Topical studies can be hit or miss with me. This one was more of a miss. Some passages definitely seemed like they were being forced into the interpreTopical studies can be hit or miss with me. This one was more of a miss. Some passages definitely seemed like they were being forced into the interpretative mold of dealing with anxiety rather than being explored for what they are actually about. Also skipped a lot of the study questions. Flimsy. ...more
I can’t say that this is one of the most interesting ancient works I’ve ever read, but I must affirm that it is one of the most important and insightfI can’t say that this is one of the most interesting ancient works I’ve ever read, but I must affirm that it is one of the most important and insightful. When you have enjoyed so many great books that constitute the stream fed by the principles of story Aristotle observed and laid out for us, it is far too easy to take Poetics for granted and feel borderline underwhelmed reading it. But Poetics is truly excellent, despite any tepid feelings I may have reading it. We owe a great debt to Aristotle for putting into words what we know to be true every time we encounter a great story.
(The Literary Life Podcast 2023 Reading Challenge – Book covered by the podcast)...more
Such a fun read. Hijinks and shenanigans galore when Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough go on vacation to Europe. The writing is witty, the litSuch a fun read. Hijinks and shenanigans galore when Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough go on vacation to Europe. The writing is witty, the literary allusions delightful, and the adventures wild.
(The Literary Life Podcast 2023 Reading Challenge – Cindy’s pick: Travel/walking journal or book) ...more
Celebrity memoir isn’t usually a genre I’d ever pick up, but I had to grab this one (I am a Harry Potter Millennial after all!). Tom Felton’s affectioCelebrity memoir isn’t usually a genre I’d ever pick up, but I had to grab this one (I am a Harry Potter Millennial after all!). Tom Felton’s affection for the HP stories, film cast and crew, and fandom really comes through in this book. And while I came for all the HP-related tidbits (and thoroughly enjoyed each one), I stayed for Tom’s personal journey and wish him nothing but the best. I hope he someday gets his dream fulfilled of reading and watching Harry Potter with Muggles of his own!
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 2 for '22 Reading Challenge: Biography – Someone living) ...more
This was my first foray into Mary Oliver. I enjoyed dipping into the essay collection each day and found myse“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”
This was my first foray into Mary Oliver. I enjoyed dipping into the essay collection each day and found myself inspired once again to gaze more attentively at the world around me. Love of nature, literature, and writing take turns as the essay focal points. Oliver also supplies plenty of beautiful, well-crafted sentences, which is exactly what I was hoping for from a poet.
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 2 for '22 Reading Challenge: Essays – Essays from this century)...more
A solid collection of Lewis-as-literary-scholar essays. Lots of Faerie Queene goodness. I just wish I were more familiar with some of the works and auA solid collection of Lewis-as-literary-scholar essays. Lots of Faerie Queene goodness. I just wish I were more familiar with some of the works and authors he writes about!...more
I really enjoyed learning more about this key aspect of Lewis's identity. The more I read of him and from him the more I see how much medieval cosmoloI really enjoyed learning more about this key aspect of Lewis's identity. The more I read of him and from him the more I see how much medieval cosmology was the air he breathed.
The urge to read Boethius and reread Dante is strong now!
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 2 for '22 Reading Challenge: Inklings – About an Inkling)...more
2. I originally only intended to read the “Of Miracles” section because C.S. Lewis responds to it in his book Miracles, but I decide1. My brain hurts.
2. I originally only intended to read the “Of Miracles” section because C.S. Lewis responds to it in his book Miracles, but I decided to read the whole book for more context.
3. The Sparknotes section summaries available online are just about the only reason I had a hope of understanding anything Hume was saying.
4. This book argues in favor of empiricist philosophy, which opposed the rationalist philosophy espoused by Descartes and others.
5. My brain hurts.
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 2 for '22 Reading Challenge: History/biography/topical with "opposing" perspectives – First choice) ...more
My first time reading Muir. Such a remarkable eye for nature. Oh to see like that!
Note to my Lit Life friends completing the 2022 reading challenge: TMy first time reading Muir. Such a remarkable eye for nature. Oh to see like that!
Note to my Lit Life friends completing the 2022 reading challenge: This book only has 10 essays. I got my 11th by reading Muir's "Yosemite Glaciers" online.
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 2 for '22 Reading Challenge: Essays – Essays from past decades or centuries)...more
The story of how Jeff Bezos led Amazon from struggling start-up to business juggernaut is quite fascinating and sometimes unsettling. For me, at the tThe story of how Jeff Bezos led Amazon from struggling start-up to business juggernaut is quite fascinating and sometimes unsettling. For me, at the top of the fascinating side of things is how much Amazon’s story intertwines with books: the company’s start selling books, the use of books as loss leaders, the development of the Kindle, the feuds with publishers about e-books (to name just one source of Amazon-publisher tension), and even this book’s appendix, “Jeff’s Reading List,” a list of “a dozen books widely read by executives and employees that are integral to understanding the company.”
As for unsettling, while I believe there is something to be admired in Amazon’s innovation and risk-taking, its culture and practices often seem characterized by a degree of ambition and ruthlessness that left me squirming.
Considering this book is already almost ten years old and Amazon has expanded even more, I’ll have to pick up Brad Stone’s follow-up book, Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire sometime soon. ...more
John Calvin’s Institutes has been on my reading bucket list for years. Having committed to read the entire work in 2021, I actually finished. I do notJohn Calvin’s Institutes has been on my reading bucket list for years. Having committed to read the entire work in 2021, I actually finished. I do not claim to have understood everything I read, nor do Calvin and I agree on everything. Nevertheless, it was an immense privilege to see a great theological mind at work and read a book that has been so important to Protestantism. As someone in a Protestant denomination who also reads a lot of books by Reformed writers, many of his arguments were not as earth-shattering to me as they would have been to readers in his day, but that is no discredit to Calvin. On the contrary, it shows just how influential his work has been. A challenging, slow read but worth it.
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 19 in 2021 Reading Challenge – A 14th, 15th, or 16th century book)
Bear with me, for this review requires some context. Prior to 2020, classical education and Charlotte Mason inhabited the outermost fringes of my lifeBear with me, for this review requires some context. Prior to 2020, classical education and Charlotte Mason inhabited the outermost fringes of my life. I was homeschooled K-12 with a popular Christian homeschooling curriculum, got an undergraduate degree in education, started working in a public school district, and got a graduate degree in education. I knew classical education purely as a type of education other circles did, and I knew Charlotte Mason only as a name who popped up periodically in one of my Goodreads friend’s book reviews. Then at the beginning of 2020, I discovered the Literary Life Podcast and joined the Facebook group a few months later.
Suffice it to say, I have learned so much more about what it means to receive a Charlotte Mason education, though I still consider myself very much in the beginning stages of my learning. However, what I have learned spoke directly to a deep-seated dissatisfaction I have had for years about how modern education works and how my subject matter (English) is taught. I think I have always known in my soul somehow that “This is not the way things are supposed to be.” Although I’m not a mom and have no reason at this point to believe I’ll be looking into homeschooling anytime in the near or distant future, I have developed quite a curiosity and eagerness to learn more about both Charlotte Mason and classical education because what I have learned already has me convinced that this is the better way.
Karen Glass’s book Consider This was an enlightening read and has only increased my hunger to learn even more. Although I’d still consider it feeble, I do have a better understanding of what true classical education is. It was also helpful to see Charlotte Mason principles that have come up on the Literary Life Podcast explained with greater depth and to see how those principles fit within the classical tradition. In the handful of podcast episodes in which I’ve listened to Karen Glass, I found her to be an excellent communicator. No surprise, the same is true of her in writing.
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 19 in 2021 Reading Challenge – A book on education, art, or literature) ...more
A comprehensive collection of Jane Austen’s letters. Less fervent Austenites can get away with reading a selection of letters, but if you love her as A comprehensive collection of Jane Austen’s letters. Less fervent Austenites can get away with reading a selection of letters, but if you love her as much as I do and want to drink up anything and everything you can about her life and writing, this is the book you want. It not only has all of Jane’s surviving letters and letter fragments but also some additional letters written to or about Jane (including the one Cassandra wrote right after Jane died—excuse me while I go cry). This edition also includes thorough indexes that provide more context on people, places, events, etc., mentioned in the letters. You can avail yourself of them as much or as little as you like.
Admittedly, the content of most of the letters is fairly mundane. Far more ordinary than earth-shattering. Jane simply lived her life as all of us do and provided a snapshot of it in these letters. But ordinary is still interesting to me because it’s Jane! I learned plenty of wonderful tidbits that I did not know before and have a much better sense of what she was really like both as a person and as a writer. Fair warning, however—if you’re anything like me, this book still won’t be enough. You’ll desperately wish there was more. I doubt I’ll ever get over the fact that a large portion of Jane’s letters were destroyed and are lost to us forever.
Finally, rest assured that the same wit and humor that permeates her novels appear often in her letters. Here’s a small sampling:
"I do not want People to be very agreable as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."
"I am tolerably glad to hear that Edward's income is so good a one—as glad as I can at anybody's being rich besides You & me."
"I shall be able to send this to the post to day, which exalts me to the utmost pinnacle of human felicity, & makes me bask in the sunshine of Prosperity, or gives me any other sensation of pleasure in studied Language which You may prefer."
"I can recollect nothing more to say at present;—perhaps Breakfast may assist my ideas. I was deceived—my breakfast supplied only two ideas, that the rolls were good, & the butter bad."
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 19 in 2021 Reading Challenge – A book or selection of letters)...more
“I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to ‘I hate to read new books,’ and“I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to ‘I hate to read new books,’ and I hollered ‘Comrade!’ to whoever owned it before me.”
Take me back to the days of letter writing, please and thank you. This is a wonderful little book that offers a touching snapshot of an unexpected friendship, grounded in a mutual love of good books. A thoroughly enjoyable read, simultaneously humorous and poignant. ...more
I don't understand it all, but I recognize its significance. This is essential reading for understanding medieval cosmology. Lewis is a great guide, aI don't understand it all, but I recognize its significance. This is essential reading for understanding medieval cosmology. Lewis is a great guide, as always. And in his wonderfully Lewisian way, as he talks about the medieval model of the universe, he simultaneously exposes how far we've fallen and how much we've lost in our modernity.
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 2 for '22 Reading Challenge: Inklings – By an Inkling)...more
"The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is—what it was intended to do and how"The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is—what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used."
Consistently scholarly, never boring. Yet another book chock full of Lewisian wisdom. An excellent way to get your bearings before reading Paradise Lost. Lewis will rescue you from reading Milton's masterpiece improperly, through a modern lens, and instead show you how to read it as Milton actually intended. Along the way, you will learn much not only about Paradise Lost but also about epic poetry as a whole. ...more
Every page kept my interest. Though I've already had many encounters with C.S. Lewis's life and work, this book's focus on the friendship between him Every page kept my interest. Though I've already had many encounters with C.S. Lewis's life and work, this book's focus on the friendship between him and Dorothy L. Sayers revealed yet another side to one of my favorite authors. Getting to know Sayers better, too, was just as exciting since I've only just this year started delving into her writing. If you love either or both of these authors, this is a book you'll want to read. ...more
A helpful consideration of biblical worship. Barrett pushes back on the pervasive view of worship as a matter of personal preference and points us to A helpful consideration of biblical worship. Barrett pushes back on the pervasive view of worship as a matter of personal preference and points us to where our attention always should have been: what God actually says in His word about how to worship Him. ...more
Sometimes long-winded and difficult to understand when the examples used are unfamiliar, but an absolutely essential essay for understanding Tolkien, Sometimes long-winded and difficult to understand when the examples used are unfamiliar, but an absolutely essential essay for understanding Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, and other good "fairy-stories." The ending (Recovery, Escape, Consolation and Epilogue sections) is pure gold and one of my favorite bits of writing ever....more
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