The Cloister Walk

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The Cloister Walk

Kathleen Norris

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I first encountered Kathleen Norris’s book, The Cloister Walk, when we were still living in South Dakota. It is mainly autobiographical, sharing the personal history of a woman who is a midwesterner more by choice than anything else, and a poet, and a feminist reclaiming religion after rejecting it as a young woman.

More specifically, it’s her exploration of being a lay student of the Benedictines, and following the Liturgy of the Hours.

It’s not preachy, and it’s not always gentle. In the book, Norris confronts dark parts of her past, and tries to make peace between her political sensibilities and her yearning for faith.

It has become one of my favorite books, one that I can re-read more than once, always finding something new. (I also recommend her earlier work Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, especially for those transplanted to the Great Plains from other parts of the country – it totally saved my sanity when I was living in South Dakota).

Mere Christianity

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Mere Christianity

Author: C. S. Lewis

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Sometimes I can be clueless. I grew up reading the Chronicles of Narnia, but, at seven, had no concept that it was all a metaphor for Christianity.

Still, I’d read The Screwtape Letters one summer when there was nothing else to read, so I was reasonably familiar, I thought, with Lewis’s style.

Then Fr. Bob recommended Mere Christianity as a good introduction to the tenets of the Christian fath, and what I found wasn’t some dry old English guy proselytizing, but a collection of witty radio addresses on the basics of faith.

I’m not sure I’d recommend this to the general public, but if you’re leaning towards the Episcopal church, this should definitely be part of your reading list.

Outside Lies Magic

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Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

Author: John R. Stilgoe

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In the opening paragraph of Outside Lies Magic, author John Stilgoe urges the reader to go outside, take a walk, and pay attention to everything.

And he means everything – everything from the architectural style of barns to the pattern of coffee-shop locations, to the pick-up times on blue mailboxes.

This book challenges us to go outside, explore our neighborhoods, and find the magic in everyday things.

On Writing

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On Writing

Author: Stephen King

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I have a thing for writing books, and when I was younger I was quite the fan of Stephen King’s novels, but it wasn’t until Wil Wheaton quoted some of this book in his blog, that I decided it was worth checking out.

It isn’t the best writing book I’ve ever read, but it was one of the most engaging, and direct. Reading it feels like a conversation with an older and wiser friend.

I definitely recommend it.

In Her Shoes

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In Her Shoes : A Novel

Author: Jennifer Weiner

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While I really enjoyed Weiner’s other novel, Good in Bed, this one frustrated me – for the bulk of the book everyone’s following their own agenda, and all three main characters are leading completely separate lives. Then, with little subtlety, and far too little substance, a happy ending is engineered, just in time to meet the required page-count for a chick-lit novel.

Chick-lit can be delicious escapist reading. In Her Shoes, is not it.

Kushiel’s Chosen

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Kushiel's Chosen

by Jacqueline Carey

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The second installment of Carey’s trilogy that began with Kushiel’s Dart. Very much a “middle” novel, but with some interesting plot twists.

Read in February; logged in April.

Kushiel’s Dart

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Kushiel's Dart

by Jacqueline Carey

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Read in February, logging in April.

For the first fifty pages of this book, I was thinking, “This is stupid, this is boring, this is badly written, and oh, God, I bought the sequel!”

But I realized I wasn’t really giving it a chance. I still think the author overwrites, but the story of palace intrigue and alternative-earth politics is still pretty entertaining. Good characters, just too much purple prose.

American Gods

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American Gods: A Novel

by Neil Gaiman

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I read this at the beginning of February, 2005, and am posting this in April (backdated), so I’m not posting a review, just this: gripping, creepy, stark, horrible, visceral, and amazing. Recommended.