Thursday, October 31, 2013

The Jesus Story Bible



I am back to share these wonderful audios from Sally Lloyd-Jones:

Listen here.
I need to hear this.

one day to the weekend


It is Halloween and we only had one, two , three.
Oh well. 
There is a bowl of kit-kats, Reese's cups, and tootsie rolls.
I could offer you some!!

Tonight, I have been listening to this podcast from the guys down in Rock Hill, SC
which is right down the road and about 30 minutes from my house. 
Andy is interviewing Pastor George Grant on Gospel Neighboring.
 Excellent. Listen here
Take the time to hear two young pastors with a seasoned one discuss
how we live in our neighborhoods. 

Very good week. 
How about you?








Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Brandywine Books


I happened upon this blog by an author who John Wilson of Books & Culture
featured in a podcast. I don't usually listen to the podcasts. Who has time?
You do when something makes your ears perk up. Miss Oreo, our cat , can be
sound asleep but then she perks up with a sound in the trees outside.
Well, it was the description: A tale set in Norway shortly after AD 1000.

Right where we are in history. It reminds me of Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Unset.
( Pultizer Prize writer) This writer has this on his blog:

"The Christian joy, the Gloria, is of the same kind; but it is pre-eminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous. Because this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men - and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused."  

- J.R.R. Tolkien
The podcast is here. and the author is Lars Walker. ( From Minnesota)
I have to dig in more to see what I think.
I have a stack of Hagiographies to grade, another blog to write ( Childlight ),
and a stack of books from the previous blog and my class. Hope to have 
found a good new writer, at least to me. Do you know of him?








Saturday, October 26, 2013

good reading



A fall Book Club breakfast and a good book discussion by this author 
put joy in my heart.  It was at my friend's house on my
Fall Break from class. You can see here.  If you haven't read The Little
Way of Ruthie  Leming by Rod Dreher, put it on your list. It is a layered
book of more than his sister dying of cancer. It will resonate somewhere in
your life with family, community, and even calling. It is a true story about  relational
healing.




Next up is Tim Keller's new book on Pain and Suffering. The two  books seem
to hold each other in a category, don't they. I am reminded of Lewis' title
The Problem of Pain. I read it a long time ago but I must reread a Lewis
book in honor of his 50th anniversary on Nov. 22.
How about this from his book:

“You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. "

From The Rabbit Room writers , celebrating their Hutchmoot conference, is 
an anthology of stories, poetry, and wonderful illustrations.
Vol. 1 was wonderful. Now Vol. 2 is even better. I have read many of these writers and 
their blogs. 
Fiction by Walt Wangerin, Jr., Jonathan Rogers, Lanier Ivester, and Sarah Clarkson

Non-fiction by Jeffrey Overstreet, Eric Peters, Russ Ramsey, G. K. Chesterton, Andrew Peterson, Jennifer Trafton, and Thomas McKenzie

Artwork by Jonny Jimison, Eric Peters, and Zach Franzen

Poetry by Andrew Peterson, Jonny Jimison, and Rebecca Reynolds

The Molehill: Volume 2

For homeschoolers, new book about journals and commonplace books and nature
notebooks: The Living Page by Laurie Bestvater. I know her from the Childlight
Conferences. THIS is GOOD!







Tuesday, October 22, 2013

to celebrate 200th anniversary of Pride & Prejudice


The Real Jane Austen

I stopped to look on the library shelf and there is another 
Jane Austen biography.  The skeptic in me whispered 
something negative in my mind but then I saw the subtitle:

A Life in Small Things

Very intrigued now. 
It is the first book I looked at tonight and started to read. 
Paul Johnson, the British historian and columnist for The Guardian, 
said of Paula Bryne's first book, Jane Austen and the Theatre, 
" the best book on Jane Austen." In 2011, Paula made a BBC
documentary about her discovery of Jane Austen portrait , thought by many
experts to be the only professional portrait of the novelist painted 
from life.. Byrne lives in Oxford to another writer Jonathan Bates ( Shakespeare 
scholar). It was written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Pride and 
Prejudice. 

So with all this information, I opened the book. 




The portrait: 

Image from Jane Austen: The Unseen Portrait?

The pencil drawing on vellum is inscribed "Miss Jane Austin" on the back. Byrne insists that "apart from the striking family resemblance", this was the first clue as to the identity of the sitter..
"They believe it dates to about 1815, before Austen died in 1817."

Author talks here:



I found this series on The Real Jane Austen:





Monday, October 21, 2013

Notes From A Tilt-a-Whirl






N.D. Wilson's book on wonder and life is excellent. 
So excellent that I wanted to read it again. This is my third  
reading. There's a saying "too many books and not enough 
time" but I will make time for N.D.'s non-fiction. Here is a sample:

“The world is rated R, and no one is checking IDs. Do not try to make it G by imagining the shadows away. Do not try to hide your children from the world forever, but do not try to pretend there is no danger. Train them. Give them sharp eyes and bellies full of laughter. Make them dangerous. Make them yeast, and when they’ve grown, they will pollute the shadows.” 

He put in words how we raised our boys and one daughter. I am not 
sure they are dangerous, but  what he means is they will make a difference.
 Make them yeast to change the world. 
Mine are still rising but I think they will push up and into
the world to give grace and more grace to those they love and their neighbors.
Wilson writes in a circular fashion so be prepared in this book for a ride 
up and around the tilt-a- whirl. He is well read. He crafts sentences that will 
make you stop and go back to underline and read the words again. 
He is "Spot On!"


Reviewed for Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze.

Friday, October 11, 2013

been to Italy tonight



Somehow went from The Murmuring Cottage on Tumblr ( yes, misspelled)
to two handwork blogs from Italy. Always hitting the translate to
find such beautiful embroidery here and here.

It all started with this photo :


and I found a youtube on her blog to make them:



You know how it is. You get started looking and there goes a few hours.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Glorious


Weekend in the Big Apple was wonderful. 
Today's sky was too.
I am fighting a cold since returning yesterday but it is good to be home.
Missed that hubby of mine. We have been on separate trips recently and 
now it is good to BE home. 

I loved all I heard and tasted and have a small pile of books from 
Hearts and Minds Bookshop and new notecards to write letters from 
The Morgan Library and The MET. I can't resist. 

Edgar Allan Poe exhibit opened at the Morgan. 
I love this museum/ home of JP Morgan. 

I was thrilled to walk into the NY Public Library and see their 
Children's Book Collection which is like the Morgan. First editions
and letters and photos. Just thrilled. 

I heard Christian Wiman, a poet , read his work and glare up to the screen
with demise at it not in the right structure. He couldn't take it. He said to 

turn it off. It needs to be in stanzas, needs to be in couplets. A true 
artist. The form makes the poem. It helps the reader hear. His favorite
poet: George Herbert.His recent days are marked with a blood cancer.
I was moved by his readings and intensity. 
 Read more at the American Scholar:

Poetry, for me, has always been bound up with this unease, fueled by contingency toward forms that will transcend it, as involved with silence as it is with sound.

Interview by Eric Metaxas here