books
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Fall Reading 2021
Seeing as A Bookish Charm began as a book review blog, I thought I’d return to my roots and share a bit of what I’ve been reading this season. It’s an eclectic bunch of books, but that’s the way I like it, and I hope you will too! Eat this Book by Eugene Peterson: This… Continue reading
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Historical Humility
I’m currently enjoying Theology in the Democracy of the Dead, by Matt Jensen, a former professor of mine from the Torrey Honors College and a fellow (though much more accomplished) St. Andrew’s alum. First of all, I highly recommend this read, as it offers a comprehensive yet relatively brief look into the lives and work… Continue reading
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The Quiet Art of Reading Aloud
I remember reading in St. Augustine’s Confessions how he was astounded to see a man sitting before a book, his eyes roving back and forth across the printed page, and yet without uttering a sound. Could he be…reading? The very idea was shocking. I laughed at first, struck to think that reading silently was once… Continue reading
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“Water, Water, Everywhere”
The value of poetry is often found in its ability to capture the core of nuanced situations. Prior to moving to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I did some research on the area and was shocked to discover this article by The Gospel Coalition: It’s an article worth reading, at once eye-opening and encouraging. It lays bare… Continue reading
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Befriending Dante: A Reflection on Readership
Although I have always been bookish in about every sense of the word, I went through a “rebellious” phase in high school when my AP Literature class was required to read Dante’s Inferno. I was adamantly against it and now, as I reread it for the fourth or fifth time, I can explain away this opposition as… Continue reading
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Rejoicing in Repetition
My current favorite song—“Shape of Love” by Passenger—keeps popping up in my Spotify playlists and I never skip it. Its opening chords make me smile no matter how many times it has played today already. Similarly, as I said in a previous post, I eat the same breakfast every day and have not yet grown… Continue reading
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Question and Answer: Anticipating Christ in the Book of Job
In rereading the Book of Job, I once more find it both wonderful and troubling. Job is, at its core, a terrifying book: a man is selected for the worst trials imaginable (loss of family, livelihood, and health) not because he is wicked but, indeed, because he is faithful. The Book of Job is, in… Continue reading
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Lineless Living
As I wrote last year, I am incredibly particular about my personal journals. I am perhaps even more picky about the notebooks I use for schoolwork. To my absolute horror, at the beginning of this semester, I purchased a beautiful teal Moleskine . . . without lines. I opened it in my first class and… Continue reading
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A Little Paper Reflection
Look at that massive stack of books with your little pink notebook on the top, open like the bud of a daisy and crawling with notes. Even those huge volumes by writers with high-brow names like Humphrey and Sacheverell did not grasp everything, nor succeed in having the last word on the subject. Yes, even… Continue reading
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Theme and Variations
Not long ago (though it seems a lifetime), I wrote about modulations. The idea that the dissonance of post-college life would eventually resolve into normalcy was comforting; considering the modulations in music were consoling to me as I felt keenly the sudden transitions I experienced after four years of relatively little change. Several months later,… Continue reading
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Maybe it’s Because of Winn Dixie
I’m reading Gone with the Wind again for what is somewhere between the fourth or seventh time. It seems that anytime I am between books, unsure what to read next, or feeling unsettled, I turn (second to my Bible) to that enormous novel for no better reason than that it is a darn good story. But my… Continue reading
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Dear Mr. Dickens: An Open Letter
My dear Mr. Dickens, I hope you are well and not at all rolling over in your grave. (It is, after all, nearing Christmas and renditions of your famous holiday tale are promenading before audiences who are mostly wondering whether they actually turned off the oven or whether the turkey they pretend to like is… Continue reading
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