Books, Authors and Characters! Oh My!

I decided that since I went a little deeper earlier this week, I can take a post to just ramble about favorite things. Clearly, I love books. No surprise - you don't study English Literature if you don't enjoy literature. 


So here's the thing with me - I'm all about some character development. There are times I find myself enjoying books that others didn't find all that interesting simply because I fell in love with the characters. I don't always have to have a crazy amazing plot to enjoy reading because I'm pretty much in their world - I hear their voices, I see their faces; I'm actually a part of their story. 

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.”
- Ernest Hemingway


Jane Austen isn't for everyone - her stories are a bit slower moving than our generation prefers, but I happen to love the characters, the time period, the language - all of it. Here are some of my favorite Austen characters: 

• Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice: I always went back and forth between whether I loved him for his sarcasm and ability to put up with a house of six women or disliked him for his lethargic attitude toward their well-being. In the end - I've decided I love him. You can't help but enjoy that dry sense of humor. 
• Mr Collins from Pride and Prejudice: Hilarious. That's all I have to say about him. He is so unbelievably ridiculous that it's just funny. 
• Jane Fairfax from Emma: She doesn't get as much attention, but I always find myself fascinated with her and the reasoning behind her actions. You're forced to view her in a different light and rethink her attitude toward everything when you learn about the twist in the story (I won't say it in case you haven't read it and are planning to). I give her a lot of credit for staying as calm and reasonable as she could.
• Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey: He is by far my favorite leading man in the Austen novels. He's got a lot of the characteristics I like in a man - he's witty, sarcastic and clever all while still being very loving and nurturing to both his sister and Catherine. Love him. 
• I won't even start on Persuasion because I love a good majority of those character. 

I'm just now getting off my Jane Austen kick, so don't think that's all I read. I love all kinds of books! Here's a short list of some of my favorite books:

• A Passage to India - E. M. Forster
• The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
• Canterbury Tales - Chaucer - I don't recommend this if you're not familiar with Middle English. Of course you can get a translation, but a lot of the references are lost and half the fun of it lies in the language. 
• Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
• East of Eden - John Steinbeck
• The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - You'll learn a lot about him that you never knew.
• Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad
• Dubliners - James Joyce
• Major Barbara - George Bernard Shaw
• To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
• Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare
• Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
• All's Well that Ends Well - Shakespeare

There are many more, but that's all I'll say for now. I'll leave you with a quote from a favorite author. 


"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
- C.S. Lewis

If you have any book suggestions, please send them my way because I love reading new things! On the flip side, if you would like book suggestions, I'm always more than happy to help on that end as well!


 

Gladness and Joy Will Overtake Them; Sorrow and Sighing Will Flee Away

As I was finishing my little yoga routine tonight, God put the topic of joy on my heart. I'll be honest - I couldn't even finish my workout because I was a bit too excited to dive into the study of joy and reflect on how this theme has come in and out of my life.

As I'm sitting in my sun room (that's not so sunny considering it's after dark), sipping on tea, reading my Bible and listening to music, I'm feeling rather joyful.

Many of you who know me well know that I struggled with the lack of joy for years. I let depression rule my life for a good three years before I started fighting back. Tonight, I chose to meditate on Isaiah 35:10 because I long for those moments of joy that completely overwhelm you. It's as if you don't know what else to do besides laugh or lay down or sing or dance or whatever you feel you need to do!

"And the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." 
-Isaiah 25:10

When I began my journey out of depression and back into the joy God was holding for me, it was a fight to even see glimpses of it. However, as time went on, the joy would completely overwhelm me in the most random moments.

I remember one time I was making cupcakes with my best friend, Mary, in Chattanooga and we were both consumed with joy at the same time out of nowhere. We ended up on the floor laughing for a solid half hour.

There have been times in my life, especially lately, when I'm feeling sad or frustrated and I have to stop myself and remember who my Creator is and I allow the joy to overtake me while my sorrow and sighing flee.

Friends, joy is one of our greatest weapons, so it only makes sense that the devil is constantly attacking it. Don't let him win for as long as I did. I promise it's worth the fight.

I was actually there in the video below. That was the night of my biggest break through with depression and I've never been the same...

And...I'm Back

It's definitely been a while since I did anything with my blog. In fact, it's been nearly a year. But don't be fooled - just because I haven't been frequenting this place doesn't mean that nothing interesting has been going on. It's quite the opposite; I've actually had a fairly eventful year. That being said, I figured I would dedicate this blog to a simple game of catch-up.

I last wrote around Halloween time because I did the 'Scariest Moments of My Life' three-part series and so much has happened since then. In my old life group we would always catch up with each other based on three areas of life: time, talent and treasure. I'll probably keep my "treasure" out of it...all you need to know is I tithe regularly and give whenever I can.

Anyway, we'll start with time. There have been times this year where almost all of my free time has been dedicated to one thing or another. Fortunately, I'm finally in a stage of life where I have a couple evenings that are completely free and it's amazing.
Over the past year I've dedicated a lot of time to choir. I really had only just joined choir around the time I stopped blogging, but I've kept up with it. We practice every Wednesday and sing every other Sunday, so it takes up a lot of time.
I'm also involved in an amazing life group led by Jaime Jamgochian - she is amazing and has a huge heart for the Lord. If you haven't checked her music out yet, you absolutely should. We've spent the past few months studying how to be a worshiper.
I've only just started helping out with Rush Franklin (our high school/middle school youth group). It's been so amazing to be able to just stroll into a ministry like that and feel at home. There hasn't been a single awkward moment - I feel as though it's been a part of my routine all year. The leaders and volunteers are amazing as well as the students - they make it easy to love on them.

Finally: my talent. It's so weird to me to even have anything to talk about in this section since I went pretty much my whole life thinking I wasn't talented at anything. I've obviously been singing a lot lately in the choir, but even more than that, I've had people in my life who truly believe in me and have been continuing to train me up by putting me in the rotation for Wednesday night frontline. Although it's still scary for me to think about sticking my part alone, I have really enjoyed the challenge. I also spent a couple months working on Vicki Yohe's latest album that's due out late this month. It was such a fun experience learning the songs with everyone and spending time in the studio - I would love to do that more often.
I've also been doing a lot more writing recently - just not on here. I've written a lot more songs and have also started on my first novel. I am absolutely stoked to see where the storyline goes!
Something that's really exciting to me, but not really to everyone else is that I'm getting to use my administrative skills again! This is exciting for me because God made me lay it down while I was working on the scarier skills, so I see Him letting me get back into that means I've been doing something right in the other areas!

I feel like you have enough to read up there, so I'll finish off with some photos of the past year.

I turned 23! This is a picture of me, Dani and Jaci at my birthday dinner. 

At the studio for Vicki's Yohe's upcoming album, 'I'm at Peace.'

  

All the old Chatt girls were able to get together for a birthday tea party for my 23rd birthday!

My college roommate, Courtney got married this summer. Beautiful (and hot) wedding!

My little baby sister, Jaci got baptized. Quite a milestone...