Ruth Ashby > Recent Status Updates

I’ve gotten several good recommendations of poems by Wordsworth from this book, I’m excited to go look them up!

Fabulous as usual

Back in the thick of it! Monte Cristo is making it clear that he wants to be the very force of justice, dealing out punishment and reward. Presumptuous, but it’s hard to blame him

Continues to be fantastic

This is one where I’ve dipped in here and there to read stories rather than going straight through, but I’ve read most of them

“God, as good, would have a claim on my obedience even if He had no power.”

Fascinating.

This is really good. CS Lewis mixes real world things with fantasy and sci-fi very well, I would say. Merlin the wizard, re-animated corpses, and well trained pet bears feature in this fascinating book.

Great insights on prayer. I like his thought on how when we try to be completely spontaneous in our prayers we still end up falling into patterns, and when we use pre-written prayers we can still infuse our personal concerns and intentions into the words.

Fascinating. Marx’s life, the philosophy of nature that Communism is founded on—it’s fascinating.

This is really good! CS Lewis is showing the inner ring play out within the professional life of people working at a college. He’s incredibly insightful about how we as humans justify ourselves.

I’m reading this for the BYU-I philosophy department’s reading group. It’s been really interesting. I like her idea that appreciating art is a step toward morality because it brings us out of ourselves and invites us to see things as they really are. At least, great art does that for those able to appreciate it.

This is really simple, but really deep. There’s some great humor, too.

This has been delightful! It's also taken on some meatier themes than the previous books in the series that I'm excited to discuss in my review. I only have 15 minutes left in the audiobook, so that will be coming soon.

This is an absolutely beautiful book.

Still fascinating. The Green Lady is being tempted toward pride, and Lewis makes it clear that he thinks the pride of the soul is more dangerous than pride in one's appearance. I agree.

As Weston has shown up and the force of evil along with him, the story has gotten even more interesting

This is really good. It’s been a while since I was drawn into a fictional world, and the way Lewis describes the planet Perelandra has done that to me. It feels like a real place, though also a bit dreamlike.

The audiobook returned before I could finish it, so I got myself a physical copy and now I’m slowly making progress again.

Edmond is still driving me crazy

It’s hard for me to believe that this stuff actually happened.
Solzhenitsyn is a fantastic writer, and I appreciate that the book has the advantage of his skill in that area as well as his personal experience with the topic. Makes it easier to read.

It just makes me grin to think about people like C.S. Lewis who were interested in so many different things. Science fiction was another way of exploring truth and beauty and interesting questions, so of course he’d give it a try.
It reminds me a bit of the Magician’s Nephew, with its unscrupulous scientist.
Also, I’d love to just disappear and go on a walking tour sometime.

I’m really enjoying this. It almost feels like an unreliable narrator story, but because the book shows the inside of someone’s mind very accurately, and as humans we aren’t reliable narrators. We misrepresent things to ourselves, withholding pieces of the truth either because we don’t fully realize them yet or are not willing to admit them.

Since reading “Pay Attention, Carter Jones!”, I’ve had a liking of classic English butlers. This book is solidifying that.
The writing us very precise and intentional, but it doesn’t feel forced.
I’m very much emoting getting a peek inside the mind of someone with an experience so different from my own.