Sola Christus

{this moment} : : a near arrival

a birth of words

67, 810 to be exact

{this moment} : : Well, hello there twenty twelve!

My first New Year's date: my future husband!

Cheers, Jack!

Happy birthday to you, who are now under Aslan's mane. Let's have a pint when I get there.

(On a recent road trip with my fiancé, we turned the corner and found this Golden Valley. I post it here in Jack's honor.)

{this moment} : : foundations of sea

Our engagement pictures weren't taken this week, but I did get them back this week. So, here's this week's picture. (Thanks to our wonderful friend Anna for these!)

  

{this moment} : : the missing piece

{this moment} : : waiting

Apologies

To my little creation, known as my blog,

I know you are still here, and I have sadly neglected you. I do have excuses, though. Planning a wedding, finishing a PhD, and applying for academic jobs are all enough I believe, to keep me away from you, even though there are books to be reviewed and thoughts percolating on a newly-non single life, long-distance relationships, and the craziness that is academe.

I will return. Promise.

Sincerely,

Katherine

{this moment} : : blue sky and warm air

(I finally figured out what was wrong with my computer uploader....)

June Books

Yes, I know it is August,^* and here I am writing my reviews about the books I read in June. This summer has seemed both interminably long and fleeting at the same time.

Lots of things have happened. I have been on 7 planes, 20+ hours in long car rides, been in 8 airports, and slept in 6 different beds (none of which are my own). I buried my grandmother in May, welcomed my new goddaughter into the world in June, and said yes to a certain man who asked me a question on the shores of Lake Michigan in July. Needless to say, this summer has been very full, which has not left as much time as I wanted for pleasure reading.

I started this year out with the goal of reading 50 books, fully realizing that I may not reach that goal, but with all of the other things that have happened this summer, I suppose it is surprising really that I have gotten any reading done.

Now, I am taking a moment off while I sit in the Upper Reading Room at the Bodleian Library to think about the books I did read. Looking out the window at some of Oxford's "dreaming spires," it seems a fitting place to reflect on reading and books.

In June I read two books:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

(young adult, fantasy, fiction)

 I am rereading these, and really enjoying them. I have read them several times (except for the last one, I have only read that one once).

I have noticed lots of groundwork that Rowling lays in the earlier books in preparation for the last two. Even as early as the Chamber of Secrets, there is prep-work for the horcruxes.

2. Gilead by Marilyn Robinson

This is Robinson's second novel, which she won the most acclaim for. (You can listen to an interview with her here.) I know I will come back to this novel again and again. My fiance suggested it, being one of his favorites, and it gave us much to discuss. With no chapters and entirely first-person narrative, it might seem thoroughly modern, but at the same time there is something deeply timeless about it. The book is a letter to a son, written by his dying father, John Aimes. And yet, it is so much more. I was reading it when my Grandmother died, the woman who taught me how to serve, laugh, and love, and this book touched the deep rivulets of grief that I felt with her passing. Here is a section where the pastor meditates on the end of his own life:

I wish I could leave you certain of the images in my mind, because they are so beautiful that I hate to think they will be extinguished when I am. Well, but again, this life has its own mortal loveliness. And memory is not strictly mortal in its nature, either. It is a strange thing, after all, to be able to return to a moment, when it can hardly be said to have any reality at all, even in its passing. A moment is such a slight thing. I mean, that its abiding is a most gracious reprieve.

This book is home-like and comfortable while being startlingly beautiful. Go read this book!

 * I started writing this post in August, and finished it today. Oh well.

{this moment} : : sunshine petals