Weekly Roundup #004
thoughts and musings from this past week
Happy Friday, everyone! My day was spent packing, loading, and hauling my husband's and my crap across town. We are temporarily staying with my mother-in-law until our new home gets hauled down to the four acres of land we were gifted as a wedding present. I plan on writing a piece on Monday about the hopes, fears, worries, and excitement about moving from a West End apartment to a farm.
On My Bookshelf
Finished This Week:
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
I finally finished this book! (Cursed Spotify cut off my listening hours when I had literally ONE hour left in the audiobook, but luckily, one of my best friends lives nearby and lent me her copy, which I promptly finished and returned later that day. I absolutely adored this book; it was a lot of fun and felt like a great romp. I understand now why people are so against the movie adaptations, but I still like them for the same reason I like the 2010 Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief film. It’s not peak cinema, but it’s damn good fun.
Currently Reading:
Okay, so I am technically still in the process of reading all of the books below:
The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry
A Vindication of the Rights of Men by Mary Wollstonecraft
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
However, all of my books, including the ones above, have been neatly packed into boxes and are currently shoved into the corner of my mother-in-law’s spare bedroom. I refuse to dig through all of our books and find them, and am simply going to wait until we officially move into our new house and unpack everything to pick them up again. Sorry to everyone who was waiting for the next Jane Austen inspired piece or my commentary on Wollstonecraft. You will just have to wait.
In the meantime, I checked out Edmund Burke’s On Taste; On The Sublime and Beautiful; Reflections On The French Revolution; A Letter To A Noble Lord from the library. Reflections On The French Revolution, in particular, is hailed as foundational for the modern Conservative movement, and I thought it was high time I read Burke’s writings. Also, in A Vindication of the Rights of Men, Wollstonecraft is rebutting Burke’s arguments in his aforementioned essay, so it will be interesting to read his original arguments in their full context. The book itself is a gorgeous Harvard classics edition with a cute note in the front, informing the reader that this book was donated to the library by the Crystal Coast Republican Women of Carteret County. Side note — Carteret County is a teeny tiny county on the coast of North Carolina, about five hours from me, but how frickin’ awesome is it that I can read a book that none of the libraries near me had, all the way from the beach? I love libraries!
I am also working my way through Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food, a collection of essays by Wendell Berry. I checked out the ebook from the NC digital library and have been treasuring every word. I owe a big thanks to Esther Berry for introducing me to Wendell Berry, whom I have come to consider one of my favorite authors in the agrarian tradition.
On My Television
I have, quite literally, just been binge-watching Downton Abbey this week. Am I proud? No. Am I ashamed? Not really? Maybe a little? Period dramas are my guilty pleasure, and I haven’t had much work this past week, so you know… give me a break. But in all seriousness, I was too young to watch this show when it was at its height, and now that I’m older, it’s the exact type of show that I enjoy watching, so I’m giving it a go. (I’ve even got my husband somewhat invested mwhuahahaha)
In My Earbuds
I’ve been doing a lot of podcast listening this week, not really a lot of music. I still need to listen to the (not so) new Lilly Allen album. Here are some podcasts I’ve enjoyed this week:
I have listened to and loved Louise Perry’s podcast for a long time now, and this recent episode was absolutely another banger.
Okay, listen, I actually genuinely like Allie Beth Stuckey. I started listening to her podcast back in middle school and have followed her on and off since then. I think she is an authentic, truth-seeking woman whom I admire. I obviously disagree with her about many things (she’s a Calvinist, duh), but I respect her. I thought this episode was really interesting and partially inspired my recent essay on why Christians should just use the word feminist. Overall, I enjoy Stuckey’s cultural commentary, but if she’s talking theology, I avoid avoid avoid. Her more recent episode on Candace Owens was also very good.
That’s the weekly roundup for this week. Next week, I plan on writing about my move back to rurality; hopefully, I will have read some of Burke’s writings and will have thoughts on that, and I also plan on putting out a piece about Mama Mary on Wednesday, in honor of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the 21st.