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#auldLangSpine
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DebinHawaii
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TheBookHippie WOWIE!!! 1d
Catsandbooks 🍀💖👍🏼 1d
Ruthiella Looks like a great reading month! 1d
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TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! Enjoy!!! 1d
Librarybelle Yay!! 1d
AllDebooks You have some amazing books there! Enjoy 📚 1d
JacqMac That‘s a great list! 23h
56 likes7 comments
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BookmarkTavern
BookSpinBingo | Untitled
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I‘ve got some amazing reads lined up for February!#BookSpinBingo #BingoBoard

#BookSpin Calamity Jane, #DoubleSpin Artful Dodger

#Roll100 The Wind‘s Twelve Quarters, Gwenhwyfar, Calamity Jane

#OokBOokClub Making Money

#BobWhiteBuddies The Marshland Mystery

#BeyondTheYellowBrickRoad Ozma of Oz (one of my favorite Oz books!)

#QueerBC Pet

#ThematicCozies Artful Dodger

#AuldLangSpine A Strange and Stubborn Endurance

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! Looks fantastic!! 1d
48 likes1 comment
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DebinHawaii
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A little late posting my February #Roll100 picks but here goes:

#60 Any Retelling (of Sense and Sensibility-also reading for #Pemberlittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow ) Would work for #6 Any Kindle too since it‘s been in my Kindle TBR a while.

#42 Any Mystery (also reading as part of @JacqMac ‘s #AuldLangSpine list)

#82 Any Non-Fiction (a library e-book loan)

I‘m excited about all 3 of these! 📚

PuddleJumper 🎉🎉 23h
41 likes1 comment
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WildAlaskaBibliophile
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I intended to finish this one for #auldlangspine before the end of January, but then I got sick and my plans got derailed. I enjoyed this one! Thanks @pogue! @monalyisha

Pogue I hope you feel better. 1d
AnnCrystal May you feel better 🙏📚💝. 1d
31 likes2 comments
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monalyisha
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Pickpick

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) 2d
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) 2d
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) 2d
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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) 2d
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) 2d
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) 2d
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) 2d
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) 2d
TheBookHippie This is my petty comment. I loathe her and believe her to be dangerous. 2d
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) 2d
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) 2d
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.” 2d
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. 2d
monalyisha Tagging those of you who I know have read this, so I can get your two cents. 💞 @kspenmoll @BarbaraJean 2d
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. 2d
Amiable What a wonderfully written and thoughtful review. 2d
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 🔽 2d
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. 2d
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 (edited) 2d
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) 2d
monalyisha @kspenmoll I think when your whole M.O. is careful attention, that ethos needs to be applied to your language. 2d
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. 2d
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) 2d
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.
2d
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. 2d
kspenmoll @monalyisha Now I understand what you‘re saying! You have a wonderful way with the words. 2d
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) 2d
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) 2d
monalyisha @kspenmoll Thank you. 🥹 2d
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! 2d
monalyisha @TheBookHippie @kspenmoll @JamieArc Yes! I‘m so happy I had people to discuss it with. 😊 2d
DrSabrinaMoldenReads I loved this book too 2d
BarbaraJean Thanks for the tag! And my thoughts aren‘t going to fit just one comment, so you‘re not alone! You‘re very right about the clumsiness/inconsistency, and I really appreciate your thoughtful review. I‘m frustrated I didn‘t pick up on more of the issues you raise—a measure of my own privilege that I missed a lot of the examples you pointed out, and was willing (perhaps too generously) to give her a pass on others. I think it‘s partly generational, ⬇ 1d
BarbaraJean (Cont'd) ...but I agree with @JamieArc that some of it can also be chalked up to when this was written. I really resonated with the chapters on getting lost and finding purpose (but even the purpose stuff comes from privilege, so…). I‘m not at home and don‘t have my copy handy, but doesn‘t she have a whole passage about a power outage where she tries to acknowledge her privilege while coming across as super privileged? ⬇ 1d
BarbaraJean (Cont'd) Same with her reflections on physical labor while volunteering at a shelter? All of that tracks with @TheBookHippie‘s vibes! And BBT‘s background as an Episcopalian tracks with the white privilege, unfortunately. I say that as someone who left the evangelical church and landed at an Episcopal church because of its progressive & affirming theology. The Episcopal Church is trying, and there‘s a lot of good intent (and actual good) there, ⬇ 1d
BarbaraJean (Cont'd) ...but a lot of the people in the pews are still pretty darn privileged and white. Much like BBT and this book. @kspenmoll Also, perhaps not coincidentally, I‘ve been (very slowly) reading through Berry‘s Timbered Choir for the past few months… 1d
TheBookHippie @BarbaraJean My vibes have never been wrong in all my life. It is annoying but helpful. OY VEY. 1d
BarbaraJean @TheBookHippie My husband gets similar vibes and I tend to find it annoying… then inevitably I have to admit he was right 😆 1d
TheBookHippie @BarbaraJean Mr BookHippie suffers the same issues 😂😂😂😂♥️ 1d
monalyisha @BarbaraJean I actually don‘t have my copy anymore, either! I passed it along to my stepmom, who I think will appreciate a lot of BBT‘s ideas. I just met her & my dad for brunch and I finished the book while my husband drove. 😅 My stepmom finds comfort in religion but she also has a bit of a wild streak, which always comes as a surprise given some of her other identities (Canadian, special or accessible education teacher turned principal)…👇🏻 1d
monalyisha @BarbaraJean There‘s a line that reads, “More to the point, there are times when dancing on tables is the most authentic prayer in reach, even if it pocks the table & clears the room.” My stepmom‘s been kicked out of at least one bar for that exact kind of “authentic prayer.” So. It seemed right. 🙈 I underlined the sentence and directed her to it in my inscription (where I also mention that it‘s not a perfect book & note my favorite bits). 1d
62 likes41 comments
review
LapReader
The Postcard | Anne Berest
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Pickpick

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. 2d
BarbaraBB I am so sorry for you. Sending love and strength to cope 🤍 2d
Bookwormjillk I‘m so sorry for your loss. 2d
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TiredLibrarian I'm very sorry for your loss. 2d
monalyisha @LapReader No apologies needed. Sending a sincere appreciation for your blue skies, as well as a deep empathy for what you‘ve lost. 🩵❤️‍🩹 2d
Suet624 Oh gosh! I‘m so sorry for your loss. 2d
Ruthiella My goodness! You have my condolences. ❤️ 2d
Butterfinger Please accept my condolences. 2d
curiouserandcurioser So sorry for your loss❤ 2d
Cupcake12 I‘m so sorry to hear this. Thinking of you and sending love your way x 2d
LapReader @Deblovestoread @BarbaraBB @Bookwormjillk @TiredLibrarian @monalyisha @Suet624 @Ruthiella @Butterfinger @curiouserandcurioser @Cupcake12 thankyou guys. I‘m consoled by the thought that his restless soul is hopefully more peaceful now. 1d
kezzlou85 I'm so sorry for your loss. 1d
CarolynM I‘m so sorry, Allissa. Thinking of you and your step daughters. Hugs. 1d
Jeg So sorry to read this. Take care. ❤️ 1d
37 likes14 comments
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DebinHawaii
January | Sara Gallardo
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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 ⬇️

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) 2d
Librarybelle That is a great reading month! 2d
PuddleJumper That's brilliant! 2d
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Suet624 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 2d
Catsandbooks Fantastic! 👏🏼 2d
TheAromaofBooks Yay!!! Fantastic month!!! 2d
julieclair Woo hoo! Fabulous month! 🎉 2d
BooksandCoffee4Me Wow!! 👏👏👏 2d
AllDebooks Well done 👏 1d
60 likes9 comments
review
Laughterhp
A Dowry of Blood | S. T. Gibson
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Pickpick

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.

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CSeydel
O Caledonia | Elspeth Barker
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#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