's Paradiso because I hope to read both of those books this year.  

My biggest quibbles with the book came in chapter 11 where he chides Lewis for not being feminist enough and where he also looked down his nose at several previous biographers. He also assumes a lot about Lewis's relationships that Lewis (and those closest to him) never corroborated.

Still, it was a good book to read on the heels of Volume 2 of Lewis's letters because many of his correspondents came to life in the biography.

If you've read this, what did you think of it? Do you have a favorite C.S. Lewis biography to recommend?

Blessings