Welcome to Litsy!

Vol 8 starts at the end of the war. Yudhishthira finds out, to his horror that Karna was his elder brother & resents his mother for the lie. The Stree parva focuses on the sorrow, desperation & mourning of the widows of both armies & is absolutely heartbreaking.

A distraught Yudhishthira is crowned as king & then goes to consult Bhishma on all matters Kingship. This sets the stage for conversations about Raja Dharma, Apad Dharma & Moksha Dharma.

"It is a strange thing that men will be such enemies to themselves. Wisdom is the principal thing, yet all neglect her. Wherefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her and she shalt promote thee, she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee."
-Thomas Traherne, "Centuries of Meditations"

Essential Writings, by Mother Maria Skobtsova (collected 2002)

Premise: Collected texts by the 20th C theologian and justice advocate Mother Maria of Paris.

Review: This is a fascinating collection that includes texts not otherwise available in English translation. Mother Maria‘s incisive intellect, loving heart, and unique point of view come through in every essay. Cont.

p. 271: 'It was better to award a light penance that would one day put someone into purgatory to endure further punishment there, than to assign a heavy one that would not be done and might send the defaulter to hell.'

That's not what I expected from medieval confessors. Unfortunately, Orme doesn't cite his source for this attitude.

On to the section about Holy Week, which is obviously timely.

This is what you expect a booker shortlist book to be. It's well written but I already forgot the plot. Was there a plot? The mice were creepy af.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Women have been choosing the bear since the dawn of time…

What a book. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. Wait has a gift for crafting complex and engrossing stories that really get under your skin and make you think and feel deeply.

Single mother Stephanie gets drawn into the fold of a self-proclaimed "Prophet" and brings her daughter, Judith, to live with his isolated cult. Cont'd in comments...

This was a lovely, quiet and thoughtful book. Reading it felt like a meditation on grief and human connection. Beautifully written and very atmospheric.
Photo is a bunch of miniature roses from a friend 😍

I‘ve been listening to this a chapter a day for the last few weeks and enjoyed it. As @Lcsmcat said it‘s more of a memoir than an instruction manual but I liked the stories. I‘m almost always interested in stories of women in power and how they got there. I wish she would do an update for the year 2025.

The mice did freak me out a bit…..otherwise, a quiet novel packing a punch about life.
Don‘t we all wish we could disengage sometimes. And that we knew how to handle grief and dying. And that we‘d always done the right thing at the right time.
But my bookmark is perfect ❤️