Mark Haddon. Only a matter of a few hours to read, but lovely and touching (and quirky and suprising and interesting).
Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi
Donald Spoto. Very interesting to read a current biography of St. Francis. The book is a little odd–Spoto capitalizes all the references to God (Who created us, Who sustains us, etc.) and he also has these little interludes where he theologizes under the guise of suggesting things like “What kind of a God did Francis believe in?” There are several great nuggets in these sections.
Similarly, the less we consider the particulars of our social, cultural and (at least in the broadest sense of the word) spiritual roots, the more easily do we fall into the trap of considering ourselves and everyone else as some kind of mythic “human standard issue.” The particulars of time and place always matter; more to the point, faith in God means that God continues to disclose Himself in the particulars of our time, our life, our circumstances. In this regard, one of the glories of medieval Christian spirituality was its conviction that God was God for them–that is, the confidence that God had not fallen silent, had not ceased to play a role in history. A God Who is distant and univolved, or Who once spoke and acted but has ceased to do so, is not God but a fragment and figment of an impoverished imagination.
Banned Books Week
Crossroads of Twilight
Robert Jordan. Book Ten of the series. This one is better than the last few. There are some nice plot twists, and amazingly enough there’s even some character development. I’m once again looking forward to reading the next one.
Winter’s Heart
Robert Jordan. The Wheel of Time Series, Book 9.
Why do I do this to myself? At least I won’t be buying number 10–I checked it out of the Medford Public Library.
Eating Well For Optimum Health: The Essential Guide to Bringing Health and Pleasure Back to Eating
By Andrew Weil. Typically genial and radical opinions on healthy living.
Eat More, Weigh Less
By Dean Ornish. Sigh. My weight really is just too much. This is one of the low-to-no fat diets. Very badly written (and/or edited), with repetitive paragraphs as well as chapters. I’ve lent it out already.
Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers
Kage Baker. Short stories that make me just want to reread all the books and keep track of dates and mysterious hints. What have I forgotten that would illuminate some of these stories. Who is Alec Checkerfield? What is Alec Checkerfield? Who are Uncle Jacques and Aunty Irina? Will Joseph ever declare his love for Mendoza? Will she care? Etc.
The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life
By Cecile Andrews. Well, actually I just skimmed at least half of it. A few gems:
But who speaks up anymore? I ran across a quote by Virginia Woolf that made me yearn for some sort of good old days when people said things that had some substance and bite. Woolf writes to Lytton Strachey after reading the first six chapters of James Joyce’s Ulysses: “Never have I read such tosh. . . . Of course, genius may blaze out on page 652, but I have my doubts.”
But then, she botches the William Penn and the sword myth when she gets into her flabby spirituality chapters, so I must take the Woolf quote with a grain of salt.
She has an unfortunate tendency to refer to “we” and “us” in ways that make it clear that I’m not her audience. That’s when I really started skimming.
Not recommended.
The Path of Daggers
Robert Jordan