Today is one of those bright, gentle, gray summer days I love so much. My chair arrived a day early, so now I’m fully situated at my new desk and feeling very calm & cozy with some vanilla chamomile tea.
When we arrived back yesterday after a weekend of travel, it really felt like coming home. There is a physical and psychological aspect to this, which is that being away for two consecutive weekends helps establish a feeling of belonging, even to a home that is new to me. But those trips away were also spiritually challenging, in different and unexpected ways. Coming home, then, feels more meaningful than just returning from the weekend. My cousin shared the idea that the beginning and end of a “wilderness season” in your life are the times you can expect the most challenge (even attack) to your faith, and I think there is truth in that. I think God is leading me out of my personal wilderness, too.
Speaking of journeys in the wilderness, Mr H (as he shall henceforth be called) has been reading The Hobbit to me. This is my third or fourth encounter with the novel. I read it as a teenager, then again to my brother, and possibly a third time somewhere along the line. I don’t think The Hobbit is entirely the best adventure story; I’ve realized this time around just how much Tolkien rambles throughout the book. And while I love the wizard Gandalf, he isn’t in the book all that much. But it is still fun to read/listen to and brings us a much-needed bit of levity this month. Mr H does the best character voices—in my honest (if biased) opinion, he does a better Gollum voice than Andy Serkis. 😀
On a more somber note, I started reading Lois the Witch (1861) by Elizabeth Gaskell, a novella which Penguin has recently republished in their Penguin Archive series. It is about a young orphan woman who moves from (Old) England to New England during the Salem witch hunt and at some point becomes accused of being a witch. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible left a deep impression on me, and I have been thinking about writing a story that uses a witch hunt as a metaphor, while realizing I ought to read as many existing novels on the topic so as to avoid accidental plagiarism. I wasn’t aware Gaskell had written about this topic, so I was also intrigued to read a British, 19th-century reimagining of the American experience of these events. So far I’m enjoying it a lot—the growing tension and character-building are so good.
I am nearly at the end of Storm as well, so expect a review soon. Next month I plan to give Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata a try, for an online book club. And I am also reading The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James, a psychological tale which is supposed to be one of the greatest short stories ever written. At some point I really must find another copy of Junger’s On the Marble Cliffs so I can finish it, too. My reading is picking up pace again!
Classics Considered 
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