May to August

I was going to do a note and then realized how long it was going to be.

This is quite the departure from what I normally post on here, but as I said: it didn’t fit in notes. Seeing as I have class in about ten hours my summer reading is officially over, and this is what I read:)

A Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken

This was a recommendation from

Emma Claire Laughlin

and has earned its place on the shelf reserved for my very favorite books. There are so many things to love about it — the fellowship of the couple’s tight circle of friends, their passionate love of beauty, C. S. Lewis, and the heartbreaking realization of the Lord’s perfect love and His willingness to do whatever it takes to draw us to Himself. I want to put ‘Go under the mercy’ above the front door in our living room.

The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury

I picked this up because I love Fahrenheit 451, and it was not very similar to it. I have a lot of thoughts about this one, actually, which hopefully will be coming to Substack soon.

The Tempest - William Shakespeare

I love Shakespeare, hadn’t read any in a while, and had been thinking a lot about Madeline L’engle’s use of the Ariel-in-the-cloven-pine part in A Wrinkle In Time, so I picked this one up. So good.

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

Meh. Or maybe not meh except that it was more hyped up than I think it ought to have been. The magic system was absolutely fascinating though, and the sense of wonder through the whole was really excellent. I think I read it through in one sitting — it’s a page turner for sure.

The Screwtape Letters - C. S. Lewis

I have never been so happy to have the main character die in a book before, and I think part of that was the joy of salvation being restored to me a little bit. It’s hard to conceive of death as a happy ending, but his death was truly swallowed up in victory. Also, I wonder what the spiritual warfare scene surrounding C. S. Lewis was like as he was writing and publishing this one because I’m pretty sure the enemy couldn’t have been particularly excited about it.

The Forgotten 500 - Gregory A. Freeman

An absolutely incredible true story of a World War II rescue mission, told in a way that almost succeeded in making it horribly boring.

The Gurnesy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows

A good read. I like epistolary novels. Also, the way the children in the story were written showed that the author(s) clearly knew actual real children, which is nice for a change.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke

Whoa — a book written in period style that actually reads like period style. It was really long but every part was important — kind of like The Count of Monte Cristo or Les Misérables. The magic system was really really interesting, and all of the characters are compelling and feel like full people, which is no easy task in a 782 page novel with a lot of different story threads. This was my favorite thing I borrowed from

Jaiden Strange

.

Little House on the Praire - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Five-year-old Rhys and I did a few read-alouds together this summer, and this was the first. I forgot how much of the book is descriptions of the housework they did back then, which I love.

Most of the Keepers series by Shannon Messenger

Twaddle. The first couple books were fun, but she makes some disparaging comments about Tolkien that I did not appreciate. Also the Lord poked me concerning wasted time about halfway through the eighth 800 page book, so I stopped.

Sarah Plain and Tall - Patricia MacLachlan

I love her writing so very much. It reminds me a little of Willa Cather in that you can tell how much she loves the land.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

This was a recommendation/lend from

jules

, and it was so so good. I got to the middle and couldn’t put it down so I read until I fell asleep at 2am and had a nightmare that I was married to Mr. Huntington. Despite that it might be my favorite Brontë sister novel.

Emily of New Moon - L. M. Montgomery

Emily Climbs - L. M. Montgomery

Emily’s Quest - L. M. Montgomery

I loved these when I was little and it was a good re-read. I did kind of forget about Dean and Emily’s relationship and that was a little bit weird.

Charlotte’s Web - E. B. White

Rhys’ second read aloud — I’m not sure she exactly got the point because on finishing she was no longer afraid of spiders and was very excited about smacking them with wet washcloths. I really enjoyed it though.

Rembrandt is in the Wind - Russ Ramsey

This was a really interesting book with chapters about different artists and about how faith and grace and art intersect. My favorite chapter was the one on Vermeer but the whole thing was fascinating and fun to reflect on. My mum and I read it together.

The Silver Chalice - Thomas B Costain

This was a book I borrowed from

Audrey Driskell

because the binding was beautiful and then I realized it was about the making of the Holy Grail. Parts of it were really beautiful and then parts of it had some pretty awful theology.

Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren

Rhys’ third read aloud. I loved this book when I was little but oh my goodness I kind of hated it this time around. No wonder all of the adults were upset with Pippi all the time she was kind of the worst.

Everything Sad is Untrue - Daniel Nayeri

I borrowed this one from

Micah Courser

and commonplaced so so much of it. It was beautifully told. At first I was a little worried about all of the different threads but Nayeri wove them together really well and I was left at the end with so much joy in the goodness of God.

Betsy-Tacy - Maud Hart Lovelace

This was my and Rhys’ favorite book we read together, and it’s probably one of my favorite children’s books. Everything about it is just sweet and good and whole. And Lois Lenski’s illustrations are amazing.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis

This must’ve been my twentieth read of this book but it’s still wonderful and compelling and I could probably read it again tomorrow. Something different strikes every time — this time it was the reality of the danger Edmund was in, brought through (seemingly common or unconcerning) sins that I’m guilty of all the time, and that Aslan’s death according to the Deep Magic was no less necessary though there was the Deeper Magic.

The Problem of Pain - C. S. Lewis

I think I underlined at least half of it. C. S. Lewis never fails to untangle things that begin very snarled in my head. He treats everything so gently without ever being unfaithful to the truth. I did discover that we disagree on how literally we take the Genesis account of Creation.

The Song of the Lark - Willa Cather

I think I loved this book. I say think because I finished it this afternoon and I’m still mulling it over. I started out hating Thea but realized that some of what I hated in her were my own worst faults, and then she got to the cliff dwellings in Arizona and I was so wrapped up in how Cather told it — how beautiful it was, and how it changed Thea, and what she thought of — that I loved her pretty much in spite of myself.

Currently, Rhys and I are in the middle of Betsy-Tacy and Tib, and I’m about halfway through Little Women. I love the whole Betsy series, and I forgot how much of Little Women is about being contented and remembering what is truly precious, which is a welcome reminder for starting the school year.