This Week's Miscellany (07/01/23)
What I'm Reading/Watching/Listening To, Rest, and the Books You'd Save
Hello to new subscribers and welcome all to another edition of This Week’s Miscellany. TWM is full of my favorite things from around the web, typically trending literary.
Resting in the Mountains
Forgive me from being behind on my usual posting. My family is visiting my folks in Tennessee and I took off an entire week of work off and it has been glorious. Last year most of my leave time was eaten up by two (wonderful) pilgrimages in the UK that I was co-leading. But while incredible experiences, those trips weren’t REST.
Daniel and I even snuck away for two nights last week with my cousin, Rebecca, to stay on Beech Mountain at the house my grandparents built in 1982. I don’t think I’ve been that relaxed since before Covid and certainly not since 2022 when we realized we were moving across the country. It’s not easy to recharge with 4 kids, but I know I need more of this rest in my life. (Fellow parents, how do you rest? Vacation with kids is, of course, a lot like hard work. I need to make rest a priority for my health and sanity.)
We also drove to nearby Abingdon to meet our friend Bond for dinner at a restaurant in a Revolutionary War era building! (Bond is our pilgrimage buddy and we did a lot of dreaming about future pilgrimage trips in 2024 and 2025—stay tuned.)
And we’ve been hiking with the kids to find wild ponies and playing many, many rounds of Uno.
What Would You Keep?
Yesterday I took a day trip to see my favorite college professor and mentor, Ralph C. Wood and his lovely wife, Suzanne.
We ate BBQ and Ralph showed me which books he kept (about 200) after downsizing to an apartment. His office at Baylor held 7,000 books so the few books he kept are the best of the best and it was so special to see which titles he keeps close to his heart. I have a few books from his former office library that I treasure.
If you have to choose just a few titles to keep on your shelves, what would they be? I’d love to know!
Currently Reading
I always have a few books going at once, but this is the book I’ve been reading on vacation:
Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
So far, it’s absolutely beautiful.
Currently Watching
We have been watching Studio Ghibli movies this summer. They have aged so well and they really take time to tell a story, aren’t overstimulating, and prioritize beauty.
Princess Mononoke was great, but I think Kiki’s Delivery Service is my favorite so far and I’m not sure I’ll ever recover from wishing I lived in the little town it’s set in.
Currently Listening
I’ve been digging Sigur Ros’s new album ATTA and Caroline Polachek who reminds me of Imogene Heap, Sade, Dido, and Enya.
Typically, I also share links to things I’ve read and enjoyed online, but I’ve been trying to stay off the internet while we’re away, so not this week.
And in case you missed it, my new book available to order!
Order from my publisher, Pauline Books and Media or from Amazon.
(If you order from Pauline, remember you’ll get an adorable sticker sheet.)
And if you can leave a review on Amazon or Good Reads (of any of my books!) it’s a huge help.
And that’s all folks! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. This email is free to receive but time-intensive to produce, so I want to offer a huge thank you to Mabel, Rebecca, and Jaime for upgrading to a paid subscription. This is a reader-supported newsletter so if you enjoy getting these emails, please consider supporting this Substack by upgrading to a paid subscription with the button below.
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Thanks for reading!
Haley
(Editor of Word on Fire Spark, Author, Former Podcaster)
Haley’s Children’s Mystery Series about Mouse Nuns
I'm curious about those movies you mentioned. What ages would you say they are best for?
My 11yo with non-speaking autism and my 9yo both love "Kiki's Delivery Service." Another must-see is "The Secret World of Arrietty" -- if you haven't watched that yet. (It is especially meaningful if you've read through "The Borrowers" series with your kids.)