Thoughtworthy (Charlotte Mason Boot Camp, Podcast Episode, Book Review & MORE!)

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And we’re back! Thanks for you patience while we moved servers last week. The move went off without bumps and my hope is that we’ve sped up the site so you don’t have to wait so long for pages to load. I know it’d gotten slow, and that was a big reason for the move.

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As I type this, there are only 13 spots left for the spring session of Charlotte Mason Boot Camp (which starts on Monday). That might have changed by the time you read this, but just know I’m trying here. I limit enrollment on purpose — it works best for there to be a group that is not too big, not too small, but just right. It’s totally the Goldilocks size, I guess.

If you were planning to get in, run don’t walk, to the registration page … before it’s too late!

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One thing I didn’t get to tell you on Friday was that another episode of Scholé Sisters came out. This one was called A Faculty of Friends. We covered a section in the revised edition of The Liberal Arts Tradition and brought in some background for you on the IHP — the now-defunct Integrated Humanities Program from the University of Kansas with which we can credit the development of so many of our favorite thinkers, including James Taylor!

Subscribe and listen!

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We finished Fiddler’s Green last week. This book was an almost, the second in a pair of almosts. There are parts of it that were well written, interesting, and/or exciting. But still: I say save your money. Sure, you could accept it as a birthday gift or enjoy it from the library, but if you’re looking to spend fourteen bucks, there are better books out there.

As I see it, there are many problems with the book (which is actually the second book of a pair), but I’ll only list two here for the sake of time and space.

The first is that this book and the prior book feel like two different books. Sure, the main character and many of the support characters have the same names. But they don’t actually feel like the same characters.

My second complaint is that while the hero of the story, Finn Button, improves in character as the book goes along, there is no real reason why. She’s immature in unlikeable in the first book and now she’s at times pensive, mysterious, or maturing but it never makes much sense. She seems to become a better person, but there’s never any repentance. In the first book, she has a weird conversion experience (felt like a hat tip to Christianity to me). I expected this might come back up and help resolve the tension, but it never did. She outgrows her fiance and then he’s conveniently dead when she finally comes home to him. She’s also neatly pocketed a new beau, so no turmoil over being single. She makes amends, but we’re never really told why. It feels like the right thing to do, but Finn has never had a real moral compass, so we’re not sure why other than that, as a constant slave to her feelings, these are her current inclinations.

It’s adventurous. If you read it aloud, your kids will probably like it. Overall, though, I’d call it mediocre.

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This month in 2014:

It’s a simple thing, really, but … if you want your children to be more independent, you have to start small.

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Podcast episode of the week:

• The HighWire with Del Bigtree: Google Whistleblower Tells All
  • A while back, I linked some articles about the whistleblower from Google who went to Project Veritas with his information. This is a full interview with the whistleblower himself, definitely worthwhile listening!

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This week’s links collection:

• The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self from The Gospel Coalition
  • Isn’t this the truth: “The most compelling illusion—in the Freudian sense—of our day is that we can all be whatever we want to be.”
  • This was helpful: “We do not choose our time, and we must not waste energy lamenting our time. We need first and foremost to understand our time and then to respond to it with informed wisdom.”
• Dear Resistance, listen to my lived totalitarian experience – you have no effing idea what you’re talking about from The Daily Chrenk
  • It’s sarcastic, but I get where he’s coming from. It has to be extremely frustrating.
  • This feels like a good time to recommend one of my favorite movies: The Lost City.
• Why You Hate Contemporary Architecture from Current Affairs
  • “Let’s be really honest with ourselves: a brief glance at any structure designed in the last 50 years should be enough to persuade anyone that something has gone deeply, terribly wrong with us.” YES.
  • If I end up in the hospital, remind me to fly to Barcelona.
  • Pay attention to the fact that this architecture is actually anti-democratic architecture. So they say. My feeling is that it’s Marxist at core. Communist and socialist architecture are almost always the worst.

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Answering your questions:

Question: So Brandy ..what is your favorite pen and notebook right now? I’m eyeing a Leuchtturm and a Moleskine. What do you like right now? ?

Answer: Ha! I love that you said “right now” because isn’t that the truth? Right now my go-to is a Leuchtturm 1917 A5 (dot grid) and the pen is a black Sakura Pigma Micron 05. I like color, though, so I also have a set of Sakuras in different colors that I can use to underline or highlight.

If I really want a ballpoint for some reason, my go-to is a Zebra Z-grip in blue. The ink is very smooth, which I love for when I’m in a class and need to take notes super fast.