Joellen > Recent Status Updates

What are some of your favorite Christmas reads? Whether advent or story; children or adult- I’m looking for some books I can get and cozy into this coming Christmas :)

“Where Christ is, cheerfulness will keep breaking in.”

Reading “On Fairy-Stories” both excitedly (I love Middle earth and want to know more of the creator behind it) but also suspiciously (how could a man have so much disdain for Narnia, especially when it’s creator was his best friend)....taking notes and pondering 😁

I don’t think I’ve fallen in love with a narrator much faster than Jedidiah!

I apologize- I got into a sorting frenzy and for some reason it made all of the books that I shelved into new categories as new updates, even though I had already read them. Please forgive the updates now flooding your feed.

This morning I came across this Lewis quote which I very quickly adopted as 2021’s mantra:

“It doesn’t matter what we write (at least this is my view) at our age, so long as we write continually as well as we can. I feel that every time I write a page either of prose or of verse, with real effort, even if it’s thrown into the fire next minute, I am so much further on.”

Looking back, I had such an amazing reading year! I'm not a very fast reader but almost every single one that I read touched my heart! I made a list of my absolute favorites from the year on my blog <3

https://www.joellenkemper.com/post/20...

Sooo...this book is killing me!!

I already love Bree!!

“Life is a flame-bright and suddenly gone. There is no oracle written among mortals which declares to each their days. Sometimes our hope is like a curse, showing us things we wanted but which were not meant to be. But be assured that (leaving out character’s name due to spoilers) death was not meaningless. A life is not measured in years.”

“Orwell was a poet who happened to find his medium in prose; a poet not so much in his means of expression as in the nature of his vision, which could strip the sprawling tangle of the world around him down to its core with the simplicity of a timeless flash of intuition”.

Why Hello, Orwell, we meet again...

I have been reading these devotionals off and on and they are a balm to my soul. I have never known someone to delight in God so much and be able to express it so eloquently and succinctly <3

I think the best thing we can do this week is take a break from social media and the news, fill our minds with good by reading books with life affirming truths and just be in the moment, loving the people around us. I wish you all peace in the midst of the chaos around us <3

Vipsania and Minna....😭 ‘tis a bit like Bill in The Fellowship of the Ring. I think I will never take a horse on a quest now...

Well...Sutcliff sure knows how to write with suspense 😅

Reading this for Allie Stuckey’s book club-so excited to finally dive in!

This one is for you, Mary 😁💓

Only the author’s note and I need my tissues. Love you, Allison <3

Rewatching The Hobbit and realizing that raising a boy is akin to Bilbo hosting an unexpected party of a house full of dwarves 😅

Reminds me that there are adventures to be had 💕

We just went from comedy to intense hero battle scene in 7.9 seconds.

Let’s do this :D

Geese-1, Conrad-0.

This is the best 😂

I can’t put this book down...(at least when the baby is asleep LOL).

“The value of myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity’ “

I downloaded this book simply to read the essay On Living in an Atomic Age. I was feeling anxious at the state of things this morning and this essay brought me peace and helped reframe my thoughts. I highly recommend it!

Hope you all are staying safe and healthy <3

Reading this as a preface to my itch for narrative poetry- wanting to read Paradise Lost, Beowulf (Tolkien’s translation), The Aeneid, The Lay of Autrou and Itroun, Lewis’ Narrative collection...any other classics that I am not thinking about?! :)

Accidentally started reading this after downloading a different kindle book that was published incorrectly. I have enjoyed what I’ve read so far and already had it in my tbr list, so I’ve switched gears. Serendipity, I’m sure.

Not really understanding...I downloaded this copy on my kindle and it starts out with Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa- which I am enjoying so far, but I feel like this has to be some mistake?! LOL

Eating this book up by the spoonfuls!