Northanger Abbey - Book 47

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen is a delightful novel.  I know I have read it several times before but I can't remember the last time I actually did read it.  It's been a while.  My husband and I are reading through all the Austen novels together.  He's actually still ahead of me.  I thought he was giving up after Northanger Abbey but he has pushed on with Persuasion.  However, I am committed to reading A Cricket on the Hearth first for my Literary Christmas Challenge.

I love Austen's tongue in cheek tone and the wonderfully likable characters of our heroine, Catherine Morland and our hero, Henry Tilney.   It really is a novel about perception.  I think only Henry really has an accurate understanding of everyone's motives and personalities.  Yet in spite of being grounded in realism, he is not cynical, but a decent man with a witty sense of humor.  There's nothing not to like about him!

Poor Catherine pretty much gets everything wrong, except she does have a strong moral compass which helps her through the cognitive dissonance she experiences when people she trusts say one thing and do another.  She assumes everyone's good will and they take advantage of that.  She also lets her imagination run away with her and color her understanding of situations.  The characters of the Thorpe brother and sister team, John and Isabella, are so laughably odious.  They are like the stupider version of Mary and Henry Crawford from Mansfield Park.  And even an intimidating and reputable man of General Tilney's standing gets duped because of his preoccupation with money.

This is Catherine's first time away from home.  Her eyes are opened to the manipulations, cruelty and insolence of others.  She recognizes the flaws of her own characters.  But she also recognizes her soul mate in Henry and a true friend in his sister, Eleanor. And as Austen so cheekily notes at the end, through all the frustrations and painful occurrences of their meeting and courtship, it only is a twelvemonth from their first meeting until their wedding, so dear reader, it really isn't at all like those Gothic romances of yore.

All through this book though I kept wondering why Austen spelled Elinor one way in Sense and Sensibility and another way in Northanger Abbey?  For some reason that jumped out at me!

For more book reviews, go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Nicholas Gilroy - Book 46

Nicholas Gilroy was written by Father Stephen Gemme and Deacon George.  I actually got a free copy from Father Stephen, who I happen to be facebook friends with.  He asked me to read it and pass it on. I plan to donate it to the parish where my daughter attends youth group.

This book tells the story of Nicholas' experiences as he enters a fictional high school seminary located in Baltimore.  I enjoyed the interaction of real Baltimore (my home for 3 years and where my husband and his family hail from) and the imaginary Baltimore.  Nicholas comes from a wealthy neighborhood, Roland Park, and he has adventures at the Inner Harbor.  We follow Nicholas as he makes new friends, grows in his love for Christ, and learns to translate that love into serving the less fortunate.

The tone of the writing is a reminiscent of the pious, idealized narrative voice of such authors as Brother Ernest and his saints series.  Or Mary Fabian Windeatt and her saint books.  It also reminded me of the Father Finn, Tom Playfair books as well (maybe because Nicholas is at a Catholic boarding school/seminary).  But there were some more modern touches as well.  For instance, Nicholas was homeschooled.  And at the seminary they have to have rules about cell phones.  There's mention of whiteboards replacing old blackboards and even some talk on bias in the media coverage of the annual March for Life in Washington D.C.  Again, like the charming mix of real and imaginary Baltimore, there is a mix of a sense of the old fashioned with new, modern elements which I found charming.

I loved this series by Father Finn.  Nicholas Gilroy reminded me a bit of them, only more modern.

The ending of the story does involve some violence and tragedy.  I would say Nicholas Gilroy is aimed at advanced 4th grade through average 6th grade reading levels.  However, there are a couple of very advanced Catholic vocabulary words, like humeral and luna!  It is an intensely Catholic book meant to awaken in the reader a pious love for Christ and His great Mother Mary.

Thank you very much, Father Gemme for giving me this book.  I enjoyed reading it!

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Neighborhood Nature Notes

This is the little stream at the bottom of our backyard.

Just cataloging this because I enjoy nature watching.  This is from about the last two weeks:

This is the pond the stream empties into.  Our house is behind the trees in the upper right.

• A raccoon darted across my path one night on a street near here.  Didn't hit it with the car!
• On a walk with the dog, we surprised a gray fox in the patch of woods beyond the pond.  We were very close.  He looked very scraggly and jogged away seeming only a little concerned.  Skipper didn't even bark at him.  He wanted to follow him though.  Red fox are more common around here.  That's only the second time I've seen a gray fox.
• A couple of times on our walks, came across dozens and dozens of robins searching through the grass.
• A few days ago saw several blue birds which startled me.  I thought they migrated?  And we've had some really solid frosts.
• 12/3/18 saw a lone crow mobbing a hawk.  Also saw what I think was a Dark-eyed Junco.
• 12/4 cloudy, chilly day.  Saw another lone crow, some Mourning Doves and Mockingbirds in the thrush on the other side of the little creek at the boundary of our backyard.
• 12/5  ran into the fox again.  This time though it really looked like a red fox to me.  So now I think I am just not very good at identifying wildlife.  

Beyond the new McMansion development is a steep ravine.  We had just hiked up the path from it here.

Housekeeping Notes - 12/7/18

This week, in housekeeping news:

• Managed to find and get front door Christmas wreath up!
• Tidied up yard a bit
• Gardeners built raised beds in the back yard!
• Washed dog blankets!
• Washed one load of my clothes, need to do more - washer keeps refusing to drain so we have to play with it every. single. time.
• Cleaned master shower stall and also wiped down sink and counter
• Managed to keep kitchen reasonably clean in terms of dishes and pots and pans.  Mail and clutter are a different issue.
• Moved the dog crate to the mud room which is a good move.
• Meant to do a vacuuming today but I think V must have it down in the basement, so I never bothered to haul it back up here.  Must do before Sunday!
• Cleaned out fridge from Thanksgiving and got compost, recycling and trash out to the curb on the correct night!
• Got S and B to go shopping for the Giving Tree for me.  It's wonderful having kids who can drive!
• Baked enough chicken for 16 at homeless shelter and took over to church, early Thursday a.m.
• I have to admit I only cooked dinner M, W, Th.  And tonight we are doing take out.
• The heat went off in the night.  Was quite chilly.  Repair guy finally came out at 4 p.m. today and fixed it.  Same problem as last time.  What's up with that?
• Bought a couple of presents on line, but I still need to do a lot.
• Bought lots of frozen latkes and apple sauce for when in laws come over on Sunday - last day of Hanukkah.

For my classic spin reading challenge (deadline 1/31/19), The History of the Ancient World, I'm on page 51/777.  Better get hopping!

Commonplace Book 12/5/18

A quote from this morning's theological read, p. 58, The Light of Christ by Father Thomas Joseph White OP

. . . The traditional Catholic arguments for the existence of God are not geometrical proofs derived from self-evident axioms, but are something more elevated and deal with a subject matter that is more elusive.  They function primarily as intellectual discernments about the nature of reality as we perceive it all the time.  They begin from things around us so as to perceive the necessity of a transcendent origin, God the creator, who remains hidden and hence not immediately subject to the constraints of our "clear and distinct ideas."  That is to say, thinking about God is realistic and philosophical, but it also seeks to acknowledge the numinous character of our existence and the ways that our limited, finite being points toward something transcendent, necessary, and eternal, which is the cause of our existence.  Thinking about God in this sense is difficult for the human mind, not because theology is soft-headed, but simply because the subject matter is so elevated and not intrinsically capturable in the way mathematics or empirical topics are.

Christmas Literary Challenge

I think I'll join in on this Literary Christmas challenge, hosted by In The Bookcase, though I am not going to challenge myself too much!  I think I am morphing into more of a book blog and so I am trying to elbow my way into the book blog community!   I've been clicking around the internet trying to snoop out good book blogs.

It's been so long since I've done something like this, I completely forget how to post here the cozy Christmas illustration that shows I am part of this book challenge. I apologize. I'm very late to the party anyway, as the challenge started November 1st.    But I don't do Christmas that early anyway.  That's All Saint's Day to me!  I'm busy praying for the dead and giving thanks in November.  So Christmas doesn't really start until December.  And actually that's Advent.  Christmas doesn't officially start until December 24th, but try telling the modern world that one!  My Christmas season goes to January 13, 2019.

I've always heard that Charles Dickens' The Cricket on the Hearth is one of his Christmas stories (the only other one I am familiar with is the classic A Christmas Carol), so that's my pick.  I've thought about reading it for years now.  Now I will finally do it. Right after I finish Northanger Abbey!

Sense and Sensibility - Book 45

R and I are doing something fun.  We are trying to read all the Jane Austen novels together.  It was actually R's idea!  He'd only read Pride and Prejudice, but for some reason (I think the netflix capabilities of our new TV) we binged watched a couple of BBC productions and one of them was Sense and Sensibility. 

I realize that I wrote a review of the last time I 'read' S&S (I actually listened to it on audio), so I am going to link to that review from back in 2012.

This time reading it, two things stood out to me:

1)  How it really is an exploration of Stoicism.  Elinor is a bit too stoical while Marianne is the opposite.  Both sisters move toward the golden mean as a result of the trials and tribulations their love lives go through.

Thinking about stoicism, I googled to see if anyone has ever written on Austen and it.  Apparently someone did for their thesis.  They connected the 'bluestocking' scholarship of Elizabeth Carter, who translated the great Stoic philosopher's Epictetus into English.  Apparently, Jane Austen read Carter's work.  Pretty cool!

Elizabeth Carter

2)  It struck me that a major meme for British literature is the idea of two sisters or two almost sisters and how they each deal with romance and heartache.   S&S is the first that I know of, but Anthony Trollope follows this exact theme in his novel, The Small House at Allington (which I am currently listening to), E. M. Forster in Howard's End also treats of this theme.  And there is an absolutely wonderful in depth essay on Georgette Heyer's novel, A Civil Contract, which compares it to Sense and Sensibility.  

Two thumbs up for this classic!  Brava Jane Austen!  For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.