September 21, 2023

One book leads to another. A truism.

Nora Gallagher

In this case, a friend mentioned to me that she found a novel, Changing Light, written by Nora Gallagher in a Little Free Library. She loved it and decided to re-read a memoir by Gallagher called Moonlight Sonata at the Mayo Clinic. She recalls reading it when it was first published in 2013, but didn’t care for it much. The second time, however, she liked it more and is now thinking about reading other books by Gallagher.

I have two Nora Gallagher books in my library: Things Seen and Unseen, A Year Lived in Faith (1998) and Practicing Resurrection, A Memoir of Work, Doubt, Discernment, and Moments of Grace (2003). I remember enjoying them both. I also read Moonlight Sonata, but didn’t care for it as much. I wonder if I would appreciate it more now.

Yup, one book leads to another.

I decided to re-read Things Seen and Unseen, and I am so glad I did. The theme of each chapter is one of the liturgical seasons of the church year–Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and moving onward to the last season, Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time follows Pentecost and is the last season before Advent. I am Lutheran, and we don’t call this season “ordinary time,” but instead count the Sundays after Pentecost. Last Sunday, for example, was the 16th Sunday after Pentecost. Who knows why this decision was made, but I love how the name points me to the idea of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Gallagher says, “The road to the sacred is paved with the ordinary.” Another truism.

Gallagher writes evocatively about her involvement in an Episcopalian parish in Santa Barbara, specifically as a volunteer in the soup kitchen run by the church, but also her own spiritual seeking and struggles of faith in the midst of community. It is not an easy year for her. Her brother faces a terminal illness, other friends die of AIDS and cancer, and the vestry must make a decision about whether to call a gay priest as their rector in a time when the larger church struggled with issues of sexuality. Let’s be honest, the church still struggles with sexuality, but reading this book makes me more aware that there has been progress. In this way at times Things Seen and Unseen feels like a historical document.

I was taken by something she wrote about her husband and his views of the church.

When he attacks some part of the Church, he’s often attacking something that doesn’t exist anymore. Part of the reason is that changes in religion are meaningless to him; part is that the Church and the media are equally bad at publicizing religion or religious concerns; and part is that he remains rooted in the past…

p. 54

I underlined much more in this current reading than I did initially, and I especially appreciated the chapter on Pentecost in which she writes about creating a labyrinth. She quotes Lauren Artress, who is known as a proponent of the labyrinth as a spiritual practice.

It’s a container. You can literally walk into it and because it has boundaries and because it has a beginning and an end, you can walk into a whole other world that’s set aside as a spiritual place.

p. 160

This chapter also includes a letter from one of my spiritual heroes, John S. Spong. In this letter he affirms the right to ordain gay people.

How glad I am to have re-read this book and now I think I will re-read Practicing Resurrection. One book leads to another, you know.

Mystery Series by Iona Whishaw

I don’t know where I first heard about this series, which is set in British Columbia soon after WWII, but here is a case where the cover as much as the description of the series grabbed me. The main character is Lane Winslow who was with the British Secret Service during the war. She moves to Canada, looking for some peace and quiet. Plus, she hopes to spend her time writing. Well, no surprise, murders happen practically in her backyard, and she is drawn in to solving them. Oh, and there is a handsome police detective, Inspector Darling.

Critics have compared this series to the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear and the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd. I am a fan of both of those series. One review says the Lane Winslow series is “In the vein of Louise Penny…a compelling series that combines a cozy setting, spy intrigue storylines, and police procedural elements–not an easy task, but one that Whishaw pulls off.”

I have now read the first two books: A Killer in King’s Cove (2015) and Death in a Darkening Mist (2017), and I am sure I will read the other nine at some point. Yes, one book leads to another.

An Invitation

Can you think of any “one book leads to another” experiences you have had in your reading life? I would love to know.

Note #1

An essay I wrote, “My View From Here,” has just been published in a lovely online publication, Sage-ing, The Journal of Creative Aging. You can read my essay –and, in fact, the the entire publication at this link.

http://www.sageing.ca Let me know what you think.

NOTE #2

I will take a bit of a break from posting: Tuesday, September 26 through Tuesday, October 3. I will return with a post on Thursday, October 5.