People, I have to tell you: April in Dublin has been fantastic. Sure, we've had hail twice this week. But the sun has graced us with her presence every single day, last night's sunset amidst big thunderheads (alas, sans thunder) was gloriously midwest-like, and I've been hanging out laundry like a boss. I found it incredibly difficult to maintain a depressive post-rejection stance in the face of such beauty. Here's hoping May is as kind to us as April was. Now, for the good stuff...
Read moreWhat I'm Into {October 2014}
It is no secret October is my favourite month. It is absolutely the most colourful, versatile, cozy and outdoorsy time of the year. October for me is when the world makes sense. It's when Ella was born, and when Matt and I met in Chicago, and where I carry almost all the best memories. Which is why I haven't been here so much... there are more memories to be made.
Read moreWhat I'm Into {September 2014}
Most months I think you can’t possibly want to know what I’ve been reading, watching, thinking about all through the month. Karen from Kansas doesn’t exactly have the most refined palate. Nevertheless, I show up back here at the end of every month because I need to remember what I’m into, I need to look back at what I fill my brain and heart with, I need the accountability that says, “pick up a book! Leigh expects you to have read something.” So here we are again…
READING
Red Joan was the first book I read this month and jumpstarted my need for more fiction in my life. Jennie Rooney treats us to the fully fleshed out - though at times maddeningly naive - character of Joan, a bright-eyed student at Cambridge turned lovesick young adult who finds herself attached to the wrong crowd but ingtrigued by their passion and fortitude nonetheless. While I can't say I relate to or approve of all of her choices, one can't help but respond with understanding when it comes to being swept away by idealised young love and the dreams of changing the world. One minor quibble: Rooney overuses and misuses the term "giddy" nearly a dozen times. A “giddy” spy? Yep.
Jojo Moyes' novel, Night Music, is the story of an old mansion of a house in small-town England and the cast of characters driven to the brink because of it. I have to admit I actually had to skip to the end to set my mind at ease, as this book caused me no small amount of anxiety. I could relate to so much of it, but particularly this: a widowed mother of two finding herself in over her head in an old house signifying fresh starts and hopes, and a cunning man who takes devastating financial and emotional advantage of her. The ending is satisfying and the story well-told, but it sure was stressful getting there.
I also read my first ever JK Rowling book (I know, I know), otherwise known as Robert Galbraith, with The Cuckoo’s Calling. I lazily read through the first half of the book over the course of two weeks, not really caring all that much about a model who may or may not have committed suicide or the gruff and strange antihero Cormoran Strike (related: where do authors come up with these names??). But somewhere in the second half I found myself unable to put it down and rather invested in Strike and his secretary-turned-protégé Robin. I happily look forward to the next book in the series.
(let's be friends on goodreads)
WATCHING
Still love my date nights with Matt watching The Office. We finally watched The Grand Budapest Hotel and… well… I just feel kinda meh about it. Don’t get me wrong: this is another fantastical tale and the characters are witty and funny, and how Ralph Fiennes managed to make an equally dodgy, crass and wonderfully sympathetic character out of M. Gustave, I’ll never know. But it just didn’t have that overarching balance of essential goodness I’ve come to expect from my Anderson films (The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr Fox, Moonrise Kingdom).
Also, Catching Fire is now on Netflix UK and upon second viewing, I was distracted by how wooden and downcast the acting was. It picked up steam and pacing near the end, but I’m more than a little hopeful Mockingjay will overpower this sullen predecessor.
LISTENING
I've been walking to a steady stream of The Frames and Snow Patrol this month, and The Civil Wars last album has a decidedly autumnal feel to it. And I'm half-heartedly listening to the new U2. I don't care about the "hipster tsunami of whinging" or that it's just a lucrative financial partnership bordering on world domination. They can do no wrong in my book... well, apart from Lemon.
LOVING
Nights by the sea
Meeting an old friend for lunch
How much my children love school
Wedding + communion + hymns + this view
A quiet house
Writers group and shared stories on the table
Dinner with friends (at Third Space's monthly Square Meal)
Women like me are abused worldwide. Here's why.
The amazing - though it should've been obvious because of how wonderful they are - fact that my sister and Amy Poehler share a birthday.
Kim Kierkegaardashian on Twitter
Afternoons at the Botanical Gardens
Biking in Phoenix Park with Matt
Dublin on the edges of Autumn
“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd.”
Linking up with Leigh Kramer for What I'm Into. What were YOU into this month?
(affiliate links included)
God Loves Uganda :: Questions on Culture, Context & Power
Our friends at ACET graciously loaned us God Loves Uganda, a film tracing the relationship between the atrocious (and recently overturned) Ugandan "death penalty" bill for "repeat practitioners" of homosexuality and the imported evangelical missions movement.
I'd heard bits and pieces about this film for awhile, with slight interest, as it followed a fringe megachurch* on the outskirts of my hometown, but I honestly didn't pay much attention when it was released. Everyone knows this group is a little wacky, I thought. It never occurred to me it might have any bearing on or relation to our work, or my hometown, or the American evangelical community at large.
But I was wrong. And even a couple of months later, I'm still struggling to put words to my thoughts. I mean, who can really touch on all this is about, the complexities and the history and the trauma? Or even our own complicity?
Read moreOn being Interrupted (again!) and getting messed up for the Kingdom
It's one of those cold, rainy Irish "summer" days where there's nothing quite like cuddling up in bed with a candle, one's favourite cableknit throw and a deep book. So it's a good thing I put off reading Interrupted* till the last minute.
(before you get too envious, it should be noted we came home from church to a doggy-upset-stomach stink you would not believe, so the candle is not just for show)
To recap: I love Jen Hatmaker mainly because, in her own words, she will "tell my little stories" or "have public rants" or "tell very borderline inappropriate anecdotes with no heed to the repercussions." This is right up my alley. If I don't make a new friend cringe in the first 60 seconds of our meeting...
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