I started a monthly or thereabouts Charlotte Mason newsletter about 18 months ago. Since moving to WordPress the link to request the newsletter doesn’t work. I’ve had a few queries about Notebooks recently but it’s a topic that comes up quite often so I’ve started writing about Notebooks in a Charlotte Mason education and sending it out via the newsletter.
Part 1 has already been sent and if you’d like to receive that and others that I plan to write on that topic, just follow the link below.
A recent book haul. I was so pleased to find this H.V. Norton title. I’m reading his 1936 book, ‘In the Steps of St Paul’ and have enjoyed ‘In the Steps of the Master.’ The book below, ‘A Traveller in Rome’ was published in 1957 – modern! compared to the others and is in much better condition with a nice dust jacket to boot. Made my day.
My non-fiction reading in progress:
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton – Man! This is convoluted but interesting, although some of it is going over my head!
Under the Sea-Wind by Rachel Carson – a beautifully written book on ocean life and the author’s first book.
In the Steps of St. Paul by H.V. Morton – not very far into this yet but it’s been excellent so far. He mixes geography, history, culture and the New Testament into his narrative.
On the Homeschool Front
Shakespeare: we started listening to Coriolanus using the Arkangel recording (available on Audible) and and reading along using the text of the play here.
I’m reading aloud through a series of books by John Stott. We’re up to this one:
journey & destination 
i thought “Coriolanus” was one of S’s more difficult reads because of the language, mostly… i’ll be interested to see what you make of it…
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Hi Mudpuddle, it’s been fine so far but I think having read Plutarch’s account of him first helped??
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Hi there! I read Orthodoxy in 2019 and followed along with Joy Clarkson on her podcast, Speaking with Joy. This was an excellent and very informative way to understand the huge chunks that were going over my head! I do recommend it and I found it again on Podbean. I’m glad I did read it. Joy was the first place that I felt able to begin challenging reads like this. She’s also a homeschool graduate, daughter to Sally Clarkson. It took us a few weeks, but I enjoyed it in the end.
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Thanks for that, Cate. I listened to most of the first podcast she did – I don’t usually do well with follow along reads, but I’ll dip into it. I haven’t got much longer until I’ve finished the book but it could still be interesting to listen to the podcasts anyhow. 🙂
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FWIW, I thought the movie version of Coriolanus with Ralph Fiennes as Coriolanus himself of about 10 years ago was pretty good.
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Thanks, Reese! I had a quick look at a snip out of a more recent version (the one with Tom Hiddleston) but it looked a bit brutal. An earlier version might be less so??
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I haven’t seen the Tom Hiddleston one, but there was definitely some violence in the Ralph Fiennes one, too. Partly it’s the play, of course, but there’s a difference between stage violence & movie violence, with the movies being so much more gory. I guess because they can.
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You’ve given me an idea. I have the complete works of Shakespeare, but have only read a few. I wonder if I could a good audio narration of it.
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I’ve only ever read Shakespeare’s plays along with an audio, Sharon. I’ve liked some of the Naxos versions (King Lear, The Tempest) as well as the Arkangel recordings. I know Librivox has some but not sure about the narrators. They can really make or break it for me.
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What a great book haul!
Lol! I’ve read Orthodoxy and it is HARD! Probably could be read 100 times and still be illuminating.
Coriolanus is one of my favourites. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it.
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Chesterton is on a different plane, I think! The book is SO quotable. I’ll be reading along and think ‘Where on earth is he coming from (never mind going to)?’ and then a passage jumps out that I can grab a hold of. Reminds me of the work I had to do to get through Lewis’s Abolition of Man!
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I put Orthodoxy on my Classics Club list. I started it, and, wow, yes, it was a little over my head. I think I would need to do it as a readalong and/or by doing a little research before reading each chapter.
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This is a podcast that goes through Orthodoxy a chapter per week that I had recommended to me:
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/reading-with-joy-orthodoxy-week-one/id1310614879?i=1000441861755
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