The Penguin Book of Hell, by Scott Bruce. From ancient Sumeria to the present day, Bruce documents how afterlife journeys have evolved. Pope Gregory the Great wrote a story that sounds oddly like the plot of The Good Place. Purgatory visions used to be more common. Fascinating!
A Grief Observed, by C. S. Lewis. “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” When his beloved wife Joy died of cancer at the age of 45, after three years of marriage, Lewis penned four intensely personal journals recording his crisis of faith. This is his Book of Job.
Gisli Sursson’s Saga. One of the more beloved sagas of Iceland, featuring cursed swords, deadly quarrels, a man who uses whey to extinguish a housefire, and yet another in a long line of heroic outlaws who flout society’s mores and are hunted to their deaths. Thrilling!
Wonderstruck, by @helendecruz.net. “Wonder is a sudden surprise of the soul,” said Descartes, and de Cruz traces the effects of wonder on science, religion and magic, in the process weaving in Pascal, Socrates and Brandon Sanderson. We are lucky to have this book, and her.
O Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker. Barker only wrote one novel, but oh, what a novel. This tale of a sixteen-year-old girl who would rather be reading Gothic fiction and traipsing about the Scottish Highlands with her pet raven is very nearly perfect. One of my favorite books ever.
Time to re-read it.
BONUS: I’m reading The Plantagenets by Dan Jones and When Christ & His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman. Jones belongs in the first tier of medieval historians. Penman is unmatched in the genre of historical fiction, her books both scrupulously researched and deeply comforting.
Oh, and here’s a complete list of all the books I read this month:
Lastly, I wrote a lengthy essay on Moby-Dick, the medieval Titanic, the Book of Job, the death of Joy Davidman and the mystery of suffering. This was an enormous labor of love; please check it out! bibliollcollege.substack.com/p/the-shadow...
I love labours of love. I'll read it this weekend.