A Christmas Carol by G.K. Chesterton

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,

His hair was like a light.

(O weary, weary were the world,

But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast,

His hair was like a star.

(O stern and cunning are the kings,

But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,

His hair was like a fire.

(O weary, weary is the world,

But here the world’s desire.)

The Christ-child stood on Mary’s knee,

His hair was like a crown,

And all the flowers looked up at Him,

And all the stars looked down.

(the poem has been set to music)

Blessings,

N or M? by Agatha Christie

In book three of the Tommy and Tuppence series, N or M?, the Beresfords are feeling sidelined by their age. It’s spring of 1940. World War II is raging and Tommy is too old for anything but government paper-shuffling jobs. As the story begins, he and Tuppence are reviewing past escapades and wishing they weren’t so “useless” for their country’s present needs. Happily, the opportunity arises for the two of them to become involved in a hunt for fifth columnists.

Aside from giving us a top-notch mystery, Christie also deals with deeper questions such as patriotism and prejudice.  Some of the characters wonder if loyalty to one’s country is worth dying for. Is ANYTHING worth dying for?, they wonder. Others discuss their hatred of the Germans and how it is easy to hate them as a whole, but harder when you think of them as individual mothers and shopkeepers, etc. The story was written in 1941 so I find it interesting that any sympathy for the Germans was expressed at all. 

I loved all the literary and biblical references. One woman is described as having a fiercely determined look like Jael as she drove the stake through Sisera’s brain (Judges 4:21). One of the key plot points is based on the story of King Solomon.

The spy was caught about 2/3 of the way into the book and I wondered how Christie would fill up the rest of it. I needn't have worried! I spent most of my Sunday afternoon listening to the last two and a half hours because I couldn't wait to see what happened. Those final chapters were full of surprises and the closing paragraphs were warm and funny. 

This is another remarkably clever book by Christie. I highly recommend the audio books in this series if you can find them. (They are on YouTube if your library doesn’t have them.) Be forewarned. There is more swearing in this book than in the rest of the series. You can skim over it in print, but not the audio. I linked to the single Kindle volume above, which is $5.99. Unfortunately, I can no longer find the deal of all five books for $1.99. 

Blessings,

Cozy Christmas Suggestions

Most of us will be having quieter Christmas celebrations this year. And that's okay. It's a good thing that we'll focus less on shopping frenzies and over-full calendars and have more time to pay attention to the real meaning of the season.

I am reading some Christmas-themed books (A Christmas Carol, Shepherds Abiding and Letters from Father Christmas). I also plan to listen to Hercule Poirot's Christmas on YouTube, narrated by Hugh Fraser. In my early days of blogging I wrote about two free audiobooks that you might enjoy.

We are getting ready for our annual viewing of the movie, The Nativity Story, reviewed here. I also have some suggestions for lesser-known holiday films here. Last of all, I'm enjoying quiet, worshipful music in addition to the peppier tunes. Another blog post from yesteryear highlights some of those songs. 

May you have a peaceful and blessed Christmas,  

Talking about Detective Fiction by P.D. James

I read to relax so gritty, modern books don’t appeal to me. Occasionally I will read detective writers of 100 years ago because they were able to spin a good yarn without all the gory details. So I was prepared to relish P.D. James' observations on the golden age of this genre in her book Talking About Detective Fiction.

Since I’m reading the Tommy and Tuppence series at the moment, I appreciated her insight into Agatha Christie’s skills: Above all she is a literary conjuror who places her pasteboard characters face downwards and shuffles them with practiced cunning. Game after game we are confident that this time we will turn up the card with the face of the true murderer, and time after time she defeats us. With a Christie mystery no suspect can safely be eliminated. Her clues are brilliantly designed to confuse. The butler goes over to peer closely at the calendar. She has planted in our mind the suspicion that a crucial clue relates to dates and times, but the clue is, in fact, that the butler is shortsighted. (p. 98)

James credits Edgar Allen Poe (his detective Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the great influencers of the detective novel. She mentions authors with whom I am familiar (G.K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Margery Allingham, etc.) but also lists many I’ve never heard of such as Nicholas Blake, Cyril Hare, G.D.H Cole, H.C. Bailey, Gladys Mitchell, and Michael Innes.

What I appreciated most was James’ explanation as to why detective fiction continues to endure: It confirms our belief that we live in a rational, comprehensible and moral universe.

A good detective story possesses certain qualities of harmony, internal organization and balance, which respond to certain needs of the spirit, needs which some modern literature, priding itself on being superior, very often neglects…. It confirms our hope that despite some evidence to the contrary, we live in a beneficent and moral universe in which problems can be solved by rational means and peace and order restored from communal or personal disruption and chaos. And if it is true, as the evidence suggests, that the detective story flourishes best in the most difficult of times, we may well be at the beginning of a new Golden Age. (p. 175)

I'll be investigating some of these new-to-me authors. Anyone have a favorite writer in this genre?

 Blessings,

What I Read and Watched in November

I am reading nine books, which is too many, even for me. Four are buddy reads. Two are for ministry-related projects. One is my morning exercise audiobook. The other is on my nightstand since I don't read on my devices before bed.The last book is my Bible, which might technically not be eligible for this list, but I read it every day. 

Because I'm reading and never finishing anything, I had several quick, escapist reads this month: The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart, The Lieutenant's Lady by Bess Streeter Aldrich, Mail-Order Bride: Tess by Rose Jenster, and The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp. (None were good enough for a complete review, but they are linked to my thoughts on Goodreads.) But I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook, N or M? by Agatha Christie (review forthcoming).

In the movie department, I watched the delightful Murder, She Baked series. I also watched The Virginian with Bill Pullman. I was enamored with it a few years ago, but this time the acting and script seemed stilted. I'm wondering if the new True Grit movie has ruined me for all other westerns. My husband and I also watched Henry V with Kenneth Branagh for the umpteenth time.

I'm hoping to finish up most of the books mentioned above by the end of the year as well as complete two trilogies. We'll see how that goes! Are there any books you are hoping to read before the end of the year?

Blessings,

Murder She Baked Mystery Series

I gave myself a treat this month by finally watching all the Murder, She Baked movies in order. They were available in Portuguese on YouTube so I kidded myself that I was improving my language skills. I'll give a brief synopsis of each film and explain why they are some of my favorite cozy mysteries. (The titles are linked to each movie's preview.) 

1. Murder, She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery - In this first installment, we are introduced to baker Hannah Swenson, her meddling mother, her best friend/sister, Andrea, and two handsome rivals for her affections, Norman the dentist, and Mike the detective. Just to keep things interesting, Hannah finds two dead bodies and feels Mike's ire over her interference in both cases. 

2. Murder, She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery - The second movie takes place at Christmas time. Hannah finds another body and Mike tries to keep her out of danger. There are lots of suspects and it doesn't always make sense who is who. But who cares? Half the fun is watching Hannah relate to all the people in her life. Her mom strongly urges her to choose Norman while Andrea favors Mike. 

3. Murder, She Baked: A Peach Cobbler Mystery - Someone opens a bakery across the street from Hannah's and, yep, she finds another body.

4. Murder She Baked: A Deadly Recipe - Hannah is putting together a community cookbook to raise funds for charity. Someone submits a recipe calling for one teaspoon of a mystery ingredient. It's fun to see the gals trying to discover the ingredient. Oh, and Hannah finds another body. The romantic triangle continues.

5. Murder, She Baked: Just Desserts - The background story is a televised bake-off. This time someone else finds the body. But Hannah's sleuthing leads her to the killer. She finally makes her choice between the two eligible bachelors.

This is the second time I've watched these movies and I vaguely remembered the identity of the killer in each one, but solving the mystery is not the only reason I enjoy these movies. I like Hannah as a heroine. She's smart, pretty and capable, but just insecure enough to gain your sympathy. There is something endearing about how she talks to her cat about her troubles. I loved the family dynamics between mother/daughter/sister. What's not to like about the gorgeous food shots? And I appreciated a sweet romance without the syrup (or the drama) of the regular Hallmark movies. They always make the third person in the love triangle look like a complete jerk, but that was not the case in these films. The other guy was nerdy, but handsome and likable.

These movies are based on the cozy mysteries written by Joanne Fluke. There are 27 of them, but I tried to read the first one and found the characters much less likable than in the movies. 

Has anyone else enjoyed these? Any other cozy mysteries to recommend? (book or film)

Blessings,

Reading as an Addiction - quote by W. Somerset Maugham

Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, and I suppose that is neither innocent nor praiseworthy. Of that lamentable company am I. Conversation after a time bores me, games tire me, and my own thoughts, which we are told are the unfailing source of a sensible man, have a tendency to run dry. Then I fly to my book as an opium-seeker to his pipe. I would sooner read the catalogue of the Army and Navy stores or Bradshaw's Guide than nothing at all, and indeed I have spend many delightful hours over both these works.... Of course to read in this way is reprehensible as doping, and I never cease to wonder at the impertinence of great readers who, because they are such, look down on the illiterate. From the standpoint of eternity, is it better to have read a thousand books than to have ploughed a million furrows? Let us admit that reading with us is just a drug that we cannot live without. Who of this band does not know the restlessness that attacks him when he has been severed from reading too long, the apprehension and irritability, and the sigh of relief which the sight of a printed page extracts from him? And the sigh of relief which the sight of a printed page extracts from him? And so let us be no more vainglorious than the poor slaves of the hypodermic needle or the pint-pot. 

(W. Somerset Maugham, from his Collected Short Stories, Volume 4; quoted on the Literary Life facebook page by Wendi Lord Capehart)

[photo courtesy of Annie Spratt at Unsplash]

Blessings,

Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie

I continue to plow through my favorite series of 2020. Unlike the other two Tommy and Tuppence novels, which were based on a single crime, this one is a series of short stories involving the detective agency that the Beresfords set up in the first novel, The Secret Adversary. I think that makes it perfect for reading aloud since each crime is solved in two or three chapters. 

I am a fan of vintage literature so I loved Agatha Christie's nod to dozens of other mystery writers from the "golden age of detective fiction". In almost every chapter of Partners in Crime, Tommy decides which of these detectives he will try to imitate. Will it be Sherlock Holmes (by Arthur Conan Doyle), Father Brown (by G.K. Chesterton), Inspector Howard (by A.E.W. Mason) or Inspector French (by Freeman Wills Crofts)? She even pokes fun at her own creation, Hercule Poirot and his "little gray cells." I enjoyed the humor in that and it also made me want to investigate the dozen or so authors she mentioned who I haven't yet read - especially the story "The Old Man in the Corner" by Baroness Orczy (of Scarlet Pimpernel fame.)

Solving the mysteries is fun, but the real reason I enjoy these books is because of  the playful, affectionate banter between the protagonists. I highly recommend listening to this series. This book, Partners in Crime, is narrated by Hugh Fraser on YouTube.

If you prefer reading, I found all five novels for $1.99.

Blessings,

What I Read and Watched in October

Thanks to Agatha Christie, I'm finally out of my 2020 reading slump! It makes me so happy to have several books going at once when for so long it's been hard for me to get through just one.

I finished listening to book one of the Tommy and Tuppence series, The Secret Adversary, which I enjoyed immensely. I also listened to Jane Eyre while reading along in an annotated version that  was very helpful with the French phrases and obscure literary references. My other pick for Victober was Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. I am overly sensitive to relentless suffering, so this was not an easy read (even though there was an eventual happy ending). 

I finished Knowing God after many months of careful reading. I am not a Calvinist so I saw more areas of disagreement than when I read it three decades ago. Still, it's a Christian classic for good reason. I've also been working my way through an old hymnal this year - one or two hymns per day - and finished it up early in the month. I read and enjoyed P.D. James Talking About Detective Fiction. Serendipitously, I read it at the same time I was reading book two of the T&T series, Partners in Crime, which was also a nod to the golden age of detective fiction. 

As far as movies go my husband and I watched the original True Grit with John Wayne. We liked it, but it lacked some of the haunting beauty of the recent remake. We also watched the Netflix program called The Social Dilemma about how internet platforms are designed to make us tech addicts.

I watched a few Hallmark mysteries: Aurora Teagarden: A Bone to Pick, Death on Duty: A Hailey Dean mystery, 15 min of Dead Over Diamonds (terrible acting) Mystery 101: Dead Talk, Emma Fielding: More Bitter than Death (both male leads were awful actors). I'm used to bad acting in the romance movies because the actors and sets are more eye candy than anything, but in general the mysteries have been far superior in that department. 

Anybody else read any Victorian lit this month? Watched any good, clean movies?

Blessings,

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

I read By the Pricking of My Thumbs (book 4), before I read The Secret Adversary (book 1), but it made little difference. Still, I relished this more complete introduction to Tommy and Tuppence who turn to sleuthing because they are desperately in need of money. (Their conversations about this are hilarious.) 

I enjoyed Agatha Christie's fine characterization of young Albert, the elevator operator, the enigmatic Mr. Carter, the boisterous American millionaire, and the mysterious Mr. Brown to name a few. While Tommy and Tuppence "bow before the energy" of Julius Hersheimmer (the American), you sense that Christie is poking fun at him and his no-nonsense pragmatism. 

The writing is good: The Laurels was a dilapidated house standing back from the road with a few grimy bushes to support the fiction of a front garden. The banter between the characters is fun. Watching Tommy and Tuppence (who have been friends for years) come to the realization that they love each other is delightful, and not the least bit syrupy.

At times it seems that Tuppence is the smarter of the two crime solvers. One character describes Tommy by saying, It is quite impossible to lead him astray through his imagination. He hasn't got any. He worries things out slowly and when he's got hold of anything, he doesn't let go. The little lady's quite different; more intuitive and less common sense. They make a pretty pair working together. I couldn't agree more.

There was more swearing in this one than I remember from book 4, but I think most of that came from Julius, the loud-mouthed American. I listened for free on YouTube, but was delighted to see that all five novels are available for $1.99 at the time I wrote this blog post.  

Blessings,

By The Pricking of Her Thumbs by Agatha Christie

I stumbled across By the Pricking of Her Thumbs while searching for something to listen to during my morning workout. (I use the word "workout" rather loosely since I just do a half hour of simple exercises for folks over fifty) 

The opening chapter describes a middle aged couple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, chatting together amicably. When I heard their names, a faint memory stirred in my head of a couple of young sleuths Agatha Christie had created early in her career. Sure enough this was the same couple many years later. 

Overview: The Beresfords plan to pay their yearly visit to Tommy's Aunt Ada who is in a nursing home. They go out of a sense of duty since Aunt Ada is unappreciative of their attentions. While they are there, Tuppence meets another elderly resident, Mrs. Lancaster. Later, when she hears that this woman has disappeared, she is determined to find out why.

I loved so many things about this book: the delightful dialogue, the literary references from Shakespeare (the title), the Bible (a major clue), and a sprinkling of references to fairy tales and latin phrases. I loved the wonderful narrator (Alex Jennings) who got the voice inflections and inside jokes perfectly. Then there was the snoopy but lovable butler, the town busybody, the absent-minded cleric, and the friendly witch (to name just a few of Christie's great characters.)

As a pastor's daughter and a missionary I thoroughly enjoyed the references to Tuppence's upbringing as a vicar's daughter, jabs at modern translations of the Bible and Tuppence's declaration in Chapter 16 of "I'm glad I'm not a missionary!"

The identity of the killer took me completely by surprise. And the gruesomeness of their crimes seemed out of keeping with the light-heartedness of the rest of the novel. Still, I am smitten with this couple and plan to listen to the other books as soon as possible. (This was book 4 of 5.)  I listened for free on YouTube.

Blessings,

Victober Book Plans

Kate Howe is a delightful Booktuber whose channel has great reviews of mysteries, fairy tale retellings, and classic literature. Every October she hosts a reading challenge of her favorite genre, Victorian literature. Since my last few months of reading have been heavy on theology, I'm looking forward to joining her for some lighter books.

First, I'll be doing the read-along of Jane Eyre. (My 12th time to read it.) In addition I've combed through my Kindle to see if I have any books from that era that I might tackle. Here are the top contenders:

A Dish of Orts - Essays by George MacDonald

Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot (three of her early novellas)

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell (or Gaskell's bio of Charlotte Brontë)

Apologia Pro Vita Sua - Spiritual autobiography of Cardinal John Henry Newman (or his novel Loss and Gain)

I'd like to explore at least two of these Victorian poets: Francis Thompson (GK Chesteron was a fan), Thomas Hood, John Clare, Mathilde Blind (who wrote poems in protest of Darwin's view of man), William Ernest Henley, Jean Ingelow or Algernon Charles Swinburne.

I'm also considering a book of love letters between Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Should be fun!

The link to Kate's introductory video is here. 

Blessings,

What I Read and Watched in September

I watched an insane amount of movies this month. My only excuse is that I had an intense teaching schedule that took up all my days and three of my evenings. When it came time for R&R, I did not want to read. But when I realized that I'd watched 10 movies in the first TWO weeks of September, I put an abrupt halt to my film watching and made myself tackle a few books on my TBR stack.

Two of the movies were Dan in Real Life and Courtship of Eddie's Father. (Normally my husband won't watch romantic comedies with me, but consented to these two favorites for my birthday weekend.) Six were Hallmark mysteries, the best of which were the Hailey Dean Mysteries: Killer Sentence and Murder with Love. They were a little edgier than normal (hence the PG rating), but the writing and acting were good. The interracial friendships were satisfying because according to the American media, blacks and whites are doomed to never EVER being able to get along. I don't buy that.

We watched True Grit (the Cohen brother version) twice since my husband loved it so much. Then I had to read the book, of course, which was almost word-for-word as same as the movie.

In addition to True Grit, I read Little Britches by Ralph Moody which was pretty good, but not quite as winsome as the Little House books. Seaboard Parish by George MacDonald had a lot of good quotes, but the characters were not as interesting (nor the story as compelling) as Book One, The Quiet Neighborhood, had been. True Grit by Charles Portis was engaging, but the book I could not put down was Agatha Christie's By the Pricking of Her Thumbs. (Reviews for both of these will be posted soon.) 

I'm picking out a few books to read for Victober with Kate Howe. Her youtube video explains more about it.

Blessings,

How Books Help Put us Back Together Again

Children's author, Katherine Paterson, reflects on her love for good literature:

And when you close Homer, there are the books of Jane Austen and Joseph Conrad, and great fat volumes of Tolstoy.  There is the Bible, perhaps the most over prescribed and least taken of any.  There is Flannery O’Connor and Anne Tyler.  There is William Shakespeare and Jacob Bronowski.  There is The Yearling and A Tale of Two Cities.  There is The Secret Garden and The Wind in the Willows.  There is Ramona the Brave and Where the Wild Things Are.  I have only begun to name what I especially love.  There are countless others - really good books.  Good or even great because they make the right connections.  They pull together for us a world that is falling apart.  They are the words that integrate us, stretch us, comfort and heal us.  They are the words that mirror the Word of creation, bringing order out of chaos.

(p. 238 from her book of essays The Invisible Child)

Blessings,

A Quiet Neighborhood by George MacDonald

It's been over 25 years since I binged on George MacDonald's adult novels so it was a joy to revisit this favorite author in August. C.S. Lewis said he never wrote anything that wasn't somehow connected to his love of George MacDonald and I enjoyed catching glimpses in this book of ideas that were later fleshed out by Lewis in his own works.

Henry Walton is a young vicar who has been assigned to a new parish. He encounters many wonderful characters and a few despicable ones. Some of his parishioners have been nursing hurts for many years and Walton does his best to point them to Christ who is their Healer. He experiences various successes and failures along the way. The plot is thickened with a few mysteries and a possible love interest. Plus the writing is wonderful.

A description of Mrs. Rogers: Beside him stood his old woman in a portentous bonnet. Beneath the gay yellow ribbons appeared a dusky old wrinkled face with a pair of keen black eyes, where the best beauty - that of lovingkindness - triumphed. 

The vicar reflects on his love for books: I am very fond of books. Do not mistake me. I do not mean that I love reading. I hope I do. But I delight in seeing books about me, books even of which there seems to be no prospect that I shall have time to read a single chapter. I confess that if they are nicely bound, so as to glow and shine in the firelight, I like them ever so much better. I suspect that by the time books (which ought to be loved for the truth that is in them) come to be loved as articles of furniture, the mind has gone through a process which the miser's mind goes through - that of passing from the respect of money because of what it can do, to the love of money because it is money. I have not reached the furniture stage, and I do not think I ever shall. I would rather burn them all. 

There were several passages on the benefits of adversity: How often do we look to God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us not upon the rocks but into the desired haven. 

The book is based on MacDonald's Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood. Editor Dan Hamilton does a wonderful job of removing some of the excesses of Victorian fiction while at the same time retaining the beautiful language. He divides up the original Annals into three novels of which A Quiet Neighborhood is the first. I look forward to reading the others.

Blessings,

What I Read and Watched in August

I dreaded writing this post because I've had another awful reading month (since I have been mostly preparing for my upcoming theology class.) I finished Howard Snyder's Radical Wesley and read half of Roger Olsen's critique of Calvinism, Against Calvinism, but couldn't finish it because it was too snide. The one book I read for pleasure was George MacDonald's The Quiet Neighborhood, which I hope to review soon. 

A bright spot in the month was that I finally heard about The Literary Life podcast. I listened to the first three episodes and also three more recent ones on "Leaf by Niggle" and "On Fairy Stories" (both by Tolkien). I also listened to those two stories (on YouTube) and enjoyed them immensely. Hearing Angelina Stanford talk about the Gospel in Fairy Tales was a real treat.

After a good day of studying, I generally give myself a half an hour of a youtube movie, which came out to 5 movies: The two Signed, Sealed and Delivered movies (To the Altar, The Road Less Traveled) were pretty hokey, but the cast grows on you after a while. And it was amazing to hear one of the characters talk about how he had kept himself for marriage. When was the last time you heard that in a movie??? My favorite flicks were Hallmark mysteries because I enjoy the clean humor combined with an intriguing plot and very little romance. (Murder, She Baked: Deadly Recipe, Mystery 101, and Aurora Teagarden: Dead over Heels.) Although I sometimes make fun of Hallmark movies, I am sad that their channel is going the way of political correctness. 

Blessings,

A Quiet Heart - quote by Alexander MacLaren

The quiet heart will be able to fling its whole strength into its work. And that is what troubled hearts never can do, for half their energy is taken up in steadying or quieting themselves, or is dissipated in going after a hundred other things. But when we are wholly engaged in quiet fellowship with Jesus Christ, we have the whole of our energies at our command, and can fling ourselves wholly into our work for Him. 

(I found this lovely quote by Baptist preacher and expositor Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910) while reading his commentary on Ephesians 6.)

Blessings,

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

G.K. Chesterton called Nicholas Nickleby Dickens’ first real novel. The previous three publications had been Sketches by Boz (no hero), the PickwickPapers (older hero), and Oliver Twist (child hero). This was his first novel with a proper and dignified romantic hero; which means, of course, a somewhat chivalrous young donkey. Chesterton's description captures the personality of our young hero perfectly.

Nicholas is a young man who suddenly loses his father and must do his best to provide for his mother and sister. But in order to do so he must overcome the evil machinations of his uncle and his entourage of seedy companions. There were times when I almost despaired of a happy ending, but chapter 64 finally arrived and all was right with the world. I can’t be sure if the tears that pricked my eyes were from happiness or from relief that I finally finished this 731-page tome.

While I liked the book very much, I did not love any of the principal characters. The bad ones were far too bad and the good ones were far too good. Honest, simple John Browdie, a minor character, was my favorite (reminding me of Joe from Great Expectations). He is an uneducated man with an innate sense of right and wrong, but unlike Joe, he has an enormous sense of humor and self-confidence.

I’m working my way through the Dickens’ canon, and though this was not a favorite, I still relished the hilariously drawn lesser characters and the lovely writing. Take this description of Arthur Gride's house: Meagre old chairs and tables, of spare and bony make, and hard and cold as misers’ hearts, were ranged, in grim array, against the gloomy walls; [tall cupboards], grown lank and lantern-jawed in guarding the treasures they enclosed, and tottering, as though from constant fear and dread of thieves, shrunk up in dark corners, whence they cast no shadows on the ground, and seemed to hide and cower from observation. A tall grim clock upon the stairs, with long lean hands and famished face, ticked in cautious whispers… (p. 590)

I like Chesterton’s suggestion to read the novels in order of publication to watch the progression of Dickens' talent. If you read Nicholas Nickleby (or, better yet, listen to Mil Nicholson read it free at Librivox), follow it up with Chesterton’s witty commentary from Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens. (free for Kindle)   

Blessings,

What I Read and Watched in July

With my son and his wife visiting from the U.S., there hasn't been much time for reading, but we've watched half a dozen movies. Considering our different tastes, the votes were commonly cast for older family favorites such as the first Star Wars trilogy and the Lord of the Rings extended versions. Star Wars seemed a bit silly after LOTR, but it was still fun. I hadn't seen the Star Wars films for many years and had never seen them with the changes made by George Lucas in the remastered DVDs (released in 2004).

As far as reading goes, I'm halfway through four titles, but finished Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (review next week) and Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge.

The Dickens title was plain hard work, but listening to Mil Nicholson at Librivox helped a lot. Most of Linnets and Valerians was delightful, but the far-reaching effects of the black magic on several of the main characters robbed the book of some of its charm. If I had read it as a fairy tale rather than a middle grade adventure story, it might have been less disturbing.

I watched two Hallmark mysteries: Fixer Upper: Framed for Murder & Chronicle Mysteries: The Deep End. And I enjoyed this 45 minute YouTube video of James Clear summarizing his book Atomic Habits.

Anybody else still in a reading slump? Any good books or movies to recommend?

Blessings,

A Culture of Boredom

In a culture that craves the big, the entertaining, the dramatic, and the shocking, cultivating a life with space for silence and repetition is necessary for sustaining a life of faith. Once a student complained to his professor about having to read Augustine's Confessions. "It's boring," the student whined. "No, it's not," the professor responded. "You're boring." What he meant is that when we gaze at the richness of the gospel and the church and find them dull and uninteresting, it's actually we who have been hollowed out. We have lost our capacity to see wonders where true wonders lie.

(from Tish Harrison Warren's Liturgy of the Ordinary, p. 34)

Blessings,

The Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren

Do your daily small tasks really matter in the whole scheme of things? In Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Warren walks us through the rhythms of a typical day and highlights lessons that can be learned from each simple practice.

Christians are taught to look for a radical life, a life of conspicuous sacrifice and service - a life that seems obviously set apart for something more than the mundane and unimportant... We tend to want a Christian life with all the dull bits cut out. Yet God made us to spend our days in rest, work, and play, taking care of our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our homes. What if all these boring parts matter to God? What if days passed in ways that feel small and insignificant to us are weighty with meaning and part of the abundant life that God has for us?

She emphasizes that it is in the dailiness of the Christian faith - the making of the bed, the doing of the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading of the Bible, the quiet, the small - that God's transformation takes root and grows. Evangelicals tend to focus on a "radical Christianity" full of excitement, passion and risk. Quoting Eugene Peterson, she writes, There is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for the long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.

In addition to a radical faith, we American Christians love a productive faith. The busier we are in God's work, the more spiritual we feel. But Tish gently reminds us that if we realize that ALL we do is for God's glory (even the mundane), it helps us to resist the idolatry of work and accomplishment. She reiterates this in her chapter on rest where she writes that sleep reminds us that ultimately it is God who does the work. When we lie down at the end of the day, it is a confession of our limits and a recognition of the holiness of rest and the blessedness of unproductivity. As we stop all our "doing," we joyfully acknowledge God's watchcare over our lives.

This is not a book that will bowl you over, but it is a perfect book to read during lockdown. I, as a missionary, appreciated this careful analysis of what a life of faithfulness looks like, especially when opportunities for [frantic] Christian service have been curtailed.

Blessings,

What I Read and Watched in June

One of my bookstagram friends wrote that she is re-reading old favorites because she doesn't have the cognitive energy to tackle anything new. I keep hearing about the lethargy caused by the Covid crisis and agree that my capacity to read deeply and then to write out my thoughts has been much harder in recent months. Blogging has taken a serious hit.

I managed to get through three novels in June: L.M. Montgomery's Emily Climbs, Mary Stewart's suspenseful Madam, Will You Talk? (during which I had to take in deep gulps of air at the end of each chapter because I had forgotten to breathe), and Dorothy Sayers' Murder Must Advertise. The non-fiction I completed was Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren, and Foundations of Wesleyan-Arminian Theology (for an upcoming class.) I also listened to the short book, Where is God in a Coronavirus World? by John C. Lennox.

I watched 3 episodes of PBS' The Great American Read and don't think I'll finish it. Harrison Ford's newest movie, The Call of the Wild, was okay, but I could never emotionally connect with the CGI animals. The murder mystery, A Bundle of Trouble was pleasant, but unremarkable - except for the fact that it was the first Hallmark movie I've seen with a transgender character.

My most surprising reading was from an online Catholic periodical called Crisis Magazine. I don't know who sent me my first free issue, but I was quickly hooked by the exceptional writing and politically conservative perspective. I am not Catholic so I skip the articles about Catholic doctrine and polity, but the other articles on culture and politics have helped to clarify my thinking. Two of my favorites were "And Then They Came for J.K. Rowling," and "Domesticity is Not Slavery."

Blessings,

Walking Faithfully with God by Kay Arthur

Do the kings and kingdoms of the Old Testament run together in your mind? If so, you are not alone. Sure, everybody know about David and Solomon, but after the kingdom was divided, forty more (mostly villainous) rulers reigned in Judah and Israel. How in the world do we keep them straight? The book Walking Faithfully with God is a great place to start.

The beauty of the inductive Bible study method is that it forces you to slow down and pay attention. This book requires you to patiently note down character traits of the major kings. It requires highlighting, reading, and re-reading. After studying a chapter in I or II Kings, you jump over to the corresponding chapter in II Chronicles to get a more complete picture of that king's life. It is VERY thorough.

Even though this was my fourth time through this book, I was still constantly amazed at the wickedness of the various kings. Though they are persistently sinful, God is persistently merciful in sending prophets to warn them to repent. After a series of discouragingly evil kings, suddenly there is a man who loves God with all his heart to remind you that God can raise up men of God under the most adverse circumstances.

The book is full of helpful maps and charts and at the end of each week there are insightful life lessons as well as discussion questions to help you dig deeper. I have been doing inductive Bible study for fifteen years, and this is far and away my favorite study. I'm always a little sad when I finish any inductive study because of the rich, fruitful hours I've spent in God's word. I hated to see this book come to an end.

Blessings,