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I’ve read this book before but it is on a course syllabus for me this semester and I’ve already reread it twice- this book is devastating, raw, theologically rich, and has fundamentally changed the way I think about grief. Nicholas Wolterstorff captures something so intimate that reading this feels like an intrusion but in a way that always makes me feel simultaneously more human and more connected to the Divine.
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If you’re interested in the neurobiology and psychology of grief, I read the grieving brain for a class I took and found it accessible and fascinating (Linked)
ive also already rec’d “a grief observed” by c.s. Lewis on here but it is truly one of the most poignant and beautiful things I’ve ever read, a heartbreaking personal meditation on loss, faith, and love. if you’re cool with reading something devoutly religious, I can’t recommend this enough. I’ve attached a photo of the opening lines.
Feb 5, 2025
A tense, slow burning, gripping read.
“It's been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves and the cities have retreated to higher storeys. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.”
King Lear meets the climate crisis. Just as stunningly written as Our Wives Under the Sea. I cried when I finished it this morning, mostly at it being over.
Aug 13, 2024
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i read this for the first time when i was 19 and it shaped me so much. every time i’ve revisited it, i get something else out of it. a triumphant exploration of pain both physical and emotional, identity, morality, violence, and tenderness
Jan 14, 2025
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I was going through the Ignatian approach to education today (adapted from the Spiritual Exercises for those keeping track at home) and this tenet is just so good.
St. Ignatius says that a person, “ought to be more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor’s statement than to condemn it.Further, if one cannot interpret it favorably, one should ask how the other means it. If the meaning is wrong, one should correct the person with love; if this is not enough, one should search out every appropriate means through which, by understanding the statement in a good way, it may be saved.”
This is very Hanlon’s razor (never attribute to malice what you can attribute to stupidity/ignorance) and I just feel like having a curious posture like this is a major slay and makes us better people
Mar 7, 2024
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I gotta know what happens!!!
Feb 10, 2025
Like look at this shit. Just kinda sick tbh. The Eastern church invented maximalism which is just very slay for them (even if you aren't into God or whatever I feel like you can enjoy old buildings with tons of art everywhere)
Feb 2, 2024