What I Read and Watched in March

I continue to be amazed at the deep pleasure I am experiencing through books this year. After last year's slump, this is such a relief. I read/finished nine books this month and am listing them in the order of how much I enjoyed them.

1) Most fun was Dorothy Sayer's Unnatural Death (Book #3 in Lord Peter Wimsey novels) because of the the great writing and intricate plot.

2) Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch was surprisingly theological. Instead of giving points on how to limit technology, he writes winsomely of what it means to be a family and how technology can help or hinder that. (review next week)

3) Silas Marner by George Eliot is a beautiful story of redemption, which I read with the Literary Life podcast group.

4) Down to Bedrock by Eric Cordingly - P.O.W. memoir (review here)

5) Clouds of Witness by Sayers (Book #2 Lord Peter)

6) The Changi Cross - a short book following the history of a hand-made cross during WWII

7) Your God is too Small by J.B. Phillips. Somehow this classic did not resonate with me. I loved the concluding thoughts. 

8) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey was good but not as amazing as expected.

9) Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw was a well-written coming of age story, but with too much teenage angst for me. (To be fair, teens are the intended audience so I should not have been surprised.)

We haven't had much time for TV lately, but have been able to squeeze in an episode of the new PBS version of All Creatures Great and Small once a week. The recordings were sometimes too garbled to watch so we missed a few episodes, but the final episode was so delightful that I watched it twice.

What about you? Did you read or watch anything great in March?

Blessings,

Pink Sugar by O. Douglas

Pink Sugar is the third book in the Priorsford series by O. Douglas (pseudonym of Anna Masterson Buchan). Although I didn't like the second book very much, this one harkened back to the style and charm of Book One (Penny Plain) because of its rich vocabulary and many literary references (Shakespeare, the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, the Brontës, Chesterton, Dickens, etc.)

I was enchanted with this light novel of Kirsty Gilmour and her bravery in tackling new goals and projects after the death of her stepmother. At thirty she considers herself a spinster and plans to spend her life investing in other people. 

Having lived only in hotels as she traveled the world, Kirsty wants life at its simplest: a little plain house in an old-fashioned garden with plain meals and no smart servants. On hearing her desire to buy a small cottage and "live for others," her friend Blanche responds drily: My dear, I'm afraid you think now that you are free and in Scotland that the millennium has come. It hasn't. People can be just as selfish and tiresome and ungrateful in Muirburn as in any other place. [Your cottage], charming as it is, won't be a serpentless Eden. Don't expect too much and don't try to do too much for people... I don't believe, she said darkly, 'that people like being lived for.'

Previously Kirsty had served a demanding and spoiled parent, but in her new life she gladly gives of herself to take care of an elderly aunt and three motherless children. Her desire to help others (her "pink sugar" attitude is that everyone should be happy) occasionally gets her into trouble. These troubles keep the book from becoming too saccharine. The well-to-do vicar and his wife who care too much about keeping up appearances, the handsome poor vicar with his unhappy sister, the darling governess, the down-to-earth author of "pleasant fiction" and the surly landlord are just a few of the characters who keep the story interesting.

The Scottish brogue can be a challenge, but it's delightful when you make the effort to decipher it. "Gleg as a hawk" means alert. To "fash oneself" is to trouble yourself. "She was sweir to gang' an' blythe to come back," means she was disinclined to go, but eager to return.

Charming from start to finish.

Blessings,

The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murray

We all know we should pray more, but why are we so reluctant? Andrew Murray deals with this question head on in his book The Ministry of Intercession. And he does not waste any time mollycoddling his readers. We may complain of lack of time or lack of motivation, but Murray writes,

Feebleness and failure in prayer is a sign of feebleness in the spiritual life. If we lack in this area, we lack in many others. Prayer is meant to be as simple and natural as breathing to a healthy person. The reluctance we feel, and the failure to confess, are God’s own voice calling us to acknowledge our disease, and to come to Him for the healing He has promised…. To pray aright, the life of the Spirit must be right in us. For praying the effectual, much-availing prayer of the righteous man, everything depends on being full of the Spirit…. Beware of grieving him by sin, by unbelief, by selfishness, by unfaithfulness to His voice in your conscience. You can count on him to do in your heart all that ought to be done there.

That last sentence is crucial. Instead of loading us with guilt for not praying enough, Murray emphasizes over and over that when Christ calls us to do something, He also enables it. Rest assured that if Christ is calling you to prayer, he will heal your reluctance and your lethargy. You can trust Him to restore your spiritual strength. Pray with humility and yet with confidence that He will teach you.

I appreciated Murray’s thorough explanations of several key Bible passages on prayer, especially the one in Luke 11 that appears to teach that if we nag God long enough, He has to give in to us. I also appreciated his emphasis on the privilege of prayer: Christ has taken believers up into partnership with himself; He has honored them, and bound Himself, by making their prayers one of the standard measures of the working of His power.

The appendix of the book is a thirty-day plan for taking baby steps toward a deeper prayer life. I highly recommend this book if you want to grow in the area of intercession. I have one caveat though. If you are not familiar with Murray’s other books, which emphasize complete surrender to God and to His will, you could misconstrue several statements in this book that seem to reflect the “name it, claim it” mentality of the prosperity gospel.

This title was free at the time of posting. If you have never read Murray, I would suggest these other (more accessible) titles first. The True Vine (99 cents) and Humility (free) are two of my favorites.

Blessings,

A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery

A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery comes disguised as a fluffy vintage melodrama, but it's actually a novel about the high cost of real love. 

From page one, all the members of the clan are fighting, gossiping or grieving over lost chances. The first section describes soon-to-die Aunt Becky and her scathing remarks to each family member as she spitefully reads her will out loud to them. I can only stand biting humor up to a point so I was relieved when the novel took a different turn and began to focus on three different couples. (There are too MANY people in the Dark and Penhallow clan to keep straight, so it was good to be able to focus on just a few.) But I was disheartened that all of these characters seemed to more in love with love than with each other.

It came out all right in the end as each one learned to let go of their illusions and accept their loved ones, imperfections and all. The book is ultimately about the high cost of loving and the happiness of those who are willing to pay the price. Rosy, unrealistic dreams are traded in for real ones.    

I loved this book so much that I was horrified at the closing scene. It was meant to be a funny conclusion to one of the secondary story lines, but the inclusion of a racial slur robbed it of its humor for me. (With the whole Dr. Seuss book banning fiasco, I'm wondering if books like this will soon be on the chopping block. I hope not because even though there is one inappropriate sentence, it has so many good life lessons to teach.)

Unlike the Anne of Green Gables' books, I would not place this title in the children's book category because of the "hell"-ing and "damn"-ing, and a few occasions where someone is in love with someone else's spouse (in a chaste sort of way). Irreverent statements about God are sprinkled throughout.

In spite of all my reservations, I'm still considering A Tangled Web one of my favorite books of 2021.

Blessings,