Emily M > Recent Status Updates

Chapter 6, on her time in the education dept, is interesting to me as a homeschool mom, making me want to delve deeper into what was going on with standardized education in the UK in this period, but the details of this chapter would bore my girls.

First F-word, quoting William IV. I don't remember encountering such language in even the adult biographies when I was in high school.

The details are vivid, and this is an engaging read, two chapters in, other than her interesting choice of what quotes to include.

Chapter 6 was about silence, and while chapter 7 made the point that the Plague created economic opportunity for the survivors, it devolved into a dull accounting of how many various religious institutions were in London. I feel like each of these chapters could have been a paragraph.

The chapter on her childhood moved along at such a clipping pace that if I hadn't once written a substantive research paper on Victoria, reading several more detailed books, I'm not sure I would have grasped the more important details.

So the first four chapters were basically history, but chapter 5 was just about London noise throughout the centuries. Not sure about the organization of this book.

Chapter 1 is just an overview of the rise of the Roman Empire and Julius Caesar. A lot of background before Britain is even mentioned at the very end of the chapter. For those familiar with Roman history, could skip ahead to Ch 2.

I'm actually surprised that for a book detailing such a sexually promiscuous era, we got a third of the way through before encountering a vulgar quote.

Wow, the treatment of Richard III is maddening in its inaccuracies. It suddenly makes me realize that I have been casually accepting everything he's written up til now, because I don't know better. Suddenly I'm seeing inconsistencies in the material I do know well. There is literally no explanation for how Richard could go from hyper-loyal brother to murderer except that he "descended into madness." Ugh.

More salty language at the end of ch 67.

Chapter 51 also ends with a descriptive round-up of sexual adventures of common folk during the war. It's not adding much to the overall story.

Chapter 44 includes a descriptive account of a random young woman losing her virginity because of the life uncertainty with the Battle of Britain. I'm not convinced that this addition was necessary to the chapter on the first big bombing of London. I would want my youngest teens to skip this anecdote if I assign this to them.

Note to self if having my girls read: ch 17 gets into Randolph's sexual peccadillos and has some coarse language.

Markham as an academic doing research on the fate of the Princes in the Tower! Bwahahaha! Priceless!

"When your children are older, you will lead them by the power of your relationship. But when they’re young, you must lead them by the power of your authority."

So true!

This has been a slow read because I am stopping and watching videos and reading transcripts to check whether the accusations that Basham takes things out of context are fair. The Gavin Ortlund thing is pretty clear-cut to me. I watched the video, went back and saw how she presented it, and searched for the phrases she quoted in his transcript. He is a good example of the downstream effect of her topic here

"But being a mother created a paradigm where the task in front of me was greater than my strength, and prayer was as necessary as air."

Aptly put

All this talk of rooting yourself with your geography had me thinking of Berry, then Berry showed up! But I like Justin a lot more than Wendell, because he's actually realistic about the challenges (both have traveled all over before rooting themselves back in their hometowns, but Early is open about it) and gets why you might leave home. But the call to ground yourself in your home soil is beautiful.

The final chapter on hope, as seen through raising chickens and planting a home garden, spoke to me beautifully, perhaps because I have also done both, for largely the same reasons. Also, no repulsive political figures made an appearance.

Debates not with strangers online but with intimate friends who can challenge your thoughts in the context of a relationship Yes! This is how iron sharpens iron.

Her college pastor abandoned his family for an adulterous relationship. This explains a lot.

The author apparently never encountered antagonistic professors or friends at a big state university. I want to say bless her heart, but perhaps my experience growing up in a liberal college town and spending 13 years of my adult life in liberal college towns is truly different than college town life in the South. Also, she mentions her Episcopal church --I had been wondering about her current denomination.

The chapter on authenticity reminded me Justin Whitmel Earley's writings in spiritual habits. I rolled my eyes when she brought up Trump again (her obsession with that man seems stronger than most of his voters!), but the way she examines liturgies old and new would be a great starting point for discussion of forms of worship with my low church friends who fear ritual making things dead.

The chapter on modesty was the reason I actually picked up this book--I appreciated how she reframes modesty in thinking about not showing off our wealth, which is the Biblical example. But the question isn't whether the Kardashians are immodest for showing off their wealth or their (fake) bodies--it's both. She teases this idea out some but is still a bit too inclined to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The usual blame of purity culture for all of the sexual woes of today's exvangelical women. She clearly hasn't reread Passion and Purity, as I recently did, but she's right that it's possible to frame the issue incorrectly (which Elliott didn't) when 90s parents were trying to save their children from their own free love regrets. The mention of Trump putting immigrant children in cages felt like a reach.

The lament chapter was heavy on lamenting the election of Donald Trump. I definitely know who among my theologically evangelical friends would find that a reason to keep reading and who would give up there. Both responses are telling in this culture.

The hospitality chapter is about her justifying their decision not to have more than two children by practicing Biblical hospitality because evangelicals are xenophobic. As someone who grew up with dozens of international students in our home for all major holidays, I have a hard time reconciling my experience with the polls she references. Is it possible to oppose illegal immigration and still welcome immigrants?

Well, the author just took her class on a nature walk to discuss how as Christians we must care about climate change, and she sees a mom and teen son picking blueberries and immediately assumes they're homeschoolers, thus evangelicals, thus believe it's okay to rape the earth. Apparently the call for kindness and kinship only goes towards the BIPOC people we whites have wronged through systematic racism?

Perhaps I submit a Formal Complaint against Hawkes. For rogue communications of the ardent variety. Not that I don’t wish Hawkes well. I do. I do! I wish Hawkes constellations, and poetry, and wonder, and much more sleep than he presently finds.
But who is she?
Does she love him?
Ought I attend service wielding a sword?

I have the same questions, except for the bit about the sword. Who is good enough for Hawkes?

This was Hawkes, after all. Not one of those run-of-the-mill dukes or photographers that one encounters these days.

Aunt Eugenia was pleased. “If I weren’t convinced Emma did not need your steady hand, I would claim your wisdom wasted, Miss Dowd. You would do very well in a post of authority at a women’s prison.”

“Your praise is too high, Lady Spencer. Shall we discuss the most effective bedtime routine to keep Emma looking sweet and subservient?”

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