I have a small bookish woe to confide to my saddle-bow before we ride on to sing of the lovely books I read this August. If you have ever misplaced a good book you were in the middle of reading perhaps you can sympathize - my copy of Elizabeth Goudge’s Linnets and Valerians continues to elude my best efforts to find it. I was about halfway through and enjoying it so much - I’d marked so many passages to include in this wrap-up - but ah well, most probably it will turn up in time to feature in my September reads!
Luckily I have a different Goudge book to tell you all about and, appropriately, it is the source of the subtitle of today’s post…
A Diary of Prayer by Elizabeth Goudge
Elizabeth Goudge is one of my very favorite authors, and I’m slowly trying to collect the last few of her titles that my shelves are missing. I picked up a used copy of her beautiful anthology of prayers and have been loving it! There are prayers assigned to each date, and some correspond to feast days and celebrations, but they’re also arranged generally by topic. August began with “Prayers of Kings and Queens,” one of which was King Alfred’s above advice. Another prayer from the August pages had a similar spirit…
Grant me, O Lord, the royalty of inward happiness and the serenity which comes from living close to Thee. Daily renew in me the sense of Joy, and let the Eternal Spirit of the Father dwell in my soul and body, filling every corner of my heart with light and grace, so that bearing about with me the infection of a good courage, I may be a diffuser of life, and may meet all ills and cross accidents with gallant and high-hearted happiness, giving Thee thanks always for all things.
Goudge’s novels are full of beautiful literary allusions, so it’s no surprise that she had such store of beautiful prayers to share. I’m sure this is a book I’ll be dipping into frequently.
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
“If you hadn’t helped me in the haying, little Half-Pint, I’d not have put up enough hay. We would have run short before this.”
Those hot days of haying were very far away and long ago. Laura’s gladness that Pa said that seemed far away too. Only the blizzard and the coffee mill’s grinding, the cold and the dusk darkening to night again, were real. Laura and Pa were holding their stiff, swollen red hands over the stove, Ma was cutting the coarse brown bread for supper. The blizzard was loud and furious.
“It can’t beat us!” Pa said.
“Can’t it, Pa? Laura asked stupidly.
“No,” said Pa. “It’s got to quit sometime and we don’t. It can’t lick us. We won’t give up.”
Then Laura felt a warmth inside her. It was very small but it was strong. It was steady, like a tiny light in the dark, and it burned very low but no winds could make it flicker because it would not give up.
I think Pa lived out that prayer from Elizabeth Goudge’s book - he and all the Ingalls family have “the infection of a good courage,” and it certainly gets put to the test during the long winter described in this installment of the Little House on the Prairie series. I’m very glad I read this during the summer and so was able to go out into the sunshine after reading about the seemingly unrelenting blizzards. “Endurance” is the word that keeps coming to mind as I’m re-reading my way through this series. Each book has serious setbacks and struggles, but they’re always balanced by Laura’s love of her family, hard work, faith, and appreciation of small joys and beauties.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The sensation produced by Princess Myakaya’s speeches was always unique, and the secret of the sensation she produced lay in the fact that though she spoke not always appropriately, as now, she said simple things with some sense in them. In the society in which she lived such plain statements produced the effect of the wittiest epigram. Princess Myakaya could never see why it had that effect, but she knew it had, and took advantage of it.
I’ve continued my slow but steady progress in this Russian classic! Last month, I was marveling at the ball gowns; this month, I’m in the mood for tea made in a Samovar which, at least at Tolstoy’s St. Petersburg tea parties, seems to be served with a spicy side of gossip. 😆
Peter and Paul by Susan Scarlett
Petronella could skip from truth to fiction like a mountain goat.
This wasn’t necessarily my favorite Susan Scarlett novel, but it was an enjoyable fluffy summer read! Peter and Paul are nicknames for Petronella and Pauline, who are the twin heroines. As you can perhaps guess from the above quotation, “heroine” might be a big generous for Petronella! Somehow I didn’t connect much with Pauline, the more sympathetic twin, either, but I did love the setting which hopped between the cozy British countryside and a Mayfair fashion house.
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
When God fights it is but small matter whether the hand that bears His sword is big or little.
We’ve already been chatting about this month’s book club pick in my discord group, and it sounds like it wasn’t a hit with everyone. If you’re looking for Joan of Arc to stand out as a really relatable character, you might be disappointed. She does feel a bit distant at times, but overall I thought it was beautiful the way Mark Twain emphasized the saintly strength and simplicity of her character, showing how the sterling faith of one young girl and her wholehearted acceptance of and reliance on God’s will were so powerful they managed to galvanize heart after heart after heart and finally a whole nation.
It always happened that people who began in jest with her ended by being in earnest. They soon began to perceive depths in her that they had not suspected; and then her manifest sincerity and the rocklike steadfastness of her convictions were forces which cowed levity, and it could not maintain its self-respect in their presence.
I found all the historical details of the battles and trials to be really interesting, but one of my unexpected favorite parts of the book was the character “The Paladin.” It felt as if Mark Twain modeled this character after himself! He’s more than a bit of a blustering buffoon, but Joan of Arc calls out a better and braver part of him than anyone would have guessed he possessed. We’ll be chatting about this during our book club call tomorrow, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if I mentioned it tonight…
Kate and Christy will be joining me for a summer reading wrap-up livestream tonight (Friday, September 1) at 8 p.m. eastern to book-end the summer reading plans livestream we did on Kate’s channel back in May. I can’t wait to hear about their favorite reads of the season. Hope everyone’s September is off to a great start!
What I Read in August 2023