Auldlangspine

An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith | Barbara Brown Taylor

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I have more thoughts about this book than a Litsy review warrants. I think the crux of it is that I found many beautiful passages that spoke to me…but I don‘t think it‘s a perfect book.

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Every job has revealed some ability I did not know I had, just as it has exposed some clumsiness I was pretty sure I had.”

I think, in this (rightfully) sensitive and inclusive time, Taylor‘s writing is sometimes clumsy. 👇🏻

monalyisha 1/11: At one point, she even refers to her accidental “oafdom.” What I‘m left feeling unsure about (and there should be NO such ambiguity) is if there‘s occasionally something insidious seeping through that‘s more close-minded than clumsy. (edited) 1h

monalyisha 2/11: For instance, she writes, “We are players but we do not direct the play. Certain decisions were made for us before we were even born. Did you decide to be born in Wichita? Was being a girl your first choice?” The sticking point for me is that we do not have a choice about where we were born. (edited) 1h

monalyisha 3/11: We DO have a choice about how we present our bodies to the world. We have the power to make our outsides match our insides…even if we can‘t change where we‘re from. We can also *leave* the place we‘re born. But she provides no further exposition on the matter. So, to me, this set-up feels like a false equivalency. It feels like dangerous territory. (edited) 1h

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monalyisha 4/11: I worry that with her focus on the incarnation and on matter *mattering* to God, that it‘s entirely possibly BBT could hold anti-trans sentiment. This may be totally off base! The point is that there should be NO SUCH AMBIGUITY. With a more careful writer, there would not be. (edited) 1h

monalyisha 5/11: There are other instances where her position in the world shines through (cis, white, white-collar). She refers to a particular place in the Bronx as “a pretty scary neighborhood” and proclaims that the Uber driver who shuttles her away from it (without any concrete example of threat), “saved her.” (edited) 1h

monalyisha 6/11: This abuts a chapter about “loving the stranger” where she asserts how divinely-inspired it is to “surrender the priority of your own safety for love.” I guess I‘m not convinced that BBT walks the walk as well as she talks the talk, despite her insistence that this book is meant to provide practical instruction. (edited) 1h

monalyisha 7/11: In other places, I made notes about passages where it felt like she was shaming the listener: for being overweight; for being a sex-worker; for not being part of a religious community (she says that these folks (folks like me) feel like they “need to walk off a cliff all by themselves” — and I don‘t get the sense that she admires our sense of adventure). (edited) 1h

monalyisha 8/11: On the whole, I found her tone to be too judgmental, while asserting that she absolutely was NOT being judgmental! This tonal problem is one that the church itself struggles with. It‘s interesting that she was once a representative of their governing body. (edited) 1h

TheBookHippie This is my petty comment. I loathe her and believe her to be dangerous. 1h

monalyisha 9/11: Onto the good stuff, of which there was *plenty!* Many of her thoughts about reverence, awe, & attention hit home. In particular, I loved her thoughts about Moses and what made him special (his willingness to “turn aside” and “look”); her account of walking through a laurel portal with her husband, finding their way in the breathing, moonlit dark… (edited) 1h

monalyisha 10/11: …and her assertion, inspired by the Jewish candle-lighting ritual which illuminates Shabbat, that rest and freedom are intrinsically linked.

An Altar to the World won‘t become my new Bible (though, BBT would insist that the Bible doesn‘t have to be treated like your Bible [infallible teachings, taken wholesale]). (edited) 1h

monalyisha 11/11: I will take from it her suggestion to read Wendell Berry poems to trees. I will take from it her proclamation that “The meaning we give to what happens in our lives is our final, inviolable freedom.” 1h

monalyisha @TheBookHippie That‘s certainly a passionate position! Which details made you feel so clear in your conviction? I feel a lot muddier with the info I currently have. 1h

monalyisha Tagging those of you who I know have read this, so I can get your two cents. 💞 @kspenmoll @BarbaraJean 1h

TheBookHippie @monalyisha she irritates me, I said it was petty 😅🤷🏻‍♀️… there is something in her writing and speaking that feels extremely dangerous to me. I know people love her and get a lot from her. I personally don‘t trust her. Her vibe is off for me and I also find her very condescending. 🤷🏻‍♀️😅 I love your review. It‘s very honest. I love a lot of Berry‘s poems. And a lot of his religion I do not. 🙃 I‘m fun. 31m

Amiable What a wonderfully written and thoughtful review. 24m

kspenmoll I did quote some passages from her that I liked… I grew up white & privileged (except for my femaleness)when Catholics, Jews, blacks, browns, whites were largely separated geographically, which meant socially, politically, & psychologically. Life has changed me because I sought that change & grasped the new. I went to a regional integrated HS when the nuns & priests were throwing off their habits & leaving the church in droves. So maybe 🔽 11m

monalyisha Thank you, @TheBookHippie & @Amiable ! Christine, it can be hard to put your finger on the source of “vibes.” I‘m totally sympathetic to that! I need to read more Berry. Coincidentally, a friend (who‘s going through a really difficult time) just texted me that he was currently reading the tagged and was so grateful that he was. I think I‘ll pick up his most famous, A Timbered Choir, next.

World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry

10m

kspenmoll 🔼 I can relate to some of her experiences. I avoided certain areas of Hartford (although I lived there several years) & the reality is poverty & violence still exists & there are places my students tell me not to drive thru aline-they know, they live there. Not sure what I trying to say here. @monalyisha @TheBookHippie Am I making sense?! Also I do enjoy Berry‘s

A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems, 1979-1997

(edited) 7m

monalyisha @kspenmoll You *are* making sense. I just think language is so important. Why refer to “urban neighbors” as being a challenge to love, or call a residential area a “pretty scary neighborhood,” when you could introduce more nuance by calling it something like, “a neighborhood with high need and a high crime rate to match”? Neighborhoods aren‘t scary. They‘re a symptom of a scarier reality. Wealth disparity is scary. (edited) now

monalyisha @kspenmoll I think when your whole M.O. is careful attention, that ethos needs to be applied to your language. now

monalyisha @kspenmoll Another example: at one point, she talks about the “adolescent energy” of Hawaii. She writes, “its divinity had not yet suffered from the imposition of shopping malls.” But what about the suffering on the sugar plantations? It feels like she‘s negating the very real, historical suffering of the people. now

monalyisha @kspenmoll I think so much of her writing *was* considered and crafted. The part where she discusses the beattitude plays, for instance, brought me to literal tears! Or her final discussion of transubstantiation (how Jesus has no hands but ours, no bread other than that which we make…How we ARE his body? Gorgeous!). But if you bring a judgmental tone to your writing and then aren‘t perfect yourself? 😬 That‘s a hard position to find yourself in. (edited) now

TheBookHippie @monalyisha She, the author, White Privilege is for sure, the number one feeling I get is bigot and unsafe ally. The vibe is way offffff. Oy.

Berry can be very very soothing. Some of his poems I read over and over. I'll have to go look which book I own, I know it's a collection. now

monalyisha @TheBookHippie I guess, overall, I did feel like she was trying. And I think she succeeds in a lot of radical ways! She seemed open to me, and willing to admit her mistakes. But I do have concerns. I‘m inclined to think that it comes down to being a little out of it (which is evidence of privilege) and a lack of timely care. She doesn‘t know she‘s leaving room for interpretation. now

kspenmoll @monalyisha Now I understand what you‘re saying! You have a wonderful way with the words. now

JamieArc I think I read this (or at least one of hers) as I was leaving the evangelical church, and I remember I was glad to have read it at that hard and confusing time as a transitional piece. This was also just at the point that I started to examine my own whiteness, so I wasn‘t paying attention to certain aspects of it. I wonder what she would say for herself 16 years later. (edited) now

monalyisha @JamieArc Oh! I was not *remotely* conscious of the fact that this was published more than a decade ago! That actually blew my mind. 🙈 It‘s an important detail to consider. I just saw it on more than one #AuldLangSpine list and assumed it was new, which is entirely my fault! Thanks for pointing it out! I did try to Google her stance on trans rights… but I didn‘t find anything directly related. (edited) now

monalyisha @kspenmoll Thank you. 🥹 now

TheBookHippie @monalyisha I think for sure she does not know her privilege. I too appreciate any effort of any kind. I just didn't feel she was genuine. But I love this conversation! now

monalyisha @TheBookHippie @kspenmoll @JamieArc Yes! I‘m so happy I had people to discuss it with. 😊 now

26 likes31 comments

LapReader

The Postcard | Anne Berest

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It‘s been a hectic month so apologies @monalyisha & @Deblovestoread but I only started this one and am yet to finish it. Mainly listening when cooking, cleaning or walking as I was yesterday. I did become a widow though which is a bizarre experience to say the least. #auldlangspine

Deblovestoread I am sorry for your loss. You have my deepest sympathies. 2h

BarbaraBB I am so sorry for you. Sending love and strength to cope 🤍 2h

Bookwormjillk I‘m so sorry for your loss. 2h

TiredLibrarian I'm very sorry for your loss. 2h

monalyisha @LapReader No apologies needed. Sending a sincere appreciation for your blue skies, as well as a deep empathy for what you‘ve lost. 🩵❤️‍🩹 1h

16 likes5 comments

DebinHawaii

January | Sara Gallardo

Great reading month for January! I finished 19 books total & read almost all I set out to. I think weekly plane rides & trying to avoid media upped my reading time. Finished all 3 #Roll100 books, 3 from my #AuldLangSpine list from @JacqMac + #AuthorAMonth #SundayBuddyRead #ChildrensClassicRead2025 #NancyDrewBR #BobWhiteBuddies #FoodandLit #ChloeGongReadalong #ThematicCozies #FictionalTraveler #Naturalitsy #MidWinterSolace #JaneAustenThenAndNow ⬇️

Soubhiville, TheBookHippie, Texreader, Librarybelle, Crinoline_Laphroaig, monalyisha, Andrew65, TheSpineView, Catsandbooks, TheAromaofBooks, PuddleJumper, julieclair, AllDebooks

DebinHawaii … & SeriesLove2025 & also had some library books sneak their way in. I enjoyed most everything I read (although I got a little heavy with Nazis/Fascists books for a month of political horror that was depressing but some lighter books pulled me out). Top 3 Favorites were Bad Cree, Lula Dean‘s Little Library of Banned Books & The Night Guest. (edited) 2h

Librarybelle That is a great reading month! 2h

PuddleJumper That's brilliant! 1h

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Laughterhp

A Dowry of Blood | S. T. Gibson

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I was able to finish one more #auldlangspine book in January! This was really good. I like the way the story was told and it was pretty short.

Constanza was turned into a vampire and she‘s telling us her story and journey through the years.

monalyisha, rachelsbrittain

36 likes

CSeydel

O Caledonia | Elspeth Barker

#ReadingBracket #BookBracket2025

Starting strong with a clear winner for January slipping in just under the wire before the month‘s end. This is a book I already know I‘ll re-read because it‘s full of gorgeous description and characterization. By turns hilarious, poignant, bleak, heartbreaking. #auldlangspine

43 likes

Born.A.Reader

A Killing Cold: A Novel | Kate Alice Marshall

January's wrap-up. I tried to catch up on my BOTM books and am now in the middle of my annual comfort reread of Twilight. Also finished my first #AuldLangSpine and am halfway through my 2nd one.

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Zuhkeeyah

BookSpinBingo | Untitled

An unexpectedly strong reading start to 2025. #auldlangspine and Litsy reviews drove a lot of my book choices this month. I also discovered my library has all of The Apothecary Dairies light novels which sent me into a reading spree one weekend.

#bookspin: The teller of small fortunes
#doublespin: Raised by a serial killer

@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Yay!!! Fabulous month!! 22h

18 likes1 comment

CSeydel

How to Age Disgracefully | Clare Pooley

#weekendreads #auldlangspine

Frozen River is a historical fiction about a real midwife, Martha Ballard, in colonial Maine. A woman is raped; later, one of the two men accused of the crime is found dead. Politics and fingerpointing ensue.

How to Age Disgracefully is a fun little British story about an eclectic assortment of people who cross paths at a community center in a lower-middle-class neighborhood. So far it‘s funny and charming.

rachelsbrittain

rachelsbrittain My mom read The Frozen River recently and really enjoyed it! 1d

CSeydel @rachelsbrittain Nice! 23h

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DebinHawaii

Prophet Song | Paul Lynch

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#JumpStart2025 #Read2025

I got behind in posting reviews for January so, I‘ll try to get them all in today.

From the #AuldLangSpine list of @JacqMac this book kind of wrecked me. I wasn‘t planning on reading it this month but my library e-book hold came in & so it jumped the line. I think my mistake was reading it the weekend before the inauguration & the dystopian story of the effects of totalitarianism & civil war on a family in Ireland, ⬇️

DieAReader, Lizpixie, monalyisha

DebinHawaii …was too real & quite frankly depressed the hell out of me & I can‘t stop thinking about it. It‘s chilling, frustrating to read & very good—winning the 2023 Booker Prize. I‘m not sorry I read it, just the timing with the reality of our current political shitshow just messed me up. I‘m vacillating between 4 & 5 stars- the style with no paragraphs, quotation marks, etc. drove me a little crazy as did the MC, Eilish & some of her choices, but ⬇️ 1d

DebinHawaii those things also added to the utter chaos of the events in the book. Still unpacking it, probably will be for a while. This is my third book from @JacqMac ‘s list so far & all have been amazing in their own ways. 🖤🖤🖤 1d

monalyisha OOF, I totally get it. I felt much the same way about the tagged (from my match‘s list this January).

A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy

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AnnCrystal 🫂🙏🇺🇸💝. 1d

DieAReader 🫂💖 1d

DebinHawaii @monalyisha Oh that one looks good too, but maybe in a lighter month! Again, great matchmaking. Thank you! 1d

JacqMac I get it. This was such a dark read. It felt so much like it could really happen, it made it scary. And now here we are. Watching America… 1d

52 likes7 comments

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