Status Updates From Gentian Hill by Elizabeth G...

“He stretched himself to his full height, and raising his arms, grasped the branches upon either side, his feet held firmly in the twisting roots. Gently yet strongly the tree held him, and he could have shouted aloud in gladness. Perhaps he did shout; he didn’t know. The whole air seemed crashing with music and ablaze with light.” Pg 104
The most beautiful description of a sunrise I’ve ever read.

A breath of fresh air

A relaxing opening to an English novel

I don't believe this author is aware of the concept of a bishop

Reading about old English Christmas customs is so fascinating

Look, if they had been friends since childhood or he had been in love with her his whole life, I would mayyyyyyyyyyybe accept this. But you don't meet a random strange woman, find out she's a Carmelite novice, and decide ON THE SPOT that you are going to pressure her into marrying you instead. The hubris. Apart from everything else, the bleedin' HUBRIS

Okay, I KNEW she wasn't Catholic!

(To be clear, she is doing an excellent job portraying Catholic characters in a highly sympathetic way, but there are just a few touches where you can sense the presence of a different perspective. It's very interesting)

Why is this book so white-knuckle obsessed with the idea that desertion is Bad

(I know this was the aftermath of WW2, but come on)

I will forgive your demented moral compass because you're just so good at describing Gregorian chant, darn it!!!

See, this is ACTUALLY how you tell a story with a dispossessed and ruined Abbey in it, instead of just using it as romantic set-dressing

Title drop!!!

Fourteen year old me would have eaten this book UP

(thirty-one year old me is still relishing it quite a bit, for the record)

Say what you will about those mid-twentieth century British authors, but they knew how to write a Description.

First chapter, glorious writing combined with WILDLY incorrect moralizing... let's go girls

“…he did not believe in capricious fortune, but in a carefully woven pattern where every tightly stretched warp thread of pain laid the foundation for a woof thread of joy.” Ch.9