I never manage to get through all of the links each week, Haley, but I enjoy perusing them. Motherhood and the Intellectual Life has been a meaningful slow read. It has always troubled me that all of the requisite responsibility and insights of motherhood have been shifted away from the intellectual realm, as if any role or function rooted securely in the body cannot also involve a thriving life of the mind. I feel like both my creativity and my engagement with and examination of ideas has deepened and strengthened through motherhood, rather than being suppressed or eradicated. Thank you for sharing!
Happy anniversary! Loved revisiting "On the Cooling of Our Love" and "Doing What We Don't Want to Do" - very much topics on my mind in recent weeks. I'm intrigued by Glittering Vices; wish my library had a copy but I'll just have to add it to my book list for the future!
Yes, if you ever get your hands on a copy (I did audio from the library) I thought it was a great survey of the vices and virtues that I have only become more aware of in recent years…. But that every Christian should have a framework for!
Reading Dante's Comedy a couple times over the last few years really started me on the path of exploring old Christian ideas of vices and virtues. It's a shame modern Protestants don't use much of it!
Did you go through 100 Days of Dante by chance? That’s what helped me get through it little by little over a few months. They have mini lectures on each canto.
Yes, I did 100 Days of Dante! I used it both times I read it, which was super helpful. Next time I may use Dr. Baxter’s book guide, or just go through on my own. I like to be reminded of all the context since the version I own doesn’t include many notes.
“Big Rock Candy Mountain” might be my favorite Stegner novel. It can be so frustrating and heartbreaking to read. When you consider its autobiographical nature, you wonder if it was Stegner’s version of therapy to work out the complicated relationship with his father.
What are your other favorites of his? I've only ever read Crossing To Safety. Those themes of wandering and home run deep, but as you said.... there is certainly something autobiographical there. I really loved how Matt Stewart parsed that out from Stegner's work in the Mars Hill Audio interview.
"Recapitulation" is the sequel to "Big Rock Candy Mountain." It's not nearly as good, but it is a satisfying follow-up that ties up some loose ends and further illustrates the family history.
"Angle of Repose" was the first Stegner novel I read. I need to go back and re-read it. It is lengthy but very good. There are some controversies surrounding the book and the uses of some real-life diaries, but I don't think that mars its quality. It helped illuminate my thinking about the connection to place, valuing history, and the boomer/sticker struggle that Stegner wrestled with his whole life and that is familiar from "Big Rock Candy Mountain."
"All the Little Live Things" and "The Spectator Bird" have the same protagonist, a retired literary agent named Joe Allston. They can both be a tad glum, as the narrator reckons with old age, retirement-induced depression, and life's unfortunate choices and turns. I liked "All the Little Live Things" better, as it has the narrator interacting with the California hippie movement and trying to figure that out.
I never manage to get through all of the links each week, Haley, but I enjoy perusing them. Motherhood and the Intellectual Life has been a meaningful slow read. It has always troubled me that all of the requisite responsibility and insights of motherhood have been shifted away from the intellectual realm, as if any role or function rooted securely in the body cannot also involve a thriving life of the mind. I feel like both my creativity and my engagement with and examination of ideas has deepened and strengthened through motherhood, rather than being suppressed or eradicated. Thank you for sharing!
Happy anniversary, yall!
Thanks! Yours was the day before I think?? A toasty time to celebrate, but it brings back memories of the sweaty outdoor reception. haha
I appreciated those first two essays on motherhood! And I loved Stegner’s book Crossing to Safety. Big Rock Candy Mountain is on my to-read list.
They are superb women to learn from! Glad you found some value in those essays (one of which was very long. haha)
Happy anniversary! Loved revisiting "On the Cooling of Our Love" and "Doing What We Don't Want to Do" - very much topics on my mind in recent weeks. I'm intrigued by Glittering Vices; wish my library had a copy but I'll just have to add it to my book list for the future!
Yes, if you ever get your hands on a copy (I did audio from the library) I thought it was a great survey of the vices and virtues that I have only become more aware of in recent years…. But that every Christian should have a framework for!
Reading Dante's Comedy a couple times over the last few years really started me on the path of exploring old Christian ideas of vices and virtues. It's a shame modern Protestants don't use much of it!
Did you go through 100 Days of Dante by chance? That’s what helped me get through it little by little over a few months. They have mini lectures on each canto.
Yes, I did 100 Days of Dante! I used it both times I read it, which was super helpful. Next time I may use Dr. Baxter’s book guide, or just go through on my own. I like to be reminded of all the context since the version I own doesn’t include many notes.
Should have added a h/t to you! They pair well together.
Thanks, Haley! Happy anniversary!
Thank you, Dixie. And, I'm always a sucker for mothers sharing how they integrate their home lives. :')
ME TOO.
Happy anniversary! Thanks for sharing that moving print of the woman at the well too.
Thanks, Laura. I do love it, so much.
“Big Rock Candy Mountain” might be my favorite Stegner novel. It can be so frustrating and heartbreaking to read. When you consider its autobiographical nature, you wonder if it was Stegner’s version of therapy to work out the complicated relationship with his father.
What are your other favorites of his? I've only ever read Crossing To Safety. Those themes of wandering and home run deep, but as you said.... there is certainly something autobiographical there. I really loved how Matt Stewart parsed that out from Stegner's work in the Mars Hill Audio interview.
"Recapitulation" is the sequel to "Big Rock Candy Mountain." It's not nearly as good, but it is a satisfying follow-up that ties up some loose ends and further illustrates the family history.
"Angle of Repose" was the first Stegner novel I read. I need to go back and re-read it. It is lengthy but very good. There are some controversies surrounding the book and the uses of some real-life diaries, but I don't think that mars its quality. It helped illuminate my thinking about the connection to place, valuing history, and the boomer/sticker struggle that Stegner wrestled with his whole life and that is familiar from "Big Rock Candy Mountain."
"All the Little Live Things" and "The Spectator Bird" have the same protagonist, a retired literary agent named Joe Allston. They can both be a tad glum, as the narrator reckons with old age, retirement-induced depression, and life's unfortunate choices and turns. I liked "All the Little Live Things" better, as it has the narrator interacting with the California hippie movement and trying to figure that out.