Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs > Recent Status Updates

Thanks to my good friend Laurie, I’m reading Maugham once again!

The amazing story of how Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s séances with the departed souls in his family dictated both his political manoeuvering and his personal code of ethics! This looks mighty interesting.

Watch me dish out the SUPERLATIVES when I’ve finished this gem!

A wonderful poet, condemned to death in Nazi-occupied Hungary, who writes passionate nature poems - feverishly - in his imprisonment. They were discovered in his coat pockets when his wife recovered his body for burial. An unsung poetic genius while he lived his too-short life!

Philippa is discovering that she needs to always keep her wits about her in this often-contentious House of Prayer!

A feisty, wakeful, light-a-fire-beneath-your-feet and altogether roustabout collection of confessions & anecdotes about the Christian Way! Love its edginess.

A savagely, gracefully convicting BARNBURNER of a book, and a multiple award winner. It won’t be my last from this highly talented lawyer and recovered alcoholic!

This is not beginning too auspiciously...

Whatever the draw of this book, it’s drawing me into a downward-winding vortex - not leading to a bright abyss, but into a dull state of nonbeing. The author seems to be the polar opposite of my temperament. I feel like shaking him: ‘look! I know life is hard for you. But don’t you see hope ANYWHERE?’ Patience, Fergus!

Saw this lady on TV, and she’s FOR REAL. Plus, she’s got some rip-roaring tales to tell us!

The bookish HUMANIZING of a Monarch!
The Queen is remembering the great writer Anthony Powell, at an awards ceremony, who says to her that being a writer doesn’t excuse one from being human...
The Queen guiltily reflects that being Monarch, though, apparently does!

What would the Queen do if she were a reader? Would she start to lazily slough off her duties? I think not, no matter what this book may propose! She’s made of much sterner stuff, and her adamantine character would NOT easily be swayed to indolence - and that’s my personal take, though the book remains a REAL HOOT. Four stars!

This one’s a Positive HOOT!

Her majesty is now an inveterate reader, most of her waking hours!
‘“Were we able to harness your reading to some larger purpose - the literacy of the nation....,” (this from her Secretary, Sir Kevin.)
“One reads for pleasure,” said the Queen. “It is not a public duty.”
“Bloody cheek,” said the Duke when she told him that night. (😆❗️)’

Pretty cute premise: the Queen accidentally discovers serious reading, and a proverbial whole new chapter begins in her life! She begins to marvel at what she’s missed, starts cancelling appointments and follows oddball recommendations to new authors. It’s really quite hilarious!

David, friend to many of us here on GR, aims to entertain - and this one promises to be no exception!

Reading this slowly, I’m gratefully inhaling the slow thoughtful pace of life of a reverent family living on Manhattan’s West Side in the 1950’s.

Good news! The Jewish patriarch - and future Prime Minister of Pharaoh’s Egypt - Joseph, has been born. And equally good news: his mother Rachel, beloved of all the sisters - and, most of all - by Jacob, has survived her agonized childbirth. Now begins Part II: Dinah, last child of Jacob’s first wife Leah and the first granddaughter of Jacob, tells her story.

Science and the complexities of our nature are moving us beyond the laws of traditional authority to a new fluidity of being and communication. Can our churches keep up with the pace of change?

Sr Campbell’s ingenuous Compassion is irreproachable, save by gear-grinding cynics! Since 2014 she has been in the forefront of the battleground against the blatantly reactionary element in America.

A beautiful snapshot of the Hope and the Vision that has kept Sr Simone afloat with her Nuns on a Bus travelling lobby for social change and women’s rights, during the past decade of intense American political turbulence.

Jacob has for a long time been my favourite Old Testament character. When this incredibly fine novel was recommended one day on GR, I had to get it. It’s WONDERFUL. Though my initial progress was slow, due primarily to the earthily feminine POV, I found this weekend that my forgiving elderly perspective now permits me to enjoy it to the maximum!

An unpretentiously remarkable book from an unpretentiously remarkable Goodreads author - and originator of great TedTalks - Instagram superstar Celeste Headlee.

A Christmas gift from our wonderful forever neighbours... can’t wait!

Remorse comes at the 11th hour. But sometimes the misdeed for which we feel remorse seems unendurable to us. So we then - once again - put off our 11th hour confession to another time.
Our subconscious meantime deludes us into thinking our misdeed was excusable. But its fact is in fact inexcusable - and needs confession.

The message of this book will seem trite to those whose sense of self-worth has been torpedoed and sunk by a multitude of cynical bystanders, yet in fact it is the essence of the Christian teaching. And the only way we’ll see now kindness is the Way is by following to the end the road of remorse for our own unkind acts.

Growing up - truly Absurdly - as an out-of-place, victimized Aspie!

This has been such a wonderfully well-written escapist read!

We reach a drastic dénouement.

What! Can there coexist such deep personal pain alongside the joy and laughter of Christmas?

Sadly, the burgeoning boil of buried trauma must one day be lanced. This is that day.

Down to the crunch time for this ill-starred couple. Is it still possible to recover primeval Christmas joy after the guilt and PTSD of a foreign battleground has relegated your soul to the scrap heap of society? I have a sneaky feeling the answer is still gonna be YES!