The mind of the maker is generally revealed, and in a manner incarnate, in all its creation.
By 4 stars ("I really liked it") I mean I really liked tThe mind of the maker is generally revealed, and in a manner incarnate, in all its creation.
By 4 stars ("I really liked it") I mean I really liked the parts I understood.
I loved DLS's dry and snarky humor. Especially in conversations when she includes, in italics, what she was thinking. Hilarious!
The book is deep; I think it was the most challenging book I read in 2023. Occasionally I would get a glimpse of her point, but like the straggler on a hike who periodically sees her friends disappearing around a curve in the distance, she was often beyond me.
The Scalene Trinities chapter was a concept that I got a loose fingerhold on.
Stasis and convenience are a prison cell where your body rots.
We are a sedentary culture, and our lack of movement affects our thoughts, which, in turStasis and convenience are a prison cell where your body rots.
We are a sedentary culture, and our lack of movement affects our thoughts, which, in turn, reinforces our sedentarism.
"Everything I love," I notified my doctor, "is sedentary: reading, writing, music, and so on."
She recommended I read Katy Bowman; I am smitten. This is not an exercise book; it's about movement. Bowman, a natural teacher, takes an integrative, organic, lifestyle approach. For instance, regularly walking to the store to pick up groceries and carry them home is superior to walking on a treadmill for xx miles.
Another quote: Somebody's grandmother used to beat egg whites into a meringue with a fork. You gonna get whipped by somebody's grandmother because your arms get too tired?
The bit about kids throwing whole apples from school lunch away because eating them was "too much work" underscored how weak our culture is becoming. Turns out, if you slice the apples, kids will eat them. Seriously?
I'm not 100% on board, but Katy pushes me to examine me assumptions, something I value. She has many YouTube videos that explain her non-mainstream approach to biomechanics. She has me thinking about gleaning and foraging. I'm pondering her distinction between "stacking" (good) and "multi-tasking" (not good).
About the audio: Katy Bowman is 40-something, but her voice sounds like a teenager. In a pleasant way. It's such a good companion while walking (returning books to the library, of course) that I giving it a second listen.
I plan on reading her 2017 book Dynamic Aging next. ...more
This is a transcription of a talks delivered at the 2013 Desiring God conference. I found this on a "bonus borrow" through Hoopla. It was a great compThis is a transcription of a talks delivered at the 2013 Desiring God conference. I found this on a "bonus borrow" through Hoopla. It was a great companion as I shoveled through a March blizzard.
The final chapter, What God Made Is Good and Must Be Sanctified is what snagged my attention. In it, Piper teaches from I Timothy 4 that asceticim is not God's ideal for us. That Satan can bring about rebellion in us not only through excesses like gluttony but also through abstinence. That food and sex were created to be received with thanksgiving.
This talk put Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer near the top of my TBR list. ...more
I loved parts and didn't love parts so I'm taking the middle road in the rating.
Reading old books is an education in reckoning with otherness; its hopI loved parts and didn't love parts so I'm taking the middle road in the rating.
Reading old books is an education in reckoning with otherness; its hope is to make the other not identical with me but rather, in a sense, my neighbor.
Here's the odd thing about 'otherness'. When it is very other it is easier to digest with detachment, it seems, than when it is just a bit 'other.' I first noticed this in church denominations. Someone who shares 92% understanding with another can fight to the death about the 8%.
I'm nervous that I am the 'someone' and Alan Jacobs is the 'another'. I expected to love this because I agree with his premise, but I found it heavy, and plodding, and — dare I say it — woke, punctuated with light and delightful words. ...more
Joe Posnanski is a wealthy man and a winsome writer.
He is rich with stories, statistics, similes, connections. An infinite fund of fun facts. And theJoe Posnanski is a wealthy man and a winsome writer.
He is rich with stories, statistics, similes, connections. An infinite fund of fun facts. And the most delightful footnotes since the advent of the printing press. Joe's essays are as far from a Wikipedia article as an Anthropologie boutique is from Walmart. His conversational writing is pitch perfect, his timing exquisite; his last sentence often a zinger. These essays convey his love of the game, his respect for the players, his pleasure in sharing all the weird and wonderful accounts.
He expertly frames the narratives, examining different angles. Writing about multiple legends is challenging. How do they not all blur together? Posnanski pulls out distinguishing characteristics, situates the stories with skill. He doesn't omit the vileness and villainy of certain players, at times offering mitigating factors, at other times brooking no excuse.
The scenic routes are splendid! A raconteur loves to escort his audience on bypasses and excursions. Do you know what they call a walk-off homer in Japan? A sayonara home run. Players named after Presidents, players connected with communities, origins of nicknames, all the baseball Misters in the game (of course, the best is Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks). Posnanski gained my trust with the first sentence of his introduction; I was happy to go off the path of the main bio, knowing he would bring it all together.
Two themes are noteworthy: fathers and sons (the solid, the cringey, and the complicated) and the Negro Leagues. Including players from the Negro Leagues is awkward since statistics aren't available. What we do know are the evaluations and anecdotes from various sources. For instance, Olympic star Jesse Owens refused to race Cool Papa Bell, after he would race anyone. Well, now! Joe P. knows these histories (he previously wrote The Soul of Baseball about the Negro Leagues) and makes me pleased to meet and know unfamiliar players.
More than once I was moved to tears. I was also rendered speechless from laughter; still I can't even think of one story about "a game called for darkness" without spasms of mirth....more
You know *all* the C.S. Lewis quotes that show up on social media? Many are truly not from the pen of CSL. But it was a welcome surprise to see the coYou know *all* the C.S. Lewis quotes that show up on social media? Many are truly not from the pen of CSL. But it was a welcome surprise to see the context for many of the quotes I am familiar with. Similar to reading or watching Hamlet for the first time and discovering the familiarity.
I love the specificity of Lewis's essays. He mentions Trollope, Grimm, Austen, Grahame, Nesbit, Tolstoy, and particular titles. Which means my to-be-read list just expanded. I have H. Rider Haggard on my shelf, and I'm intrigued by CSL's comments on his writing.
I'll admit that I floundered in the science fiction essays. Not my favorite genre.
This was a delightful read once I took it at a leisurely pace. I started a Facebook group four years ago hoping to read through the CSL canon in three or four years. Both the project of reading and the curating of the group have been spectacular failures. I will keep on with more books of essays, clinging to the value of plodding....more
Fadiman documents the quirkiness of readers: reading a Toyota Manual when nothing else is available (<--- wait. How doeComfort read for bibliophiles.
Fadiman documents the quirkiness of readers: reading a Toyota Manual when nothing else is available (<--- wait. How does *that* happen?) I loved the essay, You-Are-There-Reading about reading a book in the setting it describes. I extend this to days and seasons. I delight in reading a date and calculating that it took place 237 years ago, today!
The Most Hilarious Essay goes to Nothing New Under the Sun, where Fadiman writes about plagiarism with 38 footnotes documenting each phrase she lifts from other sources. I chuckled reading about then Senator Joe Biden, whom she claims couldn't not plagiarize. Biden even plagiarized his apology for plagiarizing from The Grapes of Wrath.
Allow me to tell you about a delicious reading intersection. I am also reading Svetlana Alliluyeva's Twenty Letters to a Friend. Svetlana is Josef Stalin's only daughter. A pamphlet dropped out of the book, a tri-fold reprint from the Book-of-the-Month Club News, a "Report by Clifton Fadiman," Anne's father. It was like hosting a family tea party. Fadiman explains what the book is not, and what it is. He writes
What remains finally is the character of Svetlana herself, a character straight out of the 19th-century Russian novel—romantic to the point of sentimentality, overflowing with Slavic affection for her homeland, oriented to those old-fashioned virtues of kindness, goodness and charity of which her father's whole life was a denial.
The form of this book reminded me of Barbara Tuchman's Practicing History. As their career comes to its end, authors of history have so many unused scThe form of this book reminded me of Barbara Tuchman's Practicing History. As their career comes to its end, authors of history have so many unused scraps, untold stories, unexplained episodes; of course, they stitch them together into another book. The memoir element is strong. Here is an opportunity to express their personal opinions, reactions and convictions.
What impressed me the most was how studying the documents changed Ambrose's mind about so many things. He often compares how he first taught a subject/person and how he revised it later, e.g. whether Truman was right in reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
His chapter on Ulysses S. Grant made me dust off Grant's memoir and decide to read it this year. I've read about a quarter of the books Ambrose has published, and several more are calling my name....more
Excellent! Although the book was first published in 1935, the language often sounded nineteenth century. But as I read I often thought Amy knew my thoExcellent! Although the book was first published in 1935, the language often sounded nineteenth century. But as I read I often thought Amy knew my thoughts and personal struggles.
This book is a collection of essays about the Christian life, each one accompanied by a photograph from Bavaria or Austria. Amy Carmichael writes for those 'walking in difficult places.'
There is blessing prepared for the unoffended.
The pledged word of God to man is no puffball to break at a touch and scatter into dust. It is iron. It is gold, that most malleable of all metals.
We never do glide into any act of faith.
The grey scum of selfishness in our human love will float to the surface of our soul and be discovered by us, if we are willing to allow the Refiner to blow up His fire.
I find Wendell Berry's essays both maddening and encouraging. I am nodding in agreement with one essay and shaking my head with another. I learned mucI find Wendell Berry's essays both maddening and encouraging. I am nodding in agreement with one essay and shaking my head with another. I learned much about forestry, stuff I had never before considered. I prefer Wendell Barry's fiction and poetry to his essays.
His response to receiving the Dayton Literary Peace Prize made me snort: when we were notified of this award my wife, Tanya Berry, uttered a sound that closely resembled laughter. She better than anybody knows how willingly I have risked controversy, and how much I have enjoyed it, especially when I was young....more
2022: Added a star this reading. I still find it quite challenging.
2020: I didn't factor how difficult I would find C.S. Lewis to sometimes be.
I fir2022: Added a star this reading. I still find it quite challenging.
2020: I didn't factor how difficult I would find C.S. Lewis to sometimes be.
I first listened to this book as I walked. Bad idea. It ricocheted off my brain. I read the words. I listened and read together. Finally, I watched the book/listened to audio with CSLewisDoodle on You Tube. It truly improved with each excursion, and by improving I mean my understanding inched forward.
One thing about C.S. Lewis: his ideas are as relevant now as they were in 1944.
In short, I want to give this five stars; alas, in order to love it, I feel I should get it.
I certainly want to take another go at this in the future....more
I enjoyed these essays on life in the West and writers of the West. I will come back later and tell you why. As all good books do, this added weight tI enjoyed these essays on life in the West and writers of the West. I will come back later and tell you why. As all good books do, this added weight to my TBR list. Now I am eager to read Bernard DeVoto. ...more
This reminds me of Helene Hanff's tour of her hometown, New York City, Apple of My Eye. E.B. White, more philisophical, writes a fascinating piece —boThis reminds me of Helene Hanff's tour of her hometown, New York City, Apple of My Eye. E.B. White, more philisophical, writes a fascinating piece —both sentient and prescient—about the Big Apple.
The chiasm in the forward of the second edition made me smile: The LaFayette Hotel, mentioned in passing, has passed despite the mention.
Eating lunch in a café, White regards the man next to him. The eighteen inches were both the connection and the separation that New York provides for its inhabitants. My friend Rebeccah's Facebook posts about her 5:30 a.m. subway jaunts fit right in. The rules of the commute: you can nod to regulars in greeting, but introducing yourself or asking a name is verboten.
White also underlines something I first heard from Garrison Keillor. The city is, in fact, a collection of myriads of neighborhoods. The delight I take, in my small town, of being known and recognized in the bank and post office, happens in NYC grocery stores and shops.
The most chilling words in this 1949 book are White's recognition of its vulnerability.
The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions.
The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. A person cooking is aThe table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. A person cooking is a person giving: Even the simplest food is a gift.
Occasionally details date this 1992* book, e.g. how unhealthy eggs are. But overall, Colwin's writing is timeless and enduring. I love her. Though our lives are/were (she, 48, didn't wake up one October day in 1992) different in context and culture, her themes of cooking, reading, writing, family, and community are practices I cherish.
She writes about reading and I purr (not even a feline aficionado) as I vow to reread all of Barbara Pym.
Basically, all I ever do is read. I read about monastic life, polar Eskimos, arctic travel — I have no interest in ever going to the Arctic, by the way, and as I am not Christian, I can never enter a monastery — and I read English novels. One of my favorite novelists is Barbara Pym, who is an underrated writer, like Jane Austen. Everyone things she's just darling, but she is not just darling, she's really tough. One of the great things about Barbara Pym is that the food in Barbara Pym is just wonderful.
Colwin is Queen of zingers.
Black beans are the frazzled person's friend. Biscuits are the utility infielder of the culinary world. What is good for Mrs. [Edna] Lewis is good for the nation, in my opinion. A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins. Lentils are friendly — the Miss Congeniality of the bean world. It is amazing how many adults loathe beets - although puréed, strained beets are a staple in the baby-food industry.
Added to the riches of Colwin's prose, are the resources she recommends: cookbooks by Elizabeth David, Marcella Hazan, Edna Lewis, Sylvia Thompson, Jane Grigson, Margaret Costa, John Thorne, and Madhur Jaffrey. A hemisphere of food writing awaits.
The recipes look lovely, but so far they have nourished only my spirit.
*I chuckled at this: If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me "I don't have time to bake bread anymore," I would be as rich as Donald Trump used to be.
Do you ever read a book, but can't recall how or why it landed on your TBR list? That is *not* the case with this book. Karen Glass in a blog post, ThDo you ever read a book, but can't recall how or why it landed on your TBR list? That is *not* the case with this book. Karen Glass in a blog post, The Best Books of 2008, introduced me to this book on December 31, 2008. Based on the other authors she referenced — Chinua Achebe, Andrea Levy, Wendell Berry, Jan Karon, George Eliot, P.G. Wodehouse, and Cormac McCarthy — and on her glowing summary, I moved The Educated Imagination to the top of my TBR.
I should rave over this book. I'm disappointed with myself that I don't. Truth is, I have partially read it four times. Because the line of thinking builds on previous chapters, I've started from the beginning each time. The book, only 156 pages, is one that requires contemplation. The effort was rewarding enough for me to keep trying. For nine years it's glared at me and taunted my infidelity. It required tough love and a deadline: if I didn't finish it by 8/31/17 I was giving the book away.
While I copied several quotes, I continue to struggle to give a short synopsis of his thoughts on literature. This time I read it slowly and carefully, but the main points could not find purchase on my slippery receptors.
Here are some gems I gathered:
If you say this talk is dry and dull, you're using figures associating it with bread and bread knives.
Art begins as soon as "I don't like this" turns into "this is not the way I could imagine it."
Literature keeps presenting the most vicious things to us as entertainment, but what it appeals to is not any pleasure in these things, but the exhilaration of standing apart from them and being able to see them for what they are because they aren't really happening.
I could paint this on a wooden sign and hang it up in my house:
It seems to be very difficult for many people to understand the reality and intensity of literary experience.
I nodded my head in vigorous assent:
You keep associating your literary experiences together: you're always being reminded of some other story you read or movie you saw or character that impressed you.
I kept turning pages and finding my marks on the pages. Like my experience with Dickens' Hard Time, I didn't recognize I'd already finished this until I arrived at the last few pages. Oy....more
It always comes back to truth, beauty, and goodness.
Some modern/postmodern art tells the truth at the expense of beauty. Christian kitsch wants to beIt always comes back to truth, beauty, and goodness.
Some modern/postmodern art tells the truth at the expense of beauty. Christian kitsch wants to be beautiful, but it's a shallow and simplistic, ignoring the reality of a disordered world. This essay is meant, I think, as a guide for Christian artists who want to create art that "incarnates the hope of redemption."
I appreciate Ryken's warning not to dismiss abstract art: Yet abstraction has God's blessing as much as any other art form. He backs this up with a Makoto Fujimura piece, Trinity, on the cover. I've looked at it for two minutes without inspiration. (Should I give it twenty?) To me, it resembles the flag of Belgium. Sigh...
This short book (111 pages) is a collection of Elisabeth Elliot writings from seven previously published books, with a poem young Betty Howard (EE) wrThis short book (111 pages) is a collection of Elisabeth Elliot writings from seven previously published books, with a poem young Betty Howard (EE) wrote (see below) and a graduation address added at the end.
The content is excellent. I like Eliott's no-nonsense tone; her bracing voice is unique in the circle of late twentieth century Christian writing. Taking Flight has inclined my desire to read her oeuvre.
She ends the book with a phrase made famous by her brother, Thomas Howard: My life for yours. I was surprised and delighted to discover this phrase (said by Bottom, haha!) in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act III, Scene 1). Just another enchanting intersection in my reading life.
My thinking on graduation gifts has changed. I used to give a book to graduating friends. I wonder if even one of those books was read. Likely not. A coffee gift card will be redeemed!
And, although I spend hours copying quotes into my journal, reading abridged sections someone else has chosen without their full context isn't as satisfying.
The books are closed. The sun streams into the library, And I stand, Pensive, Looking beyond the Tower To the green horizon. The years have been full— How transient, they! Yes, "you'll never forget Your college days..." "You step into a cold world..." Perhaps. But there is no difference — The days, Lord, have been Thine. Thy "Lo, I am with you" is For tomorrow, too. Let us remember the way. But make us press on. Give us true gratitude For all the blessing; Give us pure vision. Show us the path of life.
Laurie Colwin is plain winsome. Her (writing) voice is capable, soothing, wry, funny, unassuming. I moseyed my way through her comfort-filled chaptersLaurie Colwin is plain winsome. Her (writing) voice is capable, soothing, wry, funny, unassuming. I moseyed my way through her comfort-filled chapters. I'm conflicted about the decision to keep or release this book. It's reassuring reading you could pick up, read a random chapter, and set down again.
I do not believe you have to spend a lot of money to eat well: it is hard to beat a plain old baked potato.
A long time ago it occurred to me that when people are tired and hungry, which in adult life is much of the time, they do not want to be confronted by an intellectually challenging meal: they want to be consoled.
Dishes such as shepherd's pie and chicken soup are a kind of edible therapy.
Vegetarians, for example, are enough to drive anyone crazy. Like Protestants, they come in a number of denominations.
I flagged ten recipes to try. I'm intrigued by the Latvian Birthday Cake, one she calls a saffron-flavored coffee cake. I have precious saffron from the Istanbul Spice Bazaar waiting for worthy recipes!
Really, there are so many things I appreciated, like this list of items worth spending money for: sweet butter, good olive oil, high-quality vinegar, sea salt, fresh pepper, fresh herbs, raw sugar.
So sad: Laurie Colwin didn't wake up one morning when she was 48.
I don't know who put this classic on my radar, but it's been on my TBR list at least ten years. I have her companion book, More Home Cooking on my nightstand. ...more
The cover of the book seduced me. And writing about my mom is one of the things I do, so I was eager to read 31 essays, compare notes, pick up some poThe cover of the book seduced me. And writing about my mom is one of the things I do, so I was eager to read 31 essays, compare notes, pick up some pointers. I must not move in the same circles as the editor, because I only recognized four names in the lineup: Susan Stamberg, Joyce Carol Oates, Eleanor Clift, and Lisa See.
Moms are a difficult subject. So easy to veer into the ditch of sentimentality and syrupy idealism. But I was taken aback by the high percentage of essays written by daughters who disparaged their moms. My mom had seven kids who never once doubted her love. And because this is such a personal, closely-held precious thing—my mom's love and her early death—most of this book's essays were tuneless to me.
The editor writes, When I looked around at my closest women friends, almost every one had a tragic mother story, one more heartbreaking and unbelievable than the next. I knew I was comfortable with women who'd had damaged mothers, mothers who had never been quite all there for them.
My three favorites: Eleanor Clift writing about her mom who grew up on Föhr (look it up), a tiny island with its own language, to marry a man who transplanted her to New York city; Lisa See writing about her mom's best advice. "Write a thousand words a day and one charming note." And Emma Straub who writes But when I think of her, I don't think of objects. I think of walking somewhere with her, arm in arm, our laughs always the loudest in any room, or her clapping along with whatever music is playing, always having more fun than anyone else.
Reading the made me consider what my mom gave me. Sticking to material gifts, I can think of two things and they both make me snicker! She made my Halloween costumes. One year I was a witch with a conical witch's hat. ☺ And one Christmas she sewed at night without a pattern, making a varied wardrobe for my Barbie doll. Can you imagine the detail work, sewing snaps, etc? The child-me played with them incessantly. The adult-me doesn't even approve of Barbies! I have no idea what happened to the dolls/clothes/accessories. But if I had them now, I'd give them to my granddaughters and tell them about the wonderful woman who made them. ...more
Carol Bakker
>
Books:
essays
(35)
Loading...
