Sunday, July 31, 2022

What I Read and Watched in July

I'm toiling through four heavy-ish books (You are Not Your Own by Alan Noble, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by Law, Middlemarch by Eliot, and Gentle and Lowly by Ortlund) so I didn't finish many books this month. 

Of the three lighter books I read Death in Ecstasy and Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh were books #4 and #5 in the Roderick Alleyn detective series and didn't come up to the standard of the first three in my opinion. Kate Hardy was a light romance by D. E. Stevenson. 

Replenish by Lance Witt was about self-care, which is a subject I have to re-visit regularly since I am a people pleaser and need to be reminded of the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of saying an occasional "no."

Several good movies came across our radar. We had seen the 2011 Jane Eyre before, but I had forgotten how beautiful the language was. The Kid (2002) with Bruce Willis is always fun. I'm 60 and happily married, but Willis' goofy grin charms my socks off. And the message that you are not really a successful adult until you are pouring out your life for others was astonishingly refreshing. Last of all, we watched The Impossible Dream (part of the Signed, Sealed, Delivered series), which was surprisingly patriotic. My husband and I are Bible geeks so we loved it that some of the clues to the mystery revolved around Bible verses. 

I found the 1971 version of Sense and Sensibility on YouTube and watched it in anticipation of an upcoming Lit Life podcast.  It was a great month for feeding my heart and mind. What about you? Any books or movies to recommend?

Blessings,

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Quote on the Glories of Fresh-Ground Coffee - Amor Towles

An example of the beautiful writing in Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow:

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov stirred at half past eight to the sound of rain on the eaves. With a half-opened eye, he pulled back his covers and climbed from bed. He donned his robe and slipped on his slippers. He took up the tin from the bureau, spooned a spoonful of beans into the Apparatus, and began to crank the crank.

Even as he turned the little handle round and round, the room remained under the tenuous authority of sleep. As yet unchallenged, somnolence continued to cast its shadow.... But when the Count opened the small wooden drawer of the grinder, the world and all it contained were transformed by that envy of the alchemists – the aroma of freshly ground coffee. In that instant, darkness was separated from light, the waters from the lands, and the heavens from the earth. The trees bore fruit and the woods rustled with the movement of birds and beasts and all manner of creeping things. (p. 171)

Blessings,

Thursday, July 14, 2022

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I came to A Gentleman in Moscow with all the misgivings I usually have for modern fiction, but was pleasantly surprised with this beautifully told story.

Count Alexander Rostov is a political prisoner in Russia during the first half of the 20th century. His “prison” is the Metropol hotel in Moscow where he lives in a tiny attic room. In spite of his limitations, he develops many rich friendships (one with an actress who becomes his mistress, but thankfully their liaisons are never detailed).  

The gentle philosophizing was a delight:

I’ll tell you what is convenient,” he said after a moment. “To sleep until noon and have someone bring you your breakfast on a tray. To cancel an appointment at the very last minute. To keep a carriage waiting at the door of one party, so that on a moment’s notice it can whisk you away to another. To sidestep marriage in your youth and put off having children altogether. These are the greatest of conveniences, Anushka, and at one time, I had them all. But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered most to me. (p. 352)

When the Count was a young man, he prided himself on the fact that he was unmoved by the ticking of the clock…. There were those of his acquaintance who brought a new sense of urgency to their slightest endeavor. They timed the consumption of their breakfast, the walk to their office, and the hanging of their hat on its hook with as much precision as if they were preparing for a military campaign. They answered the phone on the first ring, scanned the headlines, limited their conversations to whatever was most germane, and generally spent their days in pursuit of the second hand. God bless them. For his part, the Count had opted for the life of the purposely unrushed. (p. 390)

In addition to the literary references (from Anna Karenina to Robinson Crusoe to Dante to Odysseus to the Count of Monte Cristo to Don Quixote!) and the good writing, the story is compelling. How do you thrive and continue to make a difference in other people’s lives when confined to a small space? The conclusions that Towles makes are simply astonishing.

Blessings,

Friday, July 1, 2022

What I Read in June

This may have been the best reading month I've had so far this year: two good murder mysteries, a children's classic, a lovely Bible commentary and a modern novel that I actually liked!

The murder mysteries were from the Golden Age of Detective fiction. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers was a bit difficult because a key component of the crime had to do with the art of change-ringing (which I knew nothing about), but I'm glad I persevered to the (surprising) end. The other mystery was The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh, another fun entry in the Roderick Alleyn series.

It was a joy to re-read Wind in the Willows with the Literary Life podcast group. I listened to the Librivox version by Adrian Praetzellis. Warren Wiersbe's commentary on Leviticus, Be Holy, was a wonderfully helpful tool for understanding a difficult book of the Bible.

Finally, I read A Gentleman in Moscow. I came to the story with a lot of misgivings, but was pleasantly surprised at the great storytelling. The author masterfully describes the lives a small group of people who live and work in a Russian hotel during Stalin's regime. It made me want to learn more about that time in Russian history.

I will be posting more detailed reviews on some of these books soon. Unfortunately, the links to these books are pricey. I got all of them for free from my library or when they were on sale for Kindle. 

Have you read any of these? Any thoughts?

Blessings,