FORMED Book Club

 From the FORMED website: Join Catholic experts and book lovers with decades of experience in publishing for in-depth weekly discussions of relevant Catholic texts. Hosted by Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ (Founder of Ignatius Press), Vivian Dudro (Senior Editor at Ignatius Press), and Joseph Pearce (Director of Book Publishing at Augustine Institute). These discussions are part of an online community that reads and discusses a different book each month. Go to https://formedbookclub.ignatius.com/ to sign up for free!

So far I have only been able to read Eight Popes and the Crisis of Modernity, by Russell Shaw. It was excellent. A slim volume, but backed with information. I am looking forward to listening to the discussions that are posted on FORMED soon. 

I also purchased an earlier discussion book, Real Philosophy for Real People, by Robert McTeigue, and am hoping to start that one soon. Very grateful that the discussions are posted online and that I can go back and watch/listen when it is convenient!

Daily Scripture Reading

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. — 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV

Another reading practice I have been working to cultivate is that of daily Scripture reading. 

On my own, I have a read through the entire Bible plan that I should finish before the end of June. It consists of reading from the epistles on Sunday, the law on Monday, history on Tuesday, the Psalms on Wednesday, Poetry on Thursday, works of prophecy on Friday, and the Gospels on Saturday. For a while there, I was treating one week like a singular day's reading. It was intense, but good. And is now why I'm set to finish in June. I like the variety I experience in a week, however, I do think it is easier to really dig in and study when I go book by book, rather than pop all over the place. Once I am done with this study I would like to do a better job of really digging in when I do my reading, making notes, consulting commentaries, etc. Last year I really dug into the books of the minor prophets, and that was a very fruitful study. I have the time and ability to do such deep-dives right now, and a person gets so much more out of it with a deep study like that rather than a cursory read-through. 

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;

    with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;

    in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness." — Psalm 89:1-2 ESV

Because my plan above does not include the deuterocanonical books, I added those in to my daily reading last month. 

But truth endures and is strong forever, and lives and prevails forever and ever. — 1 Esdras 4:38 NRSV-CI

Additionally, I am (slowly) making my way through John with a friend. This is obviously not my primary Scripture study, but it has been nice to discuss themes and things that stand out with another person. 

He must increase, but I must decrease. — John 3:30 ESV

Read Christie 2021

You can't go wrong with Agatha Christie! I'm taking a very relaxed approach to her books this year, as I have read through her entire canon (save the Westmacotts and her plays) but I have dipped into the #ReadChristie2021 challenge that Agatha Christie Limited hosts. 

"I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash." — Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express 🚂 Revisiting Murder on the Orient Express this month [March] for #ReadChristie2021. No, it's not the main pick for the month (Lord Edgware Dies) nor their suggested substitutions. But Murder on the Orient Express has society people in spades, and I wanted to revisit the first Agatha Christie I ever read. 🚂 ⁠And for fun, a second quote because it made me giggle: "I like to see an angry Englishman," said Poirot. "They are very amusing. The more emotional they feel the less command they have of language."

“What an awful place to live in England is... If it isn't snowing or raining or blowing it's misty. And if the sun does shine it's so cold that you can't feel your fingers or toes.” ― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery⁠ ❄️❄️❄️ For whatever reason, April had itching to re-read this wintery snowed-in, locked room mystery. And ✔️, it hits the mark for this month's #ReadChristie2021 prompt, a story set before WWII. Plus, I got re-acquainted with this gem of a quote: “The Captain's habit of letting off a revolver at real or imaginary cats was a sore trial to his neighbors.” What a neighbor that would be! 😂⁠

Mary Stewart Fan Club

The Mary Stewart Fan Club has been such a fun addition to my reading life this year. I missed the first two books, but I am so glad that my friends' posts were so tempting and convinced me I needed to join. 

The first book I joined with was Nine Coaches Waiting, a new-to-me Mary Stewart. 

"I've been sorely tempted by the #MaryStewartFanClub posts I've seen so far this year. The Moonspinners, This Rough Magic, Wildfire at Midnight, and Touch Not the Cat were favorites in high school, borrowed from my mom's collection. Happily, my library decided to cooperate— they actually had an edition of Nine Coaches Waiting! 🙌🏻🎉💃🏼 Clearly a well-loved copy, at that. It was delightful. I particularly loved the Jane Eyre and Cinderella references. ⁠⁠• And yes, I now have used copies of the next three books for the Mary Stewart fan club reading schedule headed my way courtesy of the USPS, as unfortunately _neither_ library system near me has them in their collections. Clearly a grave oversight. (And yes I requested that the libraries buy them so others do not have to suffer as I have 😝)"

“If a man goes up into Parnassus after sunset, why should he not see strange things? The gods still walk there, and a man who would not go carefully in the country of the gods is a fool.” ― Mary Stewart, My Brother Michael⁠ ❇︎ A (literary) trip to Greece was in order, and Mary Stewart delivered. ⁠Now I am wishing that said literary trip could turn into a real-life trip.

Cue all the delicious gothic vibes with Thunder on the Right, and multiple Ann Radcliffe references (see: The Mysteries of Udolpho). Delightful. ⁠Thanks ThriftBooks for coming through with the vintage 1957 edition featuring our main character Jennifer in a fetching billowy red cape as she paces the High Pyrenees, with the convent grounds of Notre-Dame-des-Orages (Our Lady of the Storms) in the background. ⁠⁠⛈️ Were you aware that thunder on the right is considered a good omen? (At least if you're Greek. And thunder on the left is a good omen if you're a Roman.) ⁠

“People are straightforward enough, on the whole, till one starts to look for crooked motives, and then, oh boy, how crooked can they be!” ― Mary Stewart, The Ivy Tree⁠ • Mary Stewart ⁠transports us to rural Northumberland for this tale of romance, ambition, and deceit. Whitescar is a beautiful old house and farm situated in Roman Wall country. There's deception, mistaken identity, scheming heirs, Roman ruins, long-dead love, and quite possibly my favorite cat book scene ever 😆 • Please enjoy the billowy blue cloak, ruffled sleeves, poofy fur coat, riding boots and strong moustache/hair game that is my vintage The Ivy Tree cover.

“It was the egret, flying out of the lemon grove, that started it. I won’t pretend I saw it straight away as the conventional herald of adventure, the white stag of the fairy-tale, which, bounding from the enchanted thicket, entices the prince away from his followers, and loses him in the forest where danger threatens with the dusk.” ― Mary Stewart, The Moonspinners⁠ ∙ Re-reading The Moonspinners was a delight. The little sister read this story last year, so we were able to chat about it some after I finished, which is always fun. Was decidedly amused at a bit of a throwaway line our main lady Nicola made to her cousin Frances about how Frances' chain smoking habit was bound to give her cancer, given all the smoking that tends to go on in Stewart's novels. Mary Stewart has me wanting to visit Greece yet again, although this time I'm eyeing Crete 🇬🇷⁠ But maybe no murders/attempted murders when I visit? ⁠

"Two things were quite certain: I did not want to go anywhere near Godfrey Manning's boathouse; and if I didn't, I should despise myself for a coward as long as I lived. I had a gun. There was probably a key. I had at least to try it." ― Mary Stewart, This Rough Magic⁠ ⁠🌊✨🇬🇷🐬⁠ Corfu here I come!! Wait, maybe that's not what I was supposed to get out of This Rough Magic? Mary Stewart gives me the travel bug 🤷🏼‍♀️ The delightful vintage copy is my mother's. It was so much fun to re-read this Stewart. I remember it being my favorite out of my mom's small collection when I read it forever ago. All the Tempest references really elevate it. ⁠I'll leave you with a final delightful quote: “I supposed there were circumstances in which it was correct, even praiseworthy, for a girl to bash a man's head in with a lamp while he was kissing her...” Actress Lucy Waring can hold her own 😉⁠

I had a bit of a late start to Airs Above the Ground, the most recent #MaryStewartFanClub installment. That said, I had no trouble catching up! Such a fun, engaging read. This was a new-to-me Stewart, and I loved being thrown into the action as our heroine, Vanessa, tries to figure out why her husband Lewis, who is ostensibly in Stockholm for a business trip, shows up in a newsreel story about a circus fire in Austria. All of this is set against a backdrop of circus life, stolen goods, international smuggling, and an old mystery involving the disappearance of a famed Lipizzaner stallion and his groom. Mary Stewart did not disappoint!⁠

Up next... The Gabriel Hounds! 

Victorian Sensation Bookclub

The Victorian Sensation Bookclub is a group I found recently, and it is so fun! Every few months the two ladies in charge choose a book that we read over the course of the month. They have been reading for a while, and I have had a chance to join in for Wilkie Collins' The Dead Secret and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Henry Dunbar. 

"'The Secret must be told,' answered Mrs. Treverton. 'My husband ought to know it, and must know it. I tried to tell him, and my courage failed me. I can not trust you to tell him, after I am gone. It must be written. Take you the pen; my sight is failing, my touch is dull. Take the pen, and write what I tell you.'” ― Wilkie Collins, The Dead Secret⁠ ⁠🤫 Wilkie Collins, I think you're maybe my favorite Victorian author. (Just don't tell Gaskell.) Was the secret all that surprising? Nah. But I also think it is not supposed to be. The suspense is in how everyone is going to react to the unveiling of said secret. Is this his best novel? No. Was it sometimes melodramatic? Sure. But I was INVESTED. Eccentric secondary characters provided so much humor, from the dyspeptic Mr. Phippen, to the misanthropic Andrew Treverton and his sidekick Shrowl, to the pedantic and stodgy steward, Mr. Munder. And Uncle Joseph was absolutely delightful. I want an Uncle Joseph to play me Mozart on his music box. ⁠🤫

"That which would have been called a crime in a poorer man was only considered an error in the dashing young cornet of dragoons..." ― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Henry Dunbar⁠ ⚖️⛓️🤫🔍 Henry Dunbar, first published in 1864, includes all the classic ingredients of a sensation novel including murder, fraud, mistaken identity, and a train accident. Is there anything better? Plus, we are (eventually) treated to a clever, relentless detective, Mr. Carter. "... little by little, I put my questions, and keep on putting ’em till every bit of information upon this particular subject is picked clean away as the meat that’s torn off a bone by a hungry dog." ⁠

We will be reading The Doctor's Wife, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon in July next! It's a rewriting of Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, so a group of us will be reading that to prep in June. 

Trollope in Barchester 2021

 Another read-along group I joined with this year is hosted by two great friends of Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire Chronicles. 

January: The Warden

The Warden was the first book I finished this year. I found it to be an excellent start to the Barsetshire series. Mr. Harding sticking to his conscience was incredibly satisfying, especially when it would have been so easy for him to give in to what those around him (and above him in authority) were saying. I found Trollope's commentary on reform interesting——as was his poking fun at Dickens or "Mr. Popular Sentiment."

February/March: Barchester Towers

 

“How often does the novelist feel, ay, and the historian also and the biographer, that he has conceived within his mind and accurately depicted on the tablet of his brain the full character and personage of a man, and that nevertheless, when he flies to pen and ink to perpetuate the portrait, his words forsake, elude, disappoint, and play the deuce with him, till at the end of a dozen pages the man described has no more resemblance to the man conceived than the sign-board at the corner of the street has to the Duke of Cambridge.” ― Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers⁠

“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.” ― Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers⁠ ⁠∙ I have a new favorite Victorian novel. Now, admittedly I have many favorite Victorian novels. But Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers firmly ensconced itself in the upper echelon of my favorites. ⁠Memorable characters and writing. And the insight Trollope provides into his characters is *chef's kiss*. All at once his characters are precise, complex and utterly hilarious. ⁠∙ And can we appreciate the character names for a minute? Farmers Greenacre & Topsoil; Drs Fillgrave, Rerechild, Lamda Mewnew & Omicron Pie; Revs Brown, White, Grey & Green; the aspirational Lookalofts; Rev Quiverful with his 14 children; diplomatic Mr Plomacy; loud Mrs Clantantram; attorney Vellem Deeds. ⁠∙ Consider me the newest Barchester Towers/Anthony Trollope evangelist. ⁠⁠∙ More favorite quotes: “Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.”⁠ ⁠∙ “She well knew the great architectural secret of decorating her constructions, and never descended to construct a decoration.”⁠ ∙ "It is ordained that all novels should have a male and female angel, and a male and female devil. It it be considered that this rule obeyed in these pages, the latter character must be supposed to have fallen to the lot of Mrs Proudie, but she was not all devil. There was a heart inside that stiff-ribbed bodice, though not, perhaps, of large dimensions, and certainly not easily accessible."⁠ ∙ “Her virtues were too numerous to describe, and not sufficiently interesting to deserve description.”⁠ ∙ “There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilized and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons.”⁠ ∙ "Wars about trifles are always bitter, especially among neighbors. When the differences are always bitter, especially among neighbors. When the differences are great, and the parties comparative strangers, men quarrel with courtesy. What combatants are ever so eager as two brothers?"⁠

April/May: Doctor Thorne

June/July: Framley Parsonage

August/September: The Small House at Allington

October/November: The Last Chronicle of Barset

It has been such a lovely read-along to be a part of so far, and I promptly added the rest of Trollope's 47 novels to my TBR (oops). 

A Cather Annual

I've been reading through several of Willa Cather's novels with a lovely group of ladies. This read-along is not of my organizing, but I am so glad to be a member of it! Willa Cather's novels are so rich. And it is phenomenal getting to follow and explore the ideas and themes she explores over and over.  

October 2020: O! Pioneers

O Pioneers!, Willa Cather * I love Cather. Her writing, her characters. I accidentally finished this month's book for #ACatherAnnual well ahead of schedule. I just couldn't stop myself. So good. And it's short!! (Please ignore the Hallmark movie cover of my copy. You never know what you're gonna get with thrifted online book purchases 🙃) ⁠

November 2020: A Lost Lady

“He came to be very glad that he had known her, and that she had had a hand in breaking him in to life. He has known pretty women and clever ones since then,— but never one like her, as she was in her best days. Her eyes, when they laughed for a moment into one's own, seemed to promise a wild delight that he has not found in life. 'I know where it is,' they seemed to say, 'I could show you!'” ― Willa Cather, A Lost Lady⁠ 🌹 A Lost Lady is short, but packs a punch. And fascinating tidbit: one of the main characters, Mrs. Marian Forrester was an inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald's Daisy Buchanan character in The Great Gatsby.⁠

December 2020: Death Comes for the Archbishop

“The old man smiled. 'I shall not die of a cold, my son. I shall die of having lived.'” ― Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop⁠ ⁠☀️ I love Death Comes for the Archbishop. Revisiting this story this month with other #ACatherAnnual readers has been delightful. Cather has such a way with words. And how can your soul not soar a little with sentences like this?: “Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was far away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!” I'm instantly transported to the land of enchantment. ⁠

January 2021: The Professor's House

“And that's what makes men happy, believing in the mystery and importance of their own individual lives.” ― Willa Cather, The Professor's House⁠

February 2021: Lucy Gayheart

"What did it mean,—that she wanted to go on living again? How could she go on alone?⁠ ∙ Suddenly, something flashed into her mind, so clear that it must have come from without, from the breathless quiet. What if—what if Life itself were the sweetheart?" — Willa Cather, Lucy Gayheart⁠ ❇︎⁠ The power went out no less than three times while I was reading Lucy Gayheart. (It went out more than three times last week, but I somehow managed to time my reading with three of the power outages.) The chill of an unheated house did pair rather nicely with certain scenes, particularly our introduction to Lucy skating at the beginning of the book, and a shocking tragedy at the end of Book II. As I'm finding Cather is wont to do, she superbly subverted expectations throughout the novel. And she does so with real artistry. Melancholic, a touch existential, and looking not only at memory, but how we hold those memories, Lucy Gayheart gives much to mull over. ⁠

March 2021: Song of the Lark

“Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.” ― Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark⁠ 🎵🐦🎵🐦 Cather's The Song of the Lark was soring and beautiful, just like one of the arias that Thea, the novel's aspiring singer, would sing. In some of my own hunting and researching, I stumbled across an original review of The Song of the Lark that ran in The State Journal (Raleigh, NC, December, 1915). Here's a little snippet: ⁠∙ ⁠"But these are faults that are easily forgiven in consideration of the story’s merits: its seriousness and utter sincerity, its painstaking workmanship, its large free pictures of the Western plains and the Arizona canyons, the simplicity and restraint with which the more emotional parts are handled.⁠ ∙ The faults are of the kind that can be overcome; the merits are of the kind that make fine things in fiction." ∙ ⁠Seemed fitting to pair my print of "Prairie Song" with Song of the Lark for this photo.

April 2021: Shadows on the Rock

May 2021: Sapphira and the Slave Girl

June 2021: One of Ours

July 2021: My Mortal Enemy

August 2021: Collected Stories

September 2021: My Antonia

Death Comes for the Archbishop was a re-read for me, as My Mortal Enemy and My Antonia will be. 

2021 Eudora Welty

 This year I'm reading through a hefty collection of Eudora Welty's short stories, with at least one friend. Our #2021EudoraWelty is open to all, so please, feel free to jump in and join us if you are so inclined. Twenty-two stories in, and I have found Ms. Welty to be a strong writer, who creates excellent little scenes full of memorable characters. Welty employs more of a vignette look at her subjects or a particular idea. There is a similarity to Flannery O'Connor's writing (perhaps in the vignette look?), although the two are decidedly distinctive. Some of her stories feel more like character sketches. 

"I want the world to know I’m happy. And if Stella-Rondo should come to me this minute, on bended knees, and attempt to explain the incidents of her life with Mr. Whitaker, I’d simply put my fingers in both my ears and refuse to listen." —Eudora Welty, Why I Live at the P.O. 

Welty mentioned "Keela" (one of the January stories) in a 1989 interview that is included in the introduction to Photographs, which of course delighted me to no end. It is so fun when your books converge, although I suppose it is to be expected if both involve the same creative. Here are Welty's own words: "It's a psychological story I wrote in "Keela." I was interested in what sort of points of view people could have toward such an atrocious thing, including that of the victim himself. He, I guessed, like people in many a kind of experience, enjoyed it years later in his looking back on the days of excitement. You know, things, awful as well as not, get to be kind of interesting in a different way after you've lived through them and they are embedded in your past. Lee Roy had eventually forgotten all the humiliation and horror... All of his children are there, and they don't want to hear about it. They just say, 'Hush, Pappy!'"

"The Whistle" from February hit a bit too close to home with its despondent tone as tenant farmers Jason and Sarah Morton were freezing in their little shack, seeing as I read it during our Texas freeze/no power. "Clytie" and "Flowers for Marjorie" were both tragic... but I did enjoy them. "Old Mr. Marblehall" reminded me of another story, but shame on me I did not make any scribbles or notes anywhere, and I cannot remember what story I was reminded of. ⁠ 

"Death of a Traveling Salesman," was probably my favorite of the March stories. So well told!

As prompted by #2021EudoraWelty, I'm slowly creating a little Welty collection for myself. I enjoyed reading One Writer's Beginnings, a short collection of autobiographical essays. Paging through Photographs, a collection of photos that Welty took, the majority her documentation of 1930s Mississippi when she worked for the WPA, was a real treat. ⁠

What are you even doing, Alicia?

Today is my 27th birthday, and one of the odd things I enjoy doing on this day is setting new goals and getting a little more organized! What are my goals with this new blogging venture, you ask? Good question. 

1. I want to keep things low-key. I do not have the time, nor the inclination, for something fancy or time-intensive. 
2. I want a space to further explore the books I'm reading. Instagram is a lovely space, but there's only so much room to talk books in the captions. 
3. I want a repository for all my odd little research and personal interests, from Celtic folklore and mythology, to obscure medieval saints, to homemaking and cultivating a slow and gentle life, to American frontier history. A little room to type out and explore those "counter-cultural ideas" of mine, as one friend worded it. (Traditional may be another name for them 😉)
4. In that vein, perhaps my blog's title is a bit of a misnomer, and I need to find something more fitting, but I want a space to explore all my thoughts—ultimately in pursuit of the good, the true, the beautiful. 

Now, are these proper goals that follow the SMART model, as recommended when setting behavior goals as an LSSP? No, not at all. 😆 Measurability is in great question here. But they do provide me with a framework, and that is enough for me.