Readings and Ramblings Podcast: Recent Episodes
Janice Gentles-Jones and Shanna Vera
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 Ministries
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art, Madeliene L’Engle
Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
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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'Engle
The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis
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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
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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. Pearcey
That Hideous Strength: How The West Was Lost, Melvin Tinker
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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
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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. Lebar
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
The Wanderings of Odysseus, Rosemary Sutcliff
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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. Lewis
Tremendous Trifles, G.K. Chesterton
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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
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Join Janice and Shanna as they share the books they are currently reading and discuss Part I of Anna Karenina.
Commonplace Quotes
For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.
~ C.S. Lewis
As quickly as a spear, We wish the ear had not a heart. So dangerously near.
~ Emily Dickinson
Books Mentioned
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
And There Were None by Agatha Christie
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Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading and finish up their discussion of Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading and continue their discussion of Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading and continue their discussion of Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
P.S. Please excuse the blunder of calling Charles Dickens, Charles Dickenson.
Commonplace Quotes
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:12
One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other;
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
Listening their fear, I could not say 'Amen,'
When they did say 'God bless us!'
But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen'?
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen'
Stuck in my throat.
~ Shakespeare
Books Mentioned
The Giver, Lois Lowry
The Bible
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading and their discussion of Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Commonplace Quotes
I do not even try, Lord, to rise up to your heights, because my intellect does not measure up to that task; but I do want to understand in some small measure your truth, which my heart believes in and loved. Nor do I seek to understand so that I can believe, but rather I believe so that I can understand. For I believe this too, that "unless I believe I shall not understand.
~ Anselm
We sit down before the picture in order to have something done to us, not that we may do things with it. The first demand any work of any art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way. (There is no good asking first whether the work before you deserves such a surrender, for until you have surrendered you cannot possibly find out.)
~ C. S. Lewis
Books Mentioned
Anselm: Proslogium
An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis
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Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading, Cain and Abel, and continue their discussion of Elizabeth Gaskell’s, North and South.
Commonplace Quote
In this way, they try to put themselves above all authority but their own. They do not want anybody telling them what to do and they do not want any rules telling them what to do. The problem with this, of course, is that you should never trust people who have strong views of authority when talking about people under them, but have very weak views of authority when talking about people over them. Whenever you encounter someone like that, you need to run in the other direction as fast and as far as you can—that person is going to abuse any authority they can get.
~ Douglas Wilson
THERE was once a little princess who—
"But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?"
"Because every little girl is a princess."
"You will make them vain if you tell them that."
"Not if they understand what I mean."
"Then what do you mean?"
"What do you mean by a princess?"
"The daughter of a king."
"Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need, to be told they are princesses. And that is why, when I tell a story of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because I can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have."
"Please go on."
~ George MacDonald
Books Mentioned
What I Learned in Narnia, Douglas Wilson
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Magician’s Nephew, C. S. Lewis
The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald
The Bible
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Join Janice and Shanna as they delve into a new book, Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South.
Commonplace Quotes
What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.
~ Frederick Douglass
Obviously, God has chosen to leave certain questions unanswered and certain problems without any solution in this life, in order that in our very struggle to answer and solve we may be shoved back, and back, and eternally back to the contemplation of Himself, and to complete trust in Who He is.
~ Elizabeth Elliot
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Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading and finish up their discussion of Mansfield Park.
Commonplace Quote
And, in yet another sense, handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.
~ C. S. Lewis
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
~ Colossians 3:1-2
Books Mentioned
Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl R. Trueman
The Bible
Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling
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Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading, rescue stories in the Bible, and continue their discussion of Mansfield Park.
Commonplace Quotes
Feelings come and feelings go, And feelings are deceiving; My warrant is the Word of God – Naught else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned For want of some sweet token, There is One greater than my heart Whose Word cannot be broken.
I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word ‘Til soul and body sever, For, though all things shall pass away, His Word shall stand forever!
~ Martin Luther
There’s one thing you may be sure of, Pip,” said Joe, after some rumination, “namely, that lies is lies. However they come, they didn’t ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round to the same. Don’t you tell no more of ‘em, Pip. That ain’t the way to get out of being common, old chap.”
Lookee here, Pip, at what is said to you by a true friend. Which this to you the true friend say. If you can’t get to be oncommon through going straight, you’ll never get to do it through going crooked. So don’t tell no more on ‘em, Pip, and live well and die happy.”
~ Charles Dickens
Books Mentioned
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Bible
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading and continue their discussion of Mansfield Park.
Commonplace Quotes
And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”
~ Judges 13:18 ESV
Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”
~ C.S. Lewis
Books Mentioned
The Bible
The Problem with Pain, C. S. Lewis
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading and continue their discussion of Mansfield Park.
Commonplace Quotes
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
~ Ruyard Kipling
Joseph did not endure the pit at Potipher’s house and prison because he knoew he would end up in the Pharoah’s palace. He simply remained faithful whereever he found himself, God did the rest.
~ H.B. Charles, Jr.
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading, marriages in the Bible, and continue their discussion of Mansfield Park.
Commonplace Quote
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. ~ Proverbs 19:21
[W]here all that was solemn, and soothing, and lovely, appeared in the brilliancy of an unclouded night, and the contrast of the deep shade of the woods. Fanny spoke her feelings. "Here's harmony!" said she; "here's repose! Here's what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe! Here's what may tranquillise every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene."
~ Jane Austen
Books Mentioned
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Other Things Mentioned
World Watch
Serial Reader App
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Join Shanna and Janice in conversation and laughter as they discuss the books they’re reading and start their discussion of Mansfield Park, chapters 1-4.
Commonplace Quote
But if Christ is the fulfillment of all the legends of the Corn King—if he is truly the myth that became fact—then the God of the Bible is not just the God of the Jews but of all the nations. Christians believe that the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday fulfilled the messianic (special-revelation-produced) prophecies recorded in the Old Testament. What Lewis learned from Tolkien is that Christ fulfilled as well all the deepest (general-revelation-produced) yearnings of the pagan peoples.
~ Louis Markos
Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.
~ Corrie Ten Boom
Books Mentioned
The Myth Made Fact, Louis Markos
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readingsandramblings.substack.com
In this episode, we ramble about the books that we’re reading individually and together, including the book of Numbers. There is a spoiler alert for the book ‘The Horse Whisperer‘ (sorry!).
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