Stack of Books

 

Current and recent bookstack. Some of the books I've read or currently reading now. It makes me so happy to have a little bookstack of good books. 

Alice's Oxford - People and Places that inspired Wonderland, Peter Hunt

Well this was fun. After coming back from Oxford, I was right back in Oxford, visiting all the places associated with Alice. There was a little bit of history about each place, and how it showed up in the Alice books - many of which I had not seen before. The author also included many of the Tenniel illustrations and insights how Oxford shows up in many of those scenes, such as the Queen of Hearts scene in the garden. In the drawing there appears in the background the Lily House of the Oxford Botanical Garden. The Botanic Garden might be where Alice met some of the flowers in Looking-Glass, who were rather philosophical.  

Loss and Gain, John Henry Newman

The story of Charles Reding, a young undergraduate at Oxford in the 1840s, who journeys through the tumultuous religious times in the Church of England, as liberal enlightenment ideology entered the church, the Oxford Movement rose against it, and Catholicism was deemed as antichristian. Charles navigates the deep discussions with his fellow undergraduates, his family, and elders. Written as a fictional autobiography by Newman, it is the story of his conversion.

At the beginning of the book:

"But how are we to arrive at truth at all", said Reding, "except by reason? It is the appointed method for guidance. Brutes go by instinct, men by reason."  

Sounds a bit like pre-conversion C.S. Lewis, doesn't it?

The Manuscript's Club - The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts, Christopher De Hamel

With beautiful color photographs of the manuscripts this is a visit with 12 different collectors or scholars of these manuscripts. Manuscripts have survived for this many centuries because they are valued and preserved. Why were they important and why are they still important? Why were handwritten manuscripts still produced after the printing press was developed? We travel through history to visit each person and their role - from Saint Anselm the Benedictine Monk (1033-1109) to more modern times of Sir Sydney Cockerell (1867-1962) and the space in between. It is an interesting study of the people who had influence on these manuscripts, and their reasons for it. A bit of history and bookish detail along the way. 

1984, George Orwell

I have been wanting to re-read this book. It's the kind of book that warrants a re-read every few years as our world changes, it is that warning reminder of the importance of truth, freedom, words, and meaning. Orwell builds this soon-to-come future of how life could look if we do not continue to fight for freedom, a totalitarian regime would control every single aspect of your life: Big Brother would be watching you from all your screens at home, what you read, where you go, what you write, what you say. Even what you think (the Thought Police will eventually catch you). Once they have your thoughts in their control it's a total loss of humanity.

"The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death." (pg. 7)

Black Coffee, Agatha Christie

Such a fun read. This is adapted from the play that Agatha wrote. A family mystery in a large estate home. A poisoned coffee leads to death, but who put the poison in the coffee? And why? Poirot is called in to help discover the truth, and as he talks to members of the family, additional motives for murder are revealed. You try to make your own assumptions based on the conversations who did it, but some new tidbit of information makes you question your theory. 

Christina Rossetti, The Complete Poems

I've mentioned how I have been reading through her poems and it is wonderful. Such a mix of topics from family, seasons, nature, religious, dream-like, creative. Some are so beautiful I read them a few times:

Time was I bloomed with blossom and stood leafy
How long before the fruit, if fruit there be:
Lord, if by bearing fruit my heart grows heavy,
Leafless and bloomless yet accept of me
The stripped fruit-bearing heart I offer Thee.