So here I am, Kath. I’m writing this letter to you on the Olivetti as I sit on the corner of Adelaide and Albert Streets at a small fold-up table that I bought from BCF for $50 and will use as my writing desk. I’ve just spent two months walking through the streets of Brisbane [Australia] , asking random strangers to tell me love stories. I’ve been shutting up and listening to the world.
Love Stories
Trent Dalton
This book is not a love story in a way you might expect. It is a beautiful celebration of many stories of life and love, collected by Trent Dalton as he sat on a downtown corner of Brisbane at the height of the Covid19 pandemic. The storytellers’ warmth and passion (in the parade of people Dalton met) and the story listener (Dalton, a true listening master) is heard in each story. Few things besides love evoke such warmth and passion.
An added treat is to listen to the audio book as narrated by Dalton. His voice gives yet a more profound depth to the warmth and passion of the story listener.
Reference
Dalton, Trent. 2021. Love Stories. Sydney, N.S.W.: Fourth Estate.
Explore further …
Reference
Dalton, Trent. 2021. Love Stories. Sydney, N.S.W.: Fourth Estate.
Explore further …
The posts below explore Dalton’s gift to us.
Each post explores one chapter or story, as noted.
If you are logged in and, if you like, add your reflections and discussion in the comment section.
Readings & Viewings
… and anything else of interest.
I find the discipline of reading and reflection difficult. And then trying to recall where I read something, impossible! So here is a repository of things I am into.
For each chapter or segment, read or viewed, there will be some quotes and reflections added. You are welcome to benefit if you like, read or watch along if you like, or even leave a comment.
So … what are we reading, watching, tasting, or listening to?
Love is blindness
‘She’s beautiful, Graeme.’ I say. ‘I know,’ he says, warmly and softly, gently nodding his head, more tears welling in his broken eyes. ‘I don’t have to see her to know that.’
Let’s see if this works!
The plan is to firstly:
- quickly read the book/paper or view the video clip or whatever to gain an appreciation of the big picture, and
- determine the tag words that I would like to focus on.
Then, for each chapter or segment, provide:
- a heading
- a summary sentence or two,
- tag words
- one major quote,
- a reflection, and
- any additional quotes.
Easy right?
Citations
The Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition is used as the method of referencing citations in this website. In particular, the Perdue University ‘OWL’ website [1] is used to generate the Chicago style format from its citation generator.
[1] Purdue Writing Lab. “Chicago Manual of STYLE 17th EDITION // Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab. Accessed August 1, 2021.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/
cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/chicago_manual_of_style_17th_edition.html
Searching for Sunday
Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church
Rachel Held Evens
For a generation that has largely said, “Count me out,” church represents a complicated relationship of both longing and apathy. There’s a history there … a past full of confusion and hurt, but a past that often is impossible to abandon. In Searching for Sunday, Rachel Hold Evans exposes her own thorny relationship with the church, articulating the concerns, frustrations, and hopes of many of her peers. Through a series of stories told around the church’s sacraments … baptism, confession, and communion, among others… Evans offers the beginnings of a road map back to church and the resurrection that awaits when we are willing to give up and begin again.
Drop the Stones
Carlos A. Rodriguez
This is all about the woman who was caught in the act of adultery (us), the religious men that wanted to kill her (us), and the Christ who saved her (us).
