😂 😂

“We don't read books in the same way sitting inside a circle or inside a square, in a room with a low ceiling or in one with high rafters. And the mental atmosphere we create in the act of reading, the imaginary space we construct when we lose ourselves in the pages of a book, is confirmed or refuted by the physical space of the library, and is affected by the distance of the shelves, the crowding or paucity of books, ⤵️

June is almost here, so I‘ve pulled out #DoorstopKristin and am gearing up to dive in on Sunday for #KLBR. I‘ve got my emotional support dumpster fire on hand just in case. Looking forward to reading along with all of you! What editions are you all reading? Single volume or individual books?

“People, and by people I mean *them,* never look for truth, they look for satisfaction. There is nothing worse, certain painful and deadly diseases notwithstanding, than an unsatisfactory, piss-poor truth, whereas a satisfactory lie is all too easy to accept, even embrace, get cozy with.”

Now that‘s an opening line!!

What‘s that? Next week it will be JUNE?! I‘m not ready!!

I took some time this morning to plan out my entirely unrealistic summer reading list and assembled my June #BookSpin list accordingly. Here we go, summer!

This is a fascinating look at the practice of contemplation—a disentangling and a reframing that invites the reader to view contemplation through something other than a Western, patriarchal, heteronormative lens. Hall approaches contemplation from new directions and through new eyes for me, opening up new facets and angles I hadn‘t considered—or hadn‘t considered in just that way before. I kept thinking of Emily Dickinson‘s “tell it slant.” ⤵️

I was SUPER looking forward to this, and thought I was getting a conclusion to a trilogy, so the clearly-not-a-conclusion ending was frustrating. Add to that, this was definitely longer than it should have been and STILL didn‘t feel like it did much (other than a lot of stuff happening in the background but not on the page, and a couple of jaw-dropping revelations at the end). I enjoyed seeing Bree grow into her powers but ⤵️

Today starts our #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead of Beautiful Joe by Marshall Saunders. This is one of our #LMMAdjacent books—Saunders was a contemporary of LMM, and another author who published with the nefarious L.C. Page Co. I‘ll post a check-in on 5/31 and we‘ll have our discussion on June 7. All are welcome—please comment if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

I loved this delightful children‘s classic and found it hard to put down! Initially I was worried it would be too sweet or too cloying—and there were moments that could have veered into toxic positivity—but I feel like Porter balances those moments with others that acknowledge the reality of grief and hurt and disappointment. Pollyanna‘s determination to look for—and be glad in—the good in every situation doesn‘t dismiss the reality of hardship ⤵️

Dog Monday. Every single time. 😭😭😭

#SundayFunday
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

“…for readers like myself, there are no ‘last‘ purchases this side of the grave.”

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent—Pollyanna discussion—4 of 4

👒 Did you see any similarities here to L.M. Montgomery‘s books?
👒 Is there anything else from Pollyanna that you‘d like to discuss?
👒 Any favorite scenes or quotes?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent—Pollyanna discussion—3 of 4

👒 Pollyanna comes to have such a strong influence on so many people in her town—which of these did you find most meaningful?
👒 Were there any that felt unrealistic?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent—Pollyanna discussion—2 of 4

😊 The term “Pollyanna” has come to mean someone who pretends everything is fine, someone who almost ignores reality in order to put a positive spin on things. Do you find that to be a fair characterization of Pollyanna, or an exaggeration?
😊 Do you LIKE Pollyanna, or do you think you‘d find her eternal optimism tiresome?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent—Pollyanna discussion—1 of 4

👒What did you think of Pollyanna‘s “glad game”?
👒How did you handle disappointments and difficult situations as a child?
👒Can you see the “glad game” being a helpful way to respond to difficulties as an adult?

#5JoysFriday!

1. Sunday jazz
2. Roses & larkspur from the garden
3. Making plans to print up Learned Slattern tote bags
4. Frogzwilliam Darcy: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1868740873949610
5. Listening at whim to my newly-restored music library and discovering that I still know every word to Lisa Loeb‘s “Stay” 😂

Another belated #OokBOokClub review…

I was excited to find Pratchett using chapters in the first two Moist Von Lipwig books, and sad he was back to no chapters here. My brain likes chapters. And while I do feel the earlier books are stronger, I did really enjoy this—chapters or no. It‘s dawning on me that I‘m a sucker for a train-ride setting!

Moist continues to discover new sides to himself here, and his interplay with Adora was fantastic, ⤵️

I need to start Guards! Guards! in the next few days, so I‘d better circle back and review a couple previous #OokBOokClub reads!

With the Post Office well in hand, Moist Von Lipwig now takes charge of the Royal Mint and the bank—naturally. New over-the-top characters are introduced here, but Pratchett manages to handle them deftly enough that it (mostly) felt like just the right amount of outlandish and ridiculous. I really enjoyed this ⤵️

“We… had a profound love of storytelling. But no automation, Al or machine, could create stories. Not truly. We could pull from existing datasets, detect patterns, then copy and paste them in a new order, and sometimes that seemed like creation. But this couldn't capture the narrative magic that humanity could wield…Stories were the greatest currency to us, greater than power, greater than control. Stories were our food, nourishment, enrichment.⤵️

#LibraryHaul—my holds came in! including both #CampLitsy25 books for July 🤦🏻‍♀️ I‘m off to reorganize my reading schedule… 😆

So, after the #SundayFunday question I got to thinking about #Clarissa again and I made a thing. 😂 Then I looked into printing it onto t-shirts. It would be around $14-$25 depending on quantity and sizes/colors, etc. And I can't figure out how to get it to not have a white background, but give me a minute and maybe I can figure that out? Anybody interested?

#BookHaul! I couldn‘t resist the NYRB children‘s book sale, and I #blameitonlitsy—specifically @TheBookHippie 😁

I‘m so excited about these! Three of them I‘ve been wanting to read for a while, and the Rumer Godden also sounded SO good—I justified buying it in order to get the maximum discount. Of course. 😆📚💜

Hello, Kindred Spirits!

Here‘s the schedule for the next few months of the #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead—including a couple of #LMMAdjacent books, Vol. 5 of the #LMMJournals, and for #LMMReread, the beginning of the Emily books.

I‘ll include the tag list for each book in the comments below. All are welcome—let me know if you want to be added to (or removed from!) any of the tag lists.

Not. Okay.

Well, I HAVE to chime in on this one because I need to get all the mileage I can in proclaiming that I finished #Clarissa. 😆 All 950,000+ words of it. I used to brag about having read War & Peace, Don Quixote, and Anna Karenina… then I read Les Mis and Count of Monte Cristo and added them to the brag list, but Clarissa eclipses them all… in length but not enjoyment. 😂 Where are my other Learned Slatterns? Today is our day! #sundayfunday

I feel both seen and attacked.

(📷 via Tara Wine-Queen Writes)

I read this back in Feb/March with #WhattheDickens and then never got around to reviewing it!

In classic Dickens fashion, he spins an engaging, wide-ranging story, full of implausible coincidences and over-the-top caricatures of supporting characters. There are so many characters here that I love: from Nicholas and Kate to Smike and Miss La Creevy, Newman Noggs and the Cheeryble brothers. ⤵️

Another book from my spiritual direction program—this was EXCELLENT. Cindy Lee reorients spiritual formation within non-Western approaches, and it was both illuminating & freeing for me. I grew up squarely within Western spiritual traditions. Encountering other approaches to Christianity while living in South Africa in my late 20s/early 30s was world-expanding, and Lee gives voice to a lot of approaches that I‘d been introduced to or partially ⤵️

Catching up on belated reviews (still)… I read this for my spiritual direction program back in March.

I don‘t have much of a background in psychology, so this was a great intro to the Jungian idea of the shadow: the aspects of ourselves, both good & bad, that we unconsciously hide or suppress. There‘s a lot packed into this slim volume, and I was surprised by—but appreciated—the connections Johnson makes to faith ⤵️

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent - Pollyanna Chapters 1-16

A little check-in for the first half of Pollyanna!
👒 Is this your first time reading Pollyanna, or is this a re-read?
👒 How's your reading going so far?
👒 What stands out to you from the first half of the book?

Yesssss.

#5JoysFriday
1. Completing the first year of my spiritual direction program on Saturday! It‘s bittersweet since a few classmates won‘t be continuing next year, and we‘re switching to online only (instead of hybrid). I won‘t get to walk by this beautiful church spire any more on my way to class each month, but it gave me joy on Saturday!
2. Taking a long walk at the park with a friend—and we saw goslings!
3. Audio-puzzling with the tagged book ⤵️

“We can roam the bloated stacks of the Library of Alexandria, where all imagination and knowledge are assembled; we can recognize in its destruction the warning that all we gather will be lost, but also that much of it can be collected again; we can learn from its splendid ambition that what was one man's experience can become, through the alchemy of words, the experience of all, and how that experience, distilled once again into words, ⤵️

“Old or new, the only sign I always try to rid my books of (usually with little success) is the price-sticker that malignant booksellers attach to the backs. These evil white scabs rip off with difficulty, leaving leprous wounds and traces of slime to which adhere the dust and fluff of ages, making me wish for a special gummy hell to which the inventor of these stickers would be condemned.”

Once the mind is reduced
to the brain, then it falls within the grasp
of the machine. It is the mind incarnate
in the body, in community, and in the earth
that they cannot confine. The difference
is love; the difference is grief and joy.
Remember the body's pleasure and its sorrow.
Remember its grief at the loss of all it knew.
Remember its redemption in suffering
and in love.

—from 1990, III

I would not have been a poet
except that I have been in love
alive in this mortal world,
or an essayist except that I
have been bewildered and afraid,
or a storyteller had I not heard
stories passing to me through the air,
or a writer at all except
I have been wakeful at night
and words have come to me
out of their deep caves
needing to be remembered.

—1994, VII

The body in the invisible
Familiar room accepts the gift
Of sleep, and for a while is still;
Instead of will, it lives by drift

In the great night that gathers up
The earth and sky. Slackened, unbent,
Unwanting, without fear or hope,
The body rests beyond intent.

Sleep is the prayer the body prays,
Breathing in unthought faith the Breath
That through our worry-wearied days
Preserves our rest, and is our truth.

—1990, V

In the game of library holds, I usually find that timing fails me. This has arrived about 6 weeks too soon… meanwhile I also have the ebook version on hold, which says it‘ll be an 18-week wait 😂 #CampLitsy25

The cover is gorgeous, I love the concept, but ultimately the book was… fine.

Maddie has been visiting Havenfall, the inn managed by her uncle, since she was a child. She finds a refuge there that offers love and friendship and magic… and solace from the grief of her life outside Haven. The concept of an inn at the crossroads of ancient, magical worlds is so promising, and the intrigue and power dynamics could have been compelling, but ⤵️

This was EXCELLENT. It‘s the story (or rather, the stories) of a house and its surrounding forest in New England; a multigenerational saga of sorts—but of a place instead of a family. We follow the people who come and go, but also the trees, the beetles, a catamount—as they both shape and are shaped by the unique history of the place in which they dwell, a place that outlasts them all. Each section has a very different feel, and between each, ⤵️

“Miss Oliver dear, you are all tired out and unstrung—just you go upstairs and lie down and I will bring you up a cup of hot tea and a bite of toast and very soon you will not want to slam doors or swear.“
“Susan, you're a good soul—a very pearl of Susans! But, Susan, it would be such a relief—to say just one soft, low, little tiny d—“

😂 😂 I‘m with Miss Oliver on this one…
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

Is there anything else you‘d like to discuss from Rilla of Ingleside?
Was there anything that bothered or frustrated you about the book?
Do you have any favorite passages or scenes you‘d like to share?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

On this umpteenth re-read for me, what struck me as new (more than just the “new” passages that I discovered had been excised from my old faithful Bantam paperback!!), was seeing so much of LMM‘s WWI experience on the page.

If you‘ve been reading LMM‘s journals, what did you notice in Rilla of Ingleside that echoed LMM‘s thoughts and experiences during WWI?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

“No, I don‘t like you and I never will but for all that I‘m going to make a decent, upstanding infant of you. …If I can‘t love you I mean to be proud of you at least.”

Rilla ambitiously takes on the care of an infant—a “war-baby”—in spite of the fact she does NOT like babies.

What did you think of this storyline?
How does Jims contribute to Rilla‘s own growth?

Posting #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead Qs early—I have a very long day tomorrow!

LMM weaves in a number of female characters who contrast with Rilla—in age, in maturity, in personality—and who together offer a full, rich picture of women on the “home front” in WWI.

What did you think of the way women‘s roles were portrayed in the novel?
Which characters besides Rilla were you most drawn to?
Which attitudes toward the war did you most resonate with?

Hi friends! I can‘t believe we‘re already over a week into May, and I‘m looking at my summer reading! I‘m still planning to read the Kristin Lavransdatter series in June, July, and August. I‘m tagging those who were interested in a buddy read, but all are welcome—please comment if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be (or vice versa if you‘re not interested anymore 😁) Also I suppose we need a hashtag—any suggestions?!

Hello #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead-ers! I‘m looking at a tentative schedule for the next few months:

Beautiful Joe by Marshall Saunders (2 weeks)
Journals Vol. 5 (2 weeks)
Emily of New Moon (3 weeks)
Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner (3 weeks)
Journals Vol. 5 (3 weeks)
Emily Climbs (3 weeks)
“The Lay of the Brown Rosary” & Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (4 weeks)

THAT takes us to mid-October & finishes Vol. 5 of the journals.⤵️

In many ways, this could be summarized as: Things happen to Celehar. People ask Celehar what happened. Celehar explains what happened. Which could have gotten tedious, but never did. I loved this. (Although I DID wish I‘d re-read the previous two books to refresh my memory first—there were too many character names and other references I needed to be reminded of!) As in previous books, Addison weaves together parallel plotlines, ⤵️

#5JoysFriday
1. A catch-up session over the phone with one of my best friends
2. GREAT book group on Sunday: we beta-read my husband‘s fantasy novel & everyone had such good feedback & encouragement for him (photo is the map he‘s drawn for the book)
3. Reflective, meaningful mini-retreat on Wednesday
4. Having the house ALL to myself last night
5. This talk from Greg Boyle: https://youtu.be/XCdk-Ay8Y34?si=U0z-1cbaHgE13eCk (some quotes below)

I‘ve loved so much of Padraig O Tuama‘s work: his podcast, Poetry Unbound, and his collection of reflections on poems by the same name, as well as various poems & prayers of his I‘ve come across here & there. So I decided to read this book of daily poems & prayers during Lent this year, to displace my habit of scrolling social media & news first thing in the morning.

The book has 31 daily readings—made up of a reading, a scripture reading, and⤵️