Sara > Recent Status Updates

Just blasted through this dense and interesting book. Noir as heck, in a sort-of-parallel NYC. Explores elevator inspection and theory, of all things, as a metaphor (or loose allegory) of societal and racial relations in America. Frankly, it reminded me a good deal of Ursula Le Guin, although the writing was a bit over-thesaurus'ed, which you wouldn't catch her doing. A first novel, though, so excusable, I suppose

Experimented with change-ringing at handbell practice (successfully!) which reminded me of this Dorothy Sayers mystery. Read it back in my 20s and have forgotten most of it. Looking forward to spending time imaginatively in the English Fens in January, here in the sultry Florida summer.

"There was a wall. It did not look important. ... But the idea was real. It was important. For seven generations there had been nothing in the world more important than that wall. Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on."

Deeply moving portrait of the mind's eye of an artist from his earliest years in the 1940s and his struggles within his Brooklyn Hassidic community.

Affecting book on a Mary fully human and flawed, remembering her son and incidents with which she was associated in the Gospels (wedding at Cana, crucifixion), other NT incidents (raising Lazarus) with which she isn't associated, and fully imagined incidents (escaping Golgotha with other Mary, after-years at Ephesus bickering with Gospel writers). A short but serious read.

Picked it up at B&N in the mall while awaiting an Apple Store appointment to replace waterlogged iPhone. Hooked

Absolutely loved the discussion of the Oxford English School with its various endowed chairs and philology scholars. Formerly opaque-as-mud sections of Tolkien's essay, 'Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,' have come alive for me now! Bosworth, Earle, Napier, Sweet, Ker, Wright, Chambers - Edwards shows how they fit as intellectual forebears upon whom Tolkien stood and against whom he sparred. Cool!

Favorite quote from the bio: "never had a true confederate offered him [Lewis] such exclusive, steadfast devotion. Neither was he searching for such a figure. He can almost be forgiven for not having recognized her when she first came along, fantastically packaged as an abrasive ex-communist Jewish convert from the Bronx, seventeen years his junior, and married."

Joy Davidman's life is so active, intellectual, and directed. The biography is a fascinating reflection of the lefties of the 1920s-1940s. Now I'm into the C.S. Lewis part of her story, new facets of her personality are coming out that were not well reflected in the biographies of Lewis.

And love the second use of 'doctorwatson' a a verb!

Instrumental case is new to me.

Instrumental case is new to me.

Enjoying Princess Bride along with analysis of it at Mythgard Academy. Book brings out so much more of Fezzic, and he is such a gem of a character!

Most enjoyed the Fall of Gondolin chapter - as gripping as Lord of the Rings. Looking forward to the Earendel tale.

Page 343 of commentary and page 73 of poem. Time for some 'Handshoe' - enjoying both the Tom Shippey / Mythgard lectures and Tolkien's translation and commentary, although I'm about a week behind. Good stuff!