Reading Update

Book #82 of 2026 was Some Starry Night, by Irene Latham. I bought this in April, right after it came out, and was so excited to read it. Why did I wait until August to read it? Mostly because I read the borrowed books first, and the ones I actually own get left until later! This is a silly way to read and I need to stop doing it. I loved the book, which imagines that Emily Dickinson, the famously reclusive poet, leaves Amherst and goes to Paris, where she meets Vincent Van Gogh. What an amazing thought this is, and Irene Latham does such a beautiful job of creating their conversations and the moments they spend together. I've read lots of this author's books, but this is the first one she's written for adults. Here's a sample: "She wondered how Vincent would paint the beautiful moments of her life. Her world in Amherst with its enchanted memories -- the summer picnics, the winter afternoons tapping maple trees for sap. Could he put the wet, sweet scent of autumn in a painting? The spring's lacy cherry blossoms?" What a wonderful thought!

 

Book #83 was Restart, by Gordon Korman. Thirteen-year-old Chase falls off the roof and hits his head. When he comes to, he can't remember his life before. But gradually he finds out that he was not the nicest guy. Is this an opportunity to be someone new?

 

Book #84 was a book club pick, The Lumber Baron's Wife, by Lynn Austin. Kate, the woman in the title, has a checkered past and a difficult present. We get to see what her life is like in 1870s Michigan, and we also follow Ashley, a modern-day museum researcher who is trying to figure out what happened to Kate and others around her.

 

Book #85 was 28 Summers, by Elin Hilderbrand. This is a story about a couple who spend one weekend together every year for 28 years.  One is married and the other has a series of relationships, but nothing stands in the way of this yearly rendezvous. While reading about infidelity isn't my favorite, I thought this book was very well done. The characters, even the most minor, were so believable. And the results of this illicit relationship - joy, guilt, stress, family tensions - were so real. Book #86 was a related novella, The Sixth Wedding.

 

Book #87 was Edwidge Danticat's new book, Dèy. I decided to learn from my experience with book #82 (see above), and start reading this one the moment the pre-ordered book popped onto my Kindle. I finished it quickly! I am a completist with Danticat, and I've read all of her books except the one about death (it's on my list but I haven't been able to read it yet). This one is set in Miami, but Haiti is never far from anyone's mind. It's about homes, security, trauma, immigration, and, of course grief (dèy is the Kreyol spelling of the French word deuil, which means mourning). It's also about what it's like to love Haiti and not live there. I recommend it. 

 

Book #88 was Liane Moriarty's Big Little Truths. Like other books by Moriarty, this book is deceptively light-hearted, while dealing with extremely heavy and difficult topics.

 

Book #89 was Gabriel's Moon, by William Boyd. I was drawn in by the African theme, but it wasn't really the main story. This is the first of a projected trilogy and I'm not sure I'll read the rest. There were many disparate elements that never quite came together for me. 

 

Book #90 was The One Day You Were My Husband, by Rosie Walsh. I really enjoyed this at first, but the twistiness took it to places I didn't like. 

 

Book #91 was Wild America, by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher. I really loved this book. I have the updated version by Scott Weidensaul, but I wanted to read the original first. It's the story of a 30,000 mile trip across North America in 1953. Two highly knowledgeable naturalists and ornithologists comment on everything they see. I did a lot of Googling to see what has changed in the 73 years since this trip, and now I'm excited to read Weidensaul's book Return to Wild America. 

 

Book #92 was a book club pick, When We Meet Again, by Kristin Harmel. This is the fourth Harmel book we've read together. It wasn't my favorite (that would probably be The Book of Lost Names), but we enjoyed it and it's always great to talk about these things with my book club. 

Poetry Friday: Wendell Berry and the Rhythms of Work and Rest

I shared this poem by Wendell Berry back in October of 2014, but I'm sharing it again today because Wendell Berry died this week at 92. I have been so touched reading all the tributes to Wendell Berry. He was loved by people of all ideological persuasions. And as a farmer and a poet, he understood a lot about how the world works and about finding the balance between what we have to make happen with the sweat of our brow and what happens while we are asleep.

 

 

Whatever is Foreseen in Joy

Wendell Berry

 

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.

 

When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

 

Patricia is our Poetry Friday host this week! Go visit and see what everyone else is posting! 

SJT September: Rhythm

This month's Spiritual Journey Thursday host, Ramona, has given us the topic of Rhythm. She wrote, "I would love to hear about rhythms that work for you, the rhythms that ground you in your spiritual life, or anything that pops into your mind relating to rhythm."

 

We're gradually getting back into our rhythms at the school in Uganda where I work. It's week four, so you'd think we'd have everything figured out by now, but I for one do not. This year I'm not teaching an AP class, so I have months to learn about the changes in the AP French exam. I had space on my calendar from the beginning to devote to this project, but it wasn't until yesterday (Wednesday) that I actually started. I'm going to have my first official observation tomorrow (Friday), but I'm still adjusting to all the new students I have, and trying to find out what they can and can't do. I'm part of the team working on the high school play, but we haven't had a rehearsal yet where everyone was present. 

 

So yeah, sort of back in the rhythms and sort of not.

 

One thing that came to mind when Ramona mentioned the word Rhythm was that our middle schoolers are getting ready for Ugandan Independence Day, coming up on October 9th. They are going to be performing some traditional dances from different parts of the country at our school celebration on the 8th, before we go on our October break. And when they are practicing, the drums sound out throughout the neighbourhood. You want to talk about rhythm? These percussionists have it! My classroom is on the other side of the street that cuts our campus in two, but for the people trying to teach in the same building as the drummers: good luck with that! It's better just to stop trying to make yourself heard by your students and surrender to the rhythm!

 

Sometimes that's how it is with spiritual rhythms too. There are seasons when we are in control of our calm devotional moments, and then there are others when the rhythms are bigger than we are. We have to stay on our feet -- or our knees -- as best as we can. Other metaphors we could use instead of the enormously loud drumming might be stormy seas or earthquakes or even flash floods like the horrific scenes we've been seeing in Nepal. When we're in a crisis, either one that's visible to everyone else or one that's only inside of our own souls,  the rhythm can overwhelm. 

 

Whether you're in control of the rhythm or the rhythm is in control of you, I wish all my SJT buddies a great school year. I'm glad we can trust that God is bigger than all of it!