Listen to Shanna and Janice as they discuss the books they’re reading and the final part of Anna Karenina. It’s been an exciting book. Learn how this story ends and the wrap-up conversation and ramblings of the two hosts.

Commonplace Quote

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. ~ Psalm 37:3-6

We all want truth, that truth that which Jesus promise would make us free. But where do we find it? How could it have happended that even in the church, story has been lost as a vehicle of truth? Early in our corruption we are taught that fiction is not true. Too many people apologize when they are caught enjoying a book of fiction; they are afrad that it will be considered a waste of time and that they ought to be reading a biography or a book of information on how to pot plants. Is Jane Eyre not true? Did Conrad, turning to the writing of fiction in his sixties, not search for truth? Was Melville, writing about the sea and the the great conflict between man and whale, not delving for a deeper truth than we can find in any number of how-to books?

And Shakespeare and all the other dramatists before and after him! Are they not revealers of truth? ~ Madeleine L’Engle

Books Mentioned

Learning to Love the Psalm, Ligonier MinistriesWalking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art, Madeliene L’EngleWrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle

Thanks for listening to Readings and Ramblings! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Listen to Shanna and Janice as they discuss the books they’re reading and Part VII of Anna Karenina.

Commonplace Quotes

The first demand any work of any art makes upon us is Surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way.

~ C.S. Lewis

“I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”

“Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”

“It was I.”

“But what for?”

“Child,” said the voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.”

~ The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis

Books Mentioned

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, Madeleine L'EngleThe Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis

Thanks for listening to Readings & Ramblings! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Listen to Shanna and Janice as they discuss the books they’re reading and Part VI of Anna Karenina.

Commonplace Quotes

I saw a young mother With eyes full of laughter And two little shadows Came following after. Wherever she moved, They were always right there Holding onto her skirts, Hanging onto her chair. Before her, behind her - An adhesive pair. 'Don't you ever get weary As, day after day, your two little tagalongs Get in your way? ' She smiled as she shook Her pretty young head, And I'll always remember The words that she said. 'It's good to have shadows That run when you run, That laugh when you're happy And hum when you hum - For you only have shadows When your life's filled with sun. ~ Anonymous

But perhaps he was happiest, in reflection, about the other waiting, the times when the temptation to have it all had been nearly unbearable, but they had drawn back, obeying God’s wisdom for their lives. The drawing back had shaken him, yes, and shaken her, for their love had exposed their desire in a way they;d never known before. Yes, His grace had made them able to wait, to concentrate on the approaching feast instead of the present hunger.

Books Mentioned

A Common Life, Jan Karon

Thanks for listening to Readings & Ramblings! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

This post is public so feel free to share it.

Listen to Shanna and Janice as they discuss the books they’re reading and Part V of Anna Karenina.

Commonplace Quote

I see thee glittering from afar -- And then thou art a pretty star; Not quite so fair as many are In heaven above thee! Yet like a star, with glittering crest, Self-poised in air thou seem'st to rest; -- May peace come never to his nest, Who shall reprove thee! ~ To The Same Flower, William Wordsworth

“The problem is that many people treat morality as a list of rules. But in reality, every moral system rests on a worldview. In every decision we make, we are not just deciding what we want to do. We are expressing our view of the purpose of human life. In the words of theologian Stanley Hauerwas, a moral act “cannot be seen as just an isolated act, but involves fundamental options about the nature and significance of life itself.”

Love Thy Body, Nancy R. Pearcey

Books Mentioned

Love Thy Body, Nancy R. PearceyThat Hideous Strength: How The West Was Lost, Melvin Tinker

Listen to Shanna and Janice as they discuss the books they’re readings and finish their discussion of Part IV of Anna Karenina.

Commonplace Quote

Well, I always dodge questions about my religious beliefs, because when someone says to you, “Do you believe in so and so”, he nevers means that. He always mean, “Do you believe what I mean about so-and-so”. When you answer a question, you accept assumptions of the person who asks it and I very seldom find myself able to accept the assumptions.

~Northrop Frye

You threaten me with fire that burns for a little while and goes out," Polycarp said. "But you are ignorant of the fire of eternal punishment which is prepared for the ungodly.

~ Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History

Books Mentioned

Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History, Richard M. Hannula

Listen to Shanna and Janice as they discuss the books they’re readings and discuss Part III of Anna Karenina.

Commonplace Quote

Knowing is essential, there is no question about that; but knowing does not always result in loving and doing, whereas loving is based upon knowing and is much likely to result in doing.

~ Lois E. Lebar, Education that is Christian

All I know is this, man’s fate is decided on the day’s he’s born and we shant any of us go down to the underworld a day before our appointed time. So stop that crying.

~Odyssey

Book Mentioned

Education that is Christian, Lois E. LebarAnna Karenina, Leo TolstoyThe Wanderings of Odysseus, Rosemary Sutcliff

Join Janice and Shanna as they finish their discussions of Part II and begin to explore Part III of the novel Anna Karenina.

Commonplace Quotes

At that moment they heard from behind them a loud noise—a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate.

“Who’s done it?” cried Susan. “What does it mean? Is it more magic?” “Yes!” said a great voice behind their backs. “It is more magic.” They looked round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.

“Oh, Aslan!” cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much frightened as they were glad.

“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer. “It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming. The problem of the fairy tale is—what will a healthy man do with a fantastic world? The problem of the modern novel is—what will a madman do with a dull world? In the fairy tales the cosmos goes mad; but the hero does not go mad. In the modern novels the hero is mad before the book begins, and suffers from the harsh steadiness and cruel sanity of the cosmos.

G.K Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

Books Mentioned

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. LewisTremendous Trifles, G.K. Chesterton

Thanks for listening to Readings & Ramblings! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss books they’re reading and delve into Anna Karenina, Part II.

Commonplace Quotes

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

~ Romans 7:14-25

Perceiving the pathway to truth,

Was struck with astonishment.

It was thickly grown with weeds.

“Ha,” he said,

“I see that none has passed here

In a long time.”

Later he saw that each weed

Was a singular knife.

“Well,” he mumbled at last,

“Doubtless there are other roads.”

~ Stephen Crane, The Wayfarer