After days of careful consideration, listening to audio samples, and having too many choices in my new Audible subscription ... I decided to throw cau...moreAfter days of careful consideration, listening to audio samples, and having too many choices in my new Audible subscription ... I decided to throw caution to the winds and try something completely different from my usual fare.
I've always wanted to tackle The Canterbury Tales but never felt brave enough. It was a conversation this morning that turned the tide. Our priest said that, although he had a great affection for Dante's Divine Comedy, it was The Canterbury Tales that he found most helpful on the journey.
'Nuff said.
Now my journey begins under Geoffrey Chaucer's guidance, with Peter Ackroyd's assistance. Fingers crossed I don't hit too many potholes!(less)
We're on chapter 4 as the audiobook comes out week by week on iTunes as a podcast. If you want to hear this audiobook don't wait to download it. Mur L...moreWe're on chapter 4 as the audiobook comes out week by week on iTunes as a podcast. If you want to hear this audiobook don't wait to download it. Mur Lafferty's agreement with the publisher is that she can only leave the audiofiles up for a week after she finishes all the chapters on the podcast. So get it while the getting is good.
So far I am enjoying this a lot. It is not another of those "the world is covered with zombies and we're all just trying to survive" books. The supernatural world is existing camouflaged alongside ours, as we can anticipate from watching our heroine try to get a job writing travel guides.
I enjoyed Lafferty's Playing for Keeps which was a light take on superhero adventures, which were all the craze at the time. Shambling Guide seems like a similar take on the current zombie craze in literature so I look forward to seeing what sort of adventure tale is spun.
I'll update this as the book goes along, but am posting this early on in response to Mur's plea for reviews at Goodreads to help sales out.
So far, this seems like a light, fun read that I would give to my mother or sister (who do not delve as deeply as I do into urban fantasy). And, depending on where the story goes, I might even pick it up for my own shelves.(less)
Yes it's 700 pages and only covers the first third of the Gospel of Matthew.
And your point is ...?
That I might not live long enough to finish all thre...moreYes it's 700 pages and only covers the first third of the Gospel of Matthew.
And your point is ...?
That I might not live long enough to finish all three books?
If I don't finish the 2,100 pages or so by then, hopefully I'll be in a place where God will fill me in on what I missed.
Actually I'd been circling around this book for several years. It took Will Duquette's enthusiasm to tip me over the edge.
Flipping through this doorstop, I came across a paragraph that stopped me in my tracks.
The Virgin Mary is called the [Greek words] (the "book of the Word of life") by the Greek Church. The book of the Gospel, the book of Christ's origins and life, can be written and proclaimed because God has first written his living Word in the living book of the Virgin's being, which she has offered to her Lord in all its purity and humility—the whiteness of a chaste, empty page. If the name of Mary does not often appear in the pages of the Gospel as evident participant in the action, it is because she is the human ground of humility and obedience upon which every letter of Christ's life is written. She is the Theotokos, too, in the sense that she is the book that bears, and is inscribed with, the Word of God. She keeps her silence that he might resonate the more plainly within her.
In fact, it almost knocked me out of my seat. So I'm reading these meditations, holding myself down to one per day. I must say that the author's translations are as inspiring as his meditations. There is a vivid sense of "action" that I just don't find when I try different translations to see the equivalent. It feels ... living ... alive ...
Full disclosure: I skipped the lengthy introduction, except for the parable about Aleph which rings loudly every time I see the Aleph after each meditation to remind us to leave space for God to enter in.
When I am craving yet another meditation, I'll begin working through the intro.
=============
UPDATE I've been trying to figure out how to describe this treasure. It makes me eager for afternoon prayer and, I'm sorry to admit, that is a rare thing ... to be eager for prayer. To think, "Woohoo! I get to read another section of Fire of Mercy!" So there's that.
Will Duquette says it best. We may recall he turned me onto this book so he's further ahead.
All of my hopes for Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis’ book Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word. I’ve been getting up early every day to spend time in study ever since Easter Tuesday (including Saturdays and Sundays!), and I’m regularly astonished by the blindingly obvious things he pulls out of each line of the text—blindingly obvious after you’ve seen them—that I had never noticed before. I’m keeping notes of my reflections; some of them may appear here in the future. (As some kind of indication of the depth of Erasmo’s writing…50 days after Easter, I’m not quite to the end of the third chapter of Matthew’s gospel.)
I too am continually hit by the blindingly obvious that regularly surprises and simultaneously enlightens. I'm feeling dumber by the page and yet I don't mind because I'm so blown away that I have food for thought for the rest of the day.(less)
I love the way that Johnson is able to make everything so clear in terms of how various civilizations' art mirrors their governing styles. He also mad...moreI love the way that Johnson is able to make everything so clear in terms of how various civilizations' art mirrors their governing styles. He also made me really respect early man (you know, the ones who filled those caves with all that fantastic art) by explaining things I didn't know about both the art and what the artists went through for their accomplishments.
It is early days yet but I'm really relishing this book. I just wish it had more of the actual art in it. I understand that would make the book even larger, or perhaps two instead of one, but it would be nice to have more examples.(less)
I'm not really interested in zombies actually. But you'd never know it because there are so many great zombie stories out there that I have, perforce,...moreI'm not really interested in zombies actually. But you'd never know it because there are so many great zombie stories out there that I have, perforce, become something of a zombie book consumer.
This is a zombie tale of a different sort. Told in 72 handwritten letters that actually come to your mailbox (Shades of Jonathan Harker!), the concept itself is worth celebrating.
Add to that the fact that the first five letters have effectively woven a tale of agonized worry for a missing loved one and included cliffhangers that keep me wondering ... well, that is a winning combination so far.
Also, they've taken cover at a Benedictine monastery and I'm Catholic ... so I'm all over it.
More as the story progresses, a week at a time.
================ UPDATE
What are we on by now? Maybe page 150? That's my guess. I am enjoying the story except that occasionally the author seems to make giant leaps. One letter ends with our hero head-butted into unconsciousness. The next opens with him on a helicopter ride. Did I miss a letter? It doesn't look like it. No back story provided, even in a sentence or two. What's up with that?"(less)
I am actually reading a book that contains four of the five Doan & Carstairs mysteries. The Mouse in the Mountain is the second of the stories the...moreI am actually reading a book that contains four of the five Doan & Carstairs mysteries. The Mouse in the Mountain is the second of the stories therein. These are a great combination of hard-boiled and humorous, which may be typified by the fact that Doan is the toughest private detective around but is short, round, and mild-looking while Carstairs is his Great Dane who is a character in his own right (but without talking or any other goofy attributes ... and he's hard-boiled in his own way). Got it either free or for super-cheap from Amazon for my Kindle. Highly enjoyable.
This book takes Doan & Carstairs to a new level with a multi-layered plot that is told from the heroine's point of view. This had only a couple of predictable points and neither of them mattered much. I don't know how Davis managed to combine P.G. Wodehouse comic plotlines with Raymond Chandler-esque noir levels of violence and motive, but he does it perfectly. How has this author been overlooked? Clearly he is going to have to be reintroduced through Forgotten Classics.
In this adventure, the duo travel to Mexico during World War 2, along with an heiress, a revolutionary, an artist, and more than a few mysteries. Complex characters and good, sometimes surreal humor.
=================== 2ND READING - Forgotten Classics podcast =================== The wonderful thing about this being out of copyright is that I can read it on my podcast. As is so often the case, I am enjoying it in a whole new way now that I am reading it aloud.(less)
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