March / booklist

I had fun accruing a list of books for our getaway to Cuba, tho I didn't nearly get to all of them. Here's what I read in March at large...

Small Victories

Anne Lamott / 2014 / non-fiction / audio / 4 stars

"I'm human, you're human, let me greet your human-ness."

"What seems true is that something in life, on the highways or in our own hearts, is always being installed, or being repaired, or being torn down for the next installation, or the mess of the repair or teardown is being cleaned up & cleared out."

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, & that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey."

(Wendell Berry)

The Saturdays

Elizabeth Enright / 1941 / fiction / 3 stars

Read with Edie. About a family with four kids in New York.

Gilead

Marilynne Robinson / 2004 / fiction / audio / 4 stars

Our book club pick. An older pastor writing letters to his son - a slower paced book with poignant sections of thought. 

"I was just getting by on books & baseball & fried egg sandwiches."

"The light in the room was beautiful this morning, as it often is. It's a plain old church, & it could use a coat of paint. I used to walk over before sunrise just to sit there & watch the light come into that room."

"Much more prayer is called for, clearly. But first, I will take a nap."

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L'Engle / 1962 / fiction / 3 stars

Thought this might be a good one with to do with Asher, but it didn't sit quite right & I finished it on my own.

To Meg: "I give you your faults."

"I see, I understand, it has to be me. There isn't anyone else."

Nothing to See Here

Kevin Wilson / fiction / audio (Marin Ireland) / 3 stars

Had heard of this one & is read by one of my favourite narrators. Found the beginning quite amusing, then it took a different tone. Decent enough.

"They didn't want to set the world on fire; they just wanted to be less alone in it."

"Maybe raising children was just giving them the things you loved most in the world & hoping they loved them too."

Penguins & Golden Calves

Madeleine L'Engle / 1996 / non-fiction

I find L'Engle's nonfiction a little more work to get through... though I appreciate her insight & wisdom. Her love for the word is evident & how she takes her faith to heart.

"An icon, for me, is an open window to God. An icon is something I can look through & get a wider glimpse of God... it transcends our experience & points us to something larger & greater & more wonderful."

"we've fallen for the lie that 'normal' means easy & placid, with no problems, & that's not normal at all. A 'functional family' is one of our modern day idols."

(I read that line after a week where I literally had lamented I just wanted a "normal" week. Busted).

"Our home is an icon for me of family & all that is best in family life despite our failures with each other, our stupid quarrels, our blind lacks in love."

"Christ the Word shouted all things into being & continually calls each of us into fuller being, eery day, every minute, right now."

Rules of Civility

Amor Towles / 2012 / fiction / audio (Rebecca Lowman) 4 stars

This really captured the time period (New York in the late 30's) & was a very elegant read. The audio was very lovely. The story keeps you guessing. The character is also a big reader - Dickens, Thoreau etc. She says of Walden, "the only book in which infinity can be found on every other page."

"Most of us shell our days like peanuts. One in a thousand can look at the world in amazement."

Beach Read

Emily Henry / 2020 / fiction, rom-com / audio (Julia Whelan) 3 stars

Kept this one for Cuba as a light read & ended up listening to most of it at night when I couldn't sleep. Very similar plot & character build to Book Lovers.

Travelling Mercies

Anne Lamott / 1999 / non-fiction, autobiographical / 4 stars

Chose for book club. I was expecting it to be different for some reason, but it's written in Anne's style, though it does fill out more of her upbringing & young adult years etc. I found a couple chapters were repeats from her other books. I feel like a broken record, but I love her self-deprecating humour & honesty. She puts her faith really well into her real life.

"& here in the dust & dirt, O here, the lilies of his love appear."

"Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure." (Rumi)

 "I wanted to wake him up & tell him it was okay he didn't cooperate with me all the time - that ashes don't, old people don't, why should little boys?" (of her son)