Little Baby McLaughlin will be lucky to have Paige as a mom for many reasons. She knows how to raise boys, she is patient and gentle, she is a woman of faith, and she is an artist. It is fun for children to watch a parent draw something well. I bet he will ask her to draw all kinds of things and he will be delighted with the results. Lucky baby.
These children’s books were illustrated by Paige and they were privately published, so they are not available for sale. They were my Christmas presents. I am such a fan of Paige’s work. đ
Monday: My birthday dinnerTuesday: A practice recital for an upcoming competition. Mark is playing a Chopin Impromptu. â¤ď¸Wednesday: I finished another one of these.
Thursday: Book Club at our house
Friday: temple trip
We are in a very full season of life with so much going on and so many things I could share, but I can’t seem to sort these things into words.
This is volume 2. I am working on volume 3, and have loved each one.
My books from this New Testament series are so full of personal marginalia that they are probably ruined for anyone else’s use.
I like to leave helpful notes to my future self in the Table of Contents and throughout the book.
I like having different kinds of books in different places in the house, and save lighter reading for the bedside table. Light fiction at bedtime is a wonderful idea.
My current light reading? đ
I had forgotten how funny this book is. I laugh every day.
Reading this book was like revisiting my old life as a college student, doing field work, collecting insects, identifying trees, and watching for wildlife. My interests in the Bible, theology, zoology, botany, and writing held a party in my mind as I read Annie Dillard’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel. I loved this book.
A few quotes:
I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.
I cannot cause the light; the most I can do is try to put myself in the path of its beam.
Fish gotta swim, and bird gotta fly; insects, it seems, gotta do one horrible thing after another.
The creation is not a study, a roughed-in sketch; it is supremely, meticulously created, created abundantly, extravagantly, and in fine.
I have often noticed that even a few minutes of this self-forgetfulness is tremendously invigorating. I wonder if we do not waste most of our energy by spending every waking minute saying hello to ourselves.
I am buoyed by a calm and effortless longing, an angled pitch of the will, like the set of the wings of the monarch which climbed the hill by falling still.
This list is a personal thing for me to share, as these books were with me through all that I experienced this year. Whether I liked a book or not, I gained something from each. I will forever associate certain books with the landmarks of my year, big and small.
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (beautiful writing)
On Moving by Louise DeSalvo (I didnât enjoy most of this book, but the writing about the author saying goodbye to her house at the end was just right.)
Tattoos on the Heart by Greg Boyle (I loved this. âPure religionâ in action.)
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Hated the ending.)
How to Meditate by Pema ChĂśdrĂśn (I am glad I read it, but I have no idea what I was reading a lot of the time.)
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Whereâd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (Meh.)
Saints, volume 2: No Unhallowed Hand (The vast scope of this book is staggering, and it took me a long time to read it. When I wasnât grieving over the events, I was energized by the personal accounts of miracles, dreams, and visions. There is a lot in here, and I kept notes on the people, as I learned I had to do with the first volume of Saints.)
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner (It was a page-turner.)
When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin (Good.)
Irreversible Damage: the Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters by Abigail Shrier
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (So much better to read as an adult.)
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (I love this author, and this was my second reading of this book.)
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (So much to say about themes, but the piece I needed was its commentary about how a true Christian helps others. I collected many quotes to live by.)
A Lion and a Lamb by Rand H. Packer (This was inspiring. This couple served a twenty-four year mission at the Smith farm in Palmyra, NY to establish good will with the community, 1915-1939. This couple is also depicted in the film, The Fighting Preacher.)
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed (I liked this.)
Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall (I did not like the narrator and was dissatisfied with the book, but could not stop reading.)
William Tyndale, a Biography by David Daniell (This was a scholarly, academic, detailed analysis of Tyndaleâs translation work on the Bible and his impact on religion and the English language. Five hundred years later, we remain familiar with his words, whether we are religious or not. This book was an accomplishment for me to finish.)
Even This by Emily Belle Freeman (I read this because I like her insights into Bible stories and rethinking our relationship with God. This was a nice book.)
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy (Good.)
Crossings by Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye (This is a collection of essays and letters about living as a Latter-day Saint woman, scholar, cancer patient, and mother. Good.)
My War by Andy Rooney (Good.)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ âĽď¸
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (There is no happy ending here, just a cautionary tale about environmental destruction and greed that led to Dust Bowl conditions in the 1930s. The description of the great dust storm on Black Sunday was really well written.)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (A familiar friend)
A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde (fluff)
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Powerful story)
Everybody, Always by Bob Goff (It read like too much self-promotion to me.)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (I enjoyed this more than ever this time.)
If you were unfortunate enough to watch Netflix’s 2022 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, I recommend the following:
Read the actual novel. This will give you the most thorough reset.
Watch the 1995 BBC version of Persuasion for the most faithful version of Captain Wentworth’s spirited character.
Watch the 2007 BBC version to get the most faithful version of Anne, an introverted character you come to know by her thoughts more than her conversation. (Netflix, what you did to the character of Anne Elliot is inexcusable.)
I have completed steps 1-2 and I am beginning step 3 while I tackle a stack of ironing.
I keep a running book list on this blog (see the sidebar), mostly for me. I realize I am not exceptional in my reading, and I tend to forget titles, so the list is a good reminder of where I have been. If you’re on a mobile device, you can find my book lists in the drop-down menu.
I have read a lot of good things this year, and enjoy talking about books. I don’t know many people with a similar taste in books, and hope that if you find something that you enjoy from one of my lists that you will let me know.
I haven’t finished this book in the picture, but I can recommend it. Three words to describe it are Poignant, Real, and Snarky (when necessary).
About 15 years ago, I began reading this book, and I filled its pages with post-it notes because I found it so interesting. My days were focused on homeschool and babies, and I couldn’t finish it before it was due at the library. Defeated, I pulled the post-it notes from the pages so I could return it, and I made a promise that I would pick it up again when I had more time to devote to such a scholarly work. Well, I remembered my promise and finished it.
There are other books that might tell the story of William Tyndale in a simpler way. This was academic, sometimes over-detailed, and occasionally beyond my understanding.
William Tyndale is one of my heroes. He was the first person to translate the Bible into readable, understandable English from the original Greek and Hebrew. He was condemned as a heretic and killed before he could finish his translation of the Old Testament. Thankfully, his New Testament and Pentateuch were used in the King James Version of the Bible after his martyrdom.
I liked the author’s focus on Tyndale’s value as a translator, comparing many more muddled translations to Tyndale’s direct, clear sentences. Tyndale contributed a lot to the English language, its cadence, sentence structure, and vocabulary. Beautifully and heroically, Tyndale made the Bible understandable, and its sentences memorable. He created important words and phrases such as scapegoat, Jehovah, and living water.
Take a look at the Bible, and you will see that most sentences are constructed with monosyllables, with multisyllable words at the end of the sentences for emphasis. This is Tyndale’s voice. His words sing in our minds. These are his words, and the King James Version follows them very closely.
And after the fire, came a small, still voice.
Why halt ye between two opinions?
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
So the last shall be first, and the first shall be last. For many are called, and few be chosen.
And Jacob served seven years for Rahel, and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.
Tush, ye shall not die.
He believed the Bible should be read by anyone, and the gospel defined by the whole book, not isolated phrases, or worse, commentaries. As he worked over many years on the New and Old Testaments, he came to understand the gospel in terms of a covenant relationship with God, requiring faith and action. He learned for himself the value of the word of God, taken in its entirety, to understand what God expects of us.
What he did took great skill. He knew 8 languages. What he did took great courage. He lived in hiding in a foreign land for years. You may have heard his quote to a learned man,
If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.
Moving beyond the book, I think about Tyndale’s influence on the plowboy, Joseph Smith, who translated the Book of Mormon. Joseph didn’t have an Oxford education like Tyndale. He had no experience in ancient languages, but with the inspiration of God and a mind full of Biblical phrases (influenced by Tyndale), he translated the Book of Mormon in a very short period of time. As for the words from James 1:5-6 that inspired Joseph the plowboy to go the woods to pray, many are Tyndale’s.
I write as I listen to the machinery getting started in my neighborhood. Today, it is an excavator removing a lawn. I have placed my chair so I don’t have to watch, but I can’t escape the sounds. Construction sounds and large trucks and vehicles parked all over the street make for a congested scene.
This week marks the second anniversary of my surgery and long adjustment to a new diet. At least I can still eat candy. And with great sincerity, I want to say I am grateful for my life!
My grandmother taught me to use a timer for tasks. Recently, I set a 10-minute timer in each room I wanted to clean. In an hour, I had done more than I expected because I didn’t have time to get distracted. Also, each day I set a 3-hour timer in the late mornings where I am not supposed to touch my phone. I am in need of all such remedial helps.
When I get Instagram friend requests from teen girls in my neighborhood, I bite my clenched fist and wonder if I should accept. I don’t want to contribute to their social angst. I can’t be counted upon to respond to all their content, and I feel a responsibility to provide some of my own steadying content for their feeds. I am currently so disgusted with social media, and what the creators have knowingly done to girls and women, and therefore families. I am sad that so many women-run businesses depend upon an ever-changing and impossible algorithm to promote their brands.
I finished Brothers Karamazov this week. (If you’re curious, to pronounce it, there is an emphasis on the second a.) I read it to gain some wisdom, but mostly felt baffled by the incongruous mixture of content: murder, monastic life, courtroom scenes, debauchery, betrayal, suicide, mentoring children…It was Dostoyevsky’s last book, and I guess he had things he wanted to say.
A few of quotes from the book,
There are souls which, in their limitation, blame the whole world. But subdue such a soul with mercy, show it love, and it will curse its past, for there are many good impulses in it. Such a heart will expand and see that God is merciful and that men are good and just.
Despair and penitence are two very different things.
Ah, man should be dissolved in prayer.
Don’t be like everyone else, even if you are the only one.
Cana of Galilee, the first miracle… Ah, that miracle! Ah, that sweet miracle! It was not men’s grief, but their joy Christ visited. He worked his first miracle to help men’s gladness.
When you are left alone, pray
And even though your light was shining, yet you see men were not saved by it, hold firm and doubt not the heavenly light. Believe that if they were not saved, they will be saved hereafter, then their sons will be saved, for your light will not die when you are dead. The righteous man departs, but his light remains.
Prayer is an education.
Must… Stop… Quoting… Dostoyevsky…
Recently, we arrived at the first gathering of young men and women at our house with Mark, our baby, as host. I remember the shock of our first girl-boy party when it arrived for Daniel. I smile to see that some younger siblings mirror their older sisters’ steps into our house.
Richard is the only person I know who has a weight lifting bench that he uses regularly.
Daniel is getting married in July, and it occurs to me that I never got around to hanging those shelves he wanted in his bedroom. It is too late now. Don’t get me wrong, this is not the only thing I think I have neglected in my teaching and caring of him. Insert end of an era kind of emotions here.
Richard and I were able to get appointments at the Draper temple on Good Friday. I love this temple more than any other, and I am so glad they are back to (I think) full capacity.
Well, this has been an indulgent and rambling letter. Take what you need, and try to forget the rest. Thank you for taking time to check in.
