What I Read in November...

...plus my reading plans for December & Advent!

People, look east. The time is near 
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.

The Advent season has begun! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m excited to break out my Christmas decorations this week and get started on my Advent journal and December reading plans…

I’ll be cohosting a readalong of The Man Born to Be King by Dorothy Sayers this December! Sayers is one of my favorite authors, but I’d never heard of this incredible playcycle until Christy invited me to be part of the readalong. It is a dramatization of the Gospels in radio play format - it was originally broadcast during World War II. I’ve been listening to the audio version, and I’m about three plays in!

The Man Born to Be King is essentially the 1940s British equivalent of The Chosen. Both projects seek to authentically bring the story of Jesus to life in the medium of their day. In Letters to a Diminished Church, Dorothy Sayers writes about the importance of setting “the divine drama” of the story of Christ on an open stage for the current generation, so it’s exciting to see her at work!

But before we dive into December, here’s a recap of the books I’ve been reading throughout November…

The Blue Sapphire by D.E. Stevenson

“To tell you the truth it always grieves me when I see a book that’s never read. There’s something a bit pathetic about its crisp leaves and immaculate binding. Poor thing! What’s a book for if it’s not to be read and enjoyed?”

This is probably my favorite book by D.E. Stevenson! All of her novels have a warm cast of interesting characters, a cozy setting (The Blue Sapphire takes you to both London and Scotland), a wealth of meaningful small details and a depth of observation. You’ll find those in this story, but there are also so many unique and unexpected elements…a bit of family mystery, excitement over a sapphire mine, a flutter on the stock market, a charismatic landlady, a charming hat shop, a smattering of French and a lovely heroine learning to stand on her own two feet. Special shout out to Mrs. Brett and “le petit oiseau d’or.” This was our book club pick for November, and I’m excited to discuss it during our video chat on Saturday!

Dancer in the Wings by Lorna Hill

“And so Janet was initiated into the mysteries of making that most complicated of all articles of clothing - a classical tutu. It never occurred to Annette to ask whether her cabin-mate minded being roped in as an assistant dressmaker. She herself couldn’t imagine anyone in their right mind not wanting to make a ballet-dress.”

I’m with Annette - the description of how she makes a classical tutu, on board a steamer ship of all places, is charming and makes me wish I could help with the frilling! This is another installment in the Dancing Peel series, and Annette has convinced the purser of the Flora MacDonald to let her perform in exchange for passage to Skye to see her friend Angus. I’ve recently been watching the series Great Canal Journeys (highly recommend!), and I just wanted an episode features canals and sea routes in Scotland, some of which I think were the same as the route Annette’s ship must have taken. The Dancing Peel books were favorites of mine when I was growing up, so it’s been lovely to revisit them!

The Day of Small Things by O. Douglas

“‘Weel, I’ll sune be done wi’it, an’ I never heard there were ony gairdens whaur I’m gaun, although we ken the Almichty likes them fine, for ane o’ the first things He did was to make a gairden an’ walk in’t in the cool o’ the day. The mistake He made was pitten Adam and Eve in’t. Adam himsel mebbe wadna hae dune muckle ill, but…’ The old man looked round at the four women and, judging that discretion was the better part of valour, merely shook his head, remarking: ‘It’s ower late in the day to fash aboot the Gairden of Eden.’”

That’s some impressive dialect right there, spoken by a crotchety old gardener. I love how he reasons that God likes gardens…and the idea it’s too late in the day to be worrying about mistakes made in Eden. 😂 I seem to have spent a lot of time in Scotland with my reading choices this month! The Day of Small Things is the second in O. Douglas’s trilogy about the Rutherfords and their move to the beautiful Harbour House along the coast. I also finished the third book in the series, Jane’s Parlour, which centers mostly around their friends in Tweedside in the Scottish Borders. I was a bit frustrated with the trilogy’s main character Nicole and the way the plot seemed to be dashed on at the last minute as an after-thought, but I did still find a lot to enjoy. O. Douglas makes you feel that you are just one of the neighborhood, paying calls, drinking tea, sharing news, and writing letters.

The Man in the Dark by Susan Scarlett

“The hat, bag and gloves Shirley had been carrying when she arrived were flung in a heap on a chair. Marda found them an impressive heap. Accessories to her at seventeen, and even now, were only accessories, and not part of each outfit. Shirley’s accessories underlined her clothes. The bag repeated the initialed scarf of her coat, the gloves were an exact tone, the little hat had obviously been made to go with the outfit; there were three black bangles on her wrist with a grey ring on them.”

You may be familiar with Susan Scarlett without realizing it - this was Noel Streatfeild’s pen name for a dozen romance novels she wrote during World War II. I’ve read four or so of them so far, and they are all delightful British escapes. The plots follow similar Cinderella trajectories, but there’s something a little different and interesting about each one. The Man in the Dark is one of my favorites so far. The heroine is engaged as a paid companion to a young lady who, as you can tell from the quotation, has a spectacular wardrobe. I think I may need to up my accessories game; I love that idea of your hat, bag and gloves “underlining” and accentuating the rest of the outfit. There are lots of interesting observations like that. Here was another that spoke to me: “Nothing makes a room utterly yours as housing your own books.” ❤️

Paradise Regained by John Milton

“God hath now sent his living Oracle
Into the world to teach his final will,
And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle
To all truth requisite for men to know.”

I am happy to say that Milton redeemed himself (somewhat) in my opinion during Paradise Regained. He certainly let the devil have the last word in Paradise Lost, but in this sequel, set during Jesus’s temptation in the desert, the devil’s insidious lies have no chance against the truth of Christ. I love that image in the passage above of Christ as “an inward oracle” always present in our hearts to show us the way.

Pensées by Blaise Pascal

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself. God alone is man’s true good, and since man abandoned him it is a strange fact that nothing in nature has been found to take his place.”

Recognizing our inherent wretchedness and our limitations is, for Pascal, the first step in our journey towards God. In and of ourselves, we’re incapable of reaching that “true good” of human existence, but God’s love for us has bridged the gap. “The right way is to want what God wants. Christ alone leads to it.” I’m about halfway through my re-read of Pensees. It was one of my favorite classics from university coursework, and I’m finding just as much wisdom this time around!