What to do when it's 100 degrees

 

What should you do when it is 100 degrees outside with 99% humidity?

Some suggestions:

Learn about the history of angels and ponder if you have a guardian angel or if perhaps you have encountered an angel. I listened to a talk given by the author of this book, Angels, Peter Stanford from St. Paul's Cathedral back in 2019, and was fascinated by the history of angels through time, how it has changed over time, and how they remain a very important aspect for many people. We often glaze over the angels as we read Scripture, yet they play an important role in so many stories from Scripture. I am gaining to newfound appreciation of the angels in all the stories and throughout history. As a bonus, there are many things discussed that mingles with Dante and his angels in The Divine Comedy (which I am also reading now, currently reading Purgatory). I love when readings overlap like that with complimentary studies.

Whatever you do, do not accept an elusive, vague invitation (especially if it arrives on a letter from someone you do not recognize offering a free holiday) to an isolated island off the coast of England unless you want to end up dead. In And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie, that is what happens. Ten strangers are invited to a modern mansion on an island. None of them know who invited them, yet they all have something dark in their past (which you don't, so nothing to worry about). Not long after they all arrive, they start dying. Is the murderer one of them? This was a re-read for me, but it must have been late high school or early college when I first read it. It was so mysterious, intriguing, and creepy, and I loved it. I knew I would want to read it again. This is definitely one where you can collect clues on the way (kind of like "Clue") to try to figure out who the murderer is.

Investigate a murder when a young woman's body is found in the library. It seems like it would be a simple solution, right? Solve the puzzle in The Body in the Library. The murderer would have been part of the household under the assumptions of a simpleton, except nothing in the evidence points to that. Miss Marple is sent for immediately to help shed some light in this strange case, and in her elderly wisdom and keen sense of observation, she is able to see some particular facts that are the hinge to solving this murder. 

Find a cool dark place underground, discovering deep caves, strange caverns, long tunnels, and tree root networks. In Robert MacFarlane's wonderfully enjoyable book, Underland, he recounts his travels to various places around England, Paris, and northern spots of Norway and Greenland, diving into the dark places of the earth. Exploring glaciers, caves, rivers deep underground, and the catacombs of Paris. Along the way, his lyrical writing brings us along learning about how these underground realms were formed, why they are important, and the deep time look at what these places will be for us humans in the coming hundreds/thousands of years. His perspective spans time as we know it, and I love the interweaving of that.