June 2020 Theme: Get thee to a nunnery!

I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all. Believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father? Hamlet in Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1

June's theme can be set in a nunnery, but can actually be set anywhere a religious order or person might live: vicarage, monastery, convent, abbey, cloister, priory, parsonage, etc. The action should be centered around such places, but doesn't have to be 100% contained within the grounds of these locations.

There are many great reads from which to choose:



Other books: (from tag mashes)
Illuminations by Mary Sharrat
Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne
The Convent by Panos Karnezis
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
Suffer The Little Children: The True Story Of An Abused Convent Upbringing by Frances Reilly
Death of a Novice: A Mystery Set in 1920s Ireland by Cora Harrison
The Six by Annie Taylor
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux by Therese of Lisieux
The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien
Frost in May by Antonia White
I Leap Over the Wall by Monica Baldwin
The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal by Hubert Wolf
Nuns: A History of Convent Life 1450-1700 by Silvia Evangelisti
Murder at Whitby Abbey by Cassandra Clark
The Monastery by Sir Walter Scott
The Monastery Murders by E.M. Powell
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
The Guineveres by Sarah Domet
Amata Means Beloved by Mary Catharine Perry
A Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Northbridge Rectory by Angela Thirkell
The Village Rectory; Or, Truth in Fiction by Robert Dibdin
Affairs at Thrush Green: A Novel (Thrush Green series Book 7)by Miss Read
The Haunted Rectory: The Saint Francis Xavier Church Hookers by Katharine Valentine
Cathedral by Nelson DeMille
The Spire by William Golding
Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Elliot
A History of Canterbury Cathedral by Patrick Collinson

Series: Brother Cafadel Books (One Corpse Too Many, A Virgin in Ice)
Series: Sister Frevisse Books (The Apostate's Tale)

These are just the books of which I am aware. The possibilities are limitless!

I hope the touchstones begin to work!

I have two recommendations of books I enjoyed very much:

All We Know of Heaven by Remy Rougeau and

The Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World’s Most Austere Monastic Order by Nancy Klein Maguire.

I am going to read The Sisters of St. Croix by Diney Casteloe which is about nuns who were involved in the French Resistence during WW II. I picked this up as a Daily Deal for the Kindle and I see it gets mixed reviews so I may look for another book as back-up, just in case.

ETA: >7 CurrerBell: mentions Rumer Godden, an author I have enjoyed in the past, so I have picked up her Black Narcissus and In This House of Brede as back up choices.

>4 DeltaQueen50: Taking a BB for that one, Judy! I also have the Nurses of St. Croix, which I've not yet read.

>3 marell: I will also take a BB for All We Know of Heaven.

I will be reading The Apostate's Tale, which is book #1 in the Sister Fervisse series.

I will need to come back and research this one a bit!

I am at long last going to get around to Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain. I've had this around the house for decades now, possibly a first edition. I think it was given to my now-deceased mother by a Catholic pastor she worked for.

I may also get on to Rumer Godden's The Dark Horse. (I've already read several of her other "nun novels," In This House of Brede and Black Narcissus and Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy.)

I have a few others I can do too, so I'll see what's what.

I got my dates mixed up and finished my book early: Orden und Klöster is a brief history of monastic life in Christendom.

Doing tagmashes, I have only two that came up on my tbr, using convent. I'm not sure how well they really fit, though.

The Shoemaker's Wife / Adriana Trigiani
The Romanov Bride / Robert Alexander

If all else fails, although it's not on my tbr, I might try
Murder at the Vicarage / Agatha Christie

>9 LibraryCin: While a very good book, I'm not sure that The Shoemaker's Wife has anything to do with the topic, maybe only that the two main characters were married in the Catholic Church. It's mostly a story of romance and Italian immigration to the U.S.

>9 LibraryCin: Thank you. It honestly didn't seem to me that either of those would really fit well. I might have to go with the Christie.

Haven't decided among The Letters of Abelard and Heloise or a re-read of Trollope's The Warden or The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim.

>11 LibraryCin: I'm going with the Christie, also.

I’m going to read A Time To Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor, which I bought last year.

I'm running a little ahead (since working from home) and completed The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. This was your typical whodunit. I'm not a mystery or a Christie fan, but I keep reading in the hope that I will come to love her as other readers do. This story really fell flat for me. This was the first Miss Marple book. 305 pages 3 stars

>15 Tess_W: I'm not a mystery or a Christie fan, but I keep reading in the hope that I will come to love her as other readers do.

This sounds like me! Although, I was about ready to give up, except that I'm having trouble finding something to fit this month, otherwise!

I guess I could find something... I try to go from my tbr, but had trouble there. I suppose I figured I'd try another Christie rather than choosing something else not on the tbr that fits.

>12 kac522: I'd read Pastors Wife; love her books

The Man on a Donkey Im currently rereading this book about the rebellion against the reformation in Britain. Much of it centers around one nunnery, and the community surrounding it. One of the best works of historic fiction Ive ever read.

In addition to A Time to Keep Silence I will be reading Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant.

“Get thee to a nunnery” is exactly what happened to many noblewomen in sixteenth century Catholic Italy. Dowries had become so exorbitant that families could only afford to marry off one daughter so many times other daughters were sent with much lower dowries to spend their lives in nunneries.

In Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, the story takes place in 1570 Ferrara, Italy, in the Benedictine convent of Santa Caterina. The Reformation is causing problems without, and the arrival of a rebellious teenager is causing problems within. The main characters in the drama are the dispensery/infirmary mistress, the Abbess, the Novice mistress, and the new arrival.

I really enjoyed this book. Devotion to God, politics, human nature, fashion, music, the knowledge and treatment of illness at the time, are all present to create a fascinating look into the life and lives of these cloistered women.

Yes Galileo famously put both of his young daughters in a nunnery; not sure why but he had correspondence with one of them, with Dava Sobel writes about in Galileo's Daughter fascinating, infuriating look at that time and place, as well as the fight to prove science of the universe over the faith. Fantastic read

>19 marell:
>20 cindydavid4:

I will be adding both of those books to be wish list!

>12 kac522: Questions for the avid reader thread is talking about Romances this week and realized that this book would fit perfectly here. The letters of Abelard and Heloise is probably my favorite tragic love story.

>19 marell: Get thee to a nunnery” is exactly what happened to many noblewomen in sixteenth century Catholic Italy. Dowries had become so exorbitant that families could only afford to marry off one daughter so many times other daughters were sent with much lower dowries to spend their lives in nunneries.

Galileo's daughters were illegitamate , another common reason for this at the time.

>22 cindydavid4: Right, it would. I'm probably going to start with The Pastor's Wife, and read Heloise and Abelard if I have time.

If anyone is still looking for a book to read to fit this challenge, one of my favorites is Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, which is loosely based on a real person. Also there are amazing descriptions of the Southwest U.S.

>23 kac522: Archbishop is peronally my favorite Cather, although I do need to give My Antonia a reread since I don't think it's the kind of book (with its slightly dim male narrator, a la Wuthering Heights) that you entirely "get" on a first reading.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is also my favorite Cather.

I’m glad I’m not the only one re My Antonia!

>24 CurrerBell:, >26 marell: Yes, I need to give it a re-read, too. I am (very!) slowly reading Cather's novels in order, including re-reads.

>26 marell: >27 kac522: Incidentally, my reread of My Antonia is going to be the Norton Critical, published just a few years ago, for the sake of the supplementary materials.

So, I had decided on "Murder at the Vicarage" for my book this month. It turns out I have read it, but I listened to the BBC dramatized version of it. Apparently I enjoyed it, but I obviously don't remember it.

Since I had trouble finding a book for this month, I think I will read the actual ebook version of it, and see if I like it as much as the dramatization (I'm guessing not, as I'm not always a Christie fan, and I do tend to like those dramatizations).

I have finished A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

It is a slim volume, only 95 pages, overall lovely and contemplative, with sparkling gems here and there. However, it was difficult for me in that there were many untranslated Latin and French words and phrases, as well as entire sentences. I did look up the translations of some things, but it got to be too much. He seems to assume everyone is fluent in those languages. Also, he seems to assume his readers are knowledgeable about the obscure historical people and events he talks about, but after reading some paragraphs it was as clear as mud to me.

I would like to revisit this little book and study it to find out more about the people, places and history he talks about, plus, translating all that French. It is a book to be savored.

I just finished Alexander Norman's just-published The Dalai Lama: An Extraordinary Life 4****. It's not a "religious" or "spiritual" book, rather more a secular biography, although the author is extremely sympathetic to the Dalai's spiritual quest. Quite good in describing the feudal nature of Tibetan society, although I found the author's viewpoint just a bit too sympathetic toward the CIA. Includes a useful glossary.

Murder at the Vicarage / Agatha Christie
3.5 stars

When Colonel Prothero is murdered at the vicarage, two people come forward to confess. Meantime, in this small town, where Miss Marple lives next door to the vicarage, people are trying to figure out what happened.

This is (kind of) a reread. I have already listened to the BBC dramatization, but this time I actually read it. I believe I rated the dramatization 4 stars, so this one not quite as high. It was good. This was Miss Marple’s introduction, but through most of it, she seemed a very secondary character. The main character, the first person “I”, was the vicar, who found the murdered Prothero, so the story was from his point of view.

I read The Sisters of St. Croix by Diney Costeloe which was about how the nuns of the St. Croix Convent joined the resistance in France and were able to assist both an English airman to escape but also managed to get some Jewish children to safety. Well researched and a gripping read although some aspects were wrapped up a little too neatly.

I know that I have a book about a nun called The Divine Husband although I don’t know how much time that nun spent in a nunnery. It doesn’t really matter because I couldn’t find the book. So, I picked up a Cadfael instead. Monk’s Hood was about life in the monastery, in this case at a time of the changing of the Abbot as they had backed the wrong party in a conflict and the new king wants his own man in place. While things are left in abeyance a murder happens involving one of Cadfael’s medicines which brings him into the case.

I finished The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim. One of those books that after finishing I want to go back and read again. I just love von Arnim's writing.

She really was an amazing writer. Elizabeth and her German Garden is one to read next, but my fav is Christopher and Columbus Its such a delightful romp with these two naive german girls sent to america by their british uncle. Thinking I may want to just pull out all of her books that I have of hers; I certainly have the time, and it might just cheer me up

>36 cindydavid4: Yes, Elizabeth and her German Garden is very much on my ever-expanding Wishlist. I loved The Enchanted April and found Mr. Skeffington gave much food for thought.

I just finished The Seven Storey Mountain, the "Confessions" of Thomas Merton 3½***. Not bad at all, but not quite up to Augustine of Hippo.

Browsing at a newly reopened B&N, I came across (and bought) the just-published Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century. I'm just starting but may get it finished by month's end, and definitely should within the first couple days of July. Houses of hospitality are at least quasi-monastical, and the Catholic Worker farms as well.

Flipping through the index, it looks like the Day biography includes a significant amount of material on her relationship with Eugene O'Neill, which should be particularly interesting. I read somewhere that many of their friends were surprised that they never married. Just after his death, Day published an appreciation of O'Neill in the Catholic Worker newspaper; I've read a summary of it somewhere but never been able to find an original, which surprises me.

The Apostate's Tale was book number one in the Medieval Nunnery series by Margaret Frazer. Firstly, this reader could not tell when this book took place. There was nothing said, no descriptions, no words that would give one a clue of when this story took place. I gathered medieval from the jacket blurb. Secondly, the ending was so convoluted that I'm not sure what the resolution really was! I won't be continuing with this series. 320 pages 2 1/2 stars

Le Mont-St-Michel et l'énigme du dragon must have caught my eye because of the gorgeous cover. As a history of the famous abbey it fell short, instead we get a philosophical essay about angels and the concept of evil, plus a surfeit of mythological comparisons ranging from ancient India to the Celts, who are the author's area of expertise.

ETA: added touchstone