September Wrap-Up (ft. what I thought of All The Crooked Saints, plus a couple of other things)

September has been an absolutely insane month for me, and I'm kind of glad it's over? But at the same time, there was a lot of joy and many blessings during the month, so I'm grateful for all of that. :) So, in wrap-up form, here's what happened! 

Notable Occurences of September: 
-Hosting one of the Silmaril Awards! :)
-Going home with one of my friends for the weekend and getting to see a part of Illinois that is not just all corn and soybeans (there were canyons? and high rocks? it was so cool!!) (that's where I took the header picture. :))
-Staying up late almost every night for a week finishing my first landscape design pinup 
-Listening to copious amounts of the Bible in a Year podcast while working on drawings/models/you name it
-Feeling under the weather one evening and watching The Nanny Diaries, which was awful, but it had Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans in it, so. *shrugs*
-The weather, after weeks of 80s and 90s, taking a downturn into the 60s and 70s on Bilbo & Frodo's birthday
-Learning to make knotted rosaries
-Completely finishing my first landscape architecture design project including model (the model part was the most fun, which I was not expecting!)
-Having the first Koinonia retreat through the Newman center--I'm not going to tell you what was so fun about it, juuuust in case you get to go on a Koinonia yourself (and one of the participants this time was in her 60s, so it's never too late) because it's kind of a secret BUT I can tell you that it is just as fun for those in the Koinonia Community who are neither participants or on team as it is for those on team and participating. It was fantastic and involved a lot of crazy inside jokes and laughter. 
-Finishing the sweater that I've been knitting in lectures of various classes for almost a year! As of this writing (on the 29th), it's all done but weaving in the ends, and that feels so good! And I love it! There is one stitch error that cuts right across the bodice in a...slightly embarrassing place? But apparently it's not noticeable to anyone but me, so I guess that's ok. I already have my eye on my next project...
-Putting down my rabbit of twelve years. I wasn't home for this, obviously, but the rest of my family was...she's been going downhill for a bit now, and it was time. It's crazy, though--I got her for my seventh birthday, and I'm nineteen now. I'd had her for more of my life than not. Obviously neither the world nor my world stops spinning because a little bunny has exited it, but I am a little sad, even though it was time.

Fun Quotes:

Professor: "molecular biologists love to confuse you. It's like a sport for them."

TA: "Does anyone want to take a stab at the first question?"
Random student somewhere in class: "No."

Professor: "Aren't you supposed to hit me if I think you're Italian and you're Greek? To protect your heritage or something?"

Cell-phone Siri, from professor's pocket: "Can I help you with something?"
Professor: "NO!!!!"
Siri: "Okay."
Professor: *muttering to himself* "My butt is talking to me."

Professor: "Be careful if you dig in the dumpsters. The university considers that theft. But...not everybody gets caught."

George: I mean, Jesus has a beard
Me: All the earliest depictions show him without a beard.
George: Well, the Romans plucked out his beard, so I guess he didn't have a beard after that.

Student: "There's a lot of people there, so the guillotine is helping..."
(I will only give you context on this if you ask Very Nicely XD)

Professor: "Just because they're pink doesn't mean they're the most important!"

Professor: "This brings us into the coolest topic ever...epigenetics."

Worth Reading...

...if you enjoy Madeleine L'Engle and/or lyric musings

in the last of August and the first bit of September, I read through Madeleine L'Engle's Crosswicks Journals for the first time...here I'm highlighting the second and fourth of those

The Summer of the Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L'Engle
This journal tells the story of her mother's last decline and death over one of the summers spent at Crosswicks, with the whole family there. It was divided into three parts, the first and last the narrative of the summer, and the middle the narrative of Madeleine's mother's life, and some of her grandcestor's lives as well. That felt a little choppy, but it was really interesting to hear L'Engle's take on the legacy she received from her family. And the parts where she talked about how difficult it was to see her mother like this, and how prayer was hard, and so on and so forth were really human and relatable and just what I needed (not that my mom is declining...but my grandmother). I also loved the view of death that keeps it in the home and doesn't relegate it to a hospital or nursing home. (Although I know that sometimes nursing homes are unavoidable, and that's acknowledged in the book as well.)

Two-Part Invention by Madeleine L'Engle
I found this one both the most poignant and the best put-together of all four of the Crosswicks Journals. Overall, it told the story of how she and her husband met and got married, and their married life together, through the 'present' of the journal, when her husband is dying. But the past and present were woven together in a really beautiful and seamless way, more naturally than in Summer of the Great-Grandmother. It was a testament to married love, to how two people can come together and make something greater, to how a marriage can and should be. It included some of their rough patches, it didn't sugarcoat the idea of marriage, but all the same, you could feel her deep and abiding love for Hugh, her husband. It was incredibly lovely, and quite touching. 

...if you want some satire

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
Waugh apparently has a gift for the macabre and even better the satirical macabre! This book tells the story of people working at two different cemeteries--a pet cemetery and a Super Fancy Human One that obfuscates the actual fact of death--who fall in love...sort of. But not exactly? All of this takes place in Hollywood, and all of the fakeness that goes with that makes its way into the narrative, as does British snobbery, somehow. It's hilarious and insightful and I enjoyed it very much. (Especially since I've taken a course on the history of the archeology of death and read a couple of other things on cemeteries/cremation--I knew enough to make it just that much better.)

...if you liked The Scorpio Races, but didn't want to read The Raven Boys because of the fortunetelling

All The Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater
I had been reticent to read this one because I heard that the magic system was Catholic-based, vaguely, and that sets of warning bells, because when has the Church ever been well-represented in fiction besides by demonstrably Catholic authors? But I picked it up this month, and thoroughly enjoyed it (with a few caveats). I said that I'd let y'all know what I thought, so a slightly longer almost-review thing here is merited, I think. :)
It's incredible how vivid Stiefvater makes her settings. The desert isn't necessarily where I'd want to live, nor even where I'd choose to read a book set in (to be honest), but it comes alive in a remarkable way (the owls!). Same thing for her characters. All of them were so real, and many of them were so lovable! Especially Daniel, who carries the world on his shoulders (my dear boy!). His love was so sweet. And Joaquin, with his radio station, and his desire to help the world through it, and the boy who came not looking for a miracle, whose name I don't remember, and all of the pilgrims also, and Beatrice.
Let's talk about Beatrice for a second. I actually don't think I can remember the last time I related to a character SO HARD. I know that may be hard to believe, but I spent so long as a young teenager, and even an older teenager, being The Girl With No Feelings myself, thinking that I was Strong because I didn't cry, and that I shouldn't cry because it was weak, and that feelings were overrated and logic was everything. And even though I'm getting over that, and I know it's okay to cry (even though I still don't cry easily, which is natural to my personality), I still feel weird crying, or letting myself cry. And there are still days (or weeks, or even, on a notable occasion, months) where my feelings are so tangled up that I really don't know what I'm feeling. And having that in a character...it was eye-opening, and beautiful, and it even hurt a little bit. It was Good. It was SO good, and I'm really grateful for her as a character, and I LOVE the ending she got. 
(Moving on from the personal sharing. XD)
Stiefvater's prose is, as ever, absolutely gorgeous, and I thought that the pacing was actually a lot better than Scorpio Races, which for some reason always feels like reading through molasses. 
My one quibble, writing-wise, is that it almost felt like the ending was too easy? But I enjoyed it anyway. Mostly because of Beatrice, if we're being honest. 
As to the Catholic aspect, it's really not that central to the book. Some of the characters (especially Daniel) pray (which is good!), and there are mentions of the family being driven out of their previous home because the Church got mad at them for what they're doing. (Generally speaking, the Church doesn't get mad at people for miracles, but people within the Church can, for sure, so I'll let that pass.) 
I do object a leeetle to the name "saint" or "Saint of Bicho Raro" for the person who's doing the miracles, because generally in the Catholic Church, the title "saint" isn't given until after a person is dead, and there's a huge bureaucratic process, yada yada yada. Even if a person is called by people around them "a saint" within their lifetime (e.g. "he's a saint!" or "do you think he's on his way to sainthood?" in a real and not just euphemistical "he's-a-great-guy" sense), it's on their own merit of holiness, not passed down within a family. 
Lastly, the miracles themselves weren't really miracles. That's not how miracles work. It's an interesting form of magic that I have no problems with, but this quote from Lewis says it best:
"Magic is held to work more or less automatically whereas Miracle is an answer to prayer." 
Sure, Daniel prays, but the "miracles" work whether or not he does. So, I object to calling them miracles a bit, but I don't object to the magic form in se. 
Anywho. I really enjoyed it, despite my quibbles, and would definitely recommend. 

...if you wish to eat crow about your assertion that a certain series isn't super riveting

Between Floors by W. R. Gingell
So, I don't remember if I ever said publicly that I found the City Between series kinda boring and fluffy and not really worth my time, but I have said such things, mostly to Sarah Seele. Somehow, however, I got roped into reading the third book. (I'm still not sure how I agreed to this...?)
And HOLY COW. 
Somehow, this book captured my imagination and made me care about the characters in a way that just did NOT happen in previous books. Like, I'm seeing stuff about JinYeong, and I don't just see him as the vampire? I can distinguish between Athelas and Zero (DON'T YELL AT ME, their personalities were not very clear in the first two books). I actually care about Pet and her three psychos.
And it's great! I have many questions! We're left on a cliffhanger-ish-thing! Widdershins! 
So, yeah. I eat my words, and I've already started book 4 on audio.

...if sci-fi or dystopian is your thing

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
This one was recommended to me by my dad and my aunt, both of whom have great taste in books and especially in scifi, so I was thinking it would probably be pretty good.
But no, it was more than pretty good, it was EXCELLENT, and suspenseful enough that I had to stay up late to finish it so that it wouldn't distract me from my landscape architecture project(s). (If that sounds like it was already distracting me...yeah.)
It tells the story of a world collapsed after a massive pandemic (so, yes, it might give one anxiety, be warned), and in that way, it's almost more of a dystopian, even though it's sort of marketed as sci-fi. In this collapsed world, the story follows a troupe of actors and musicians who are a travelling symphony/Shakespeare group, and who run into an...interesting...town that brings up some Issues. But beyond that, it's about the group of people who were in a production of King Lear right before/during the pandemic. And beyond that, it's about the people clustered around one man, who died during that production of King Lear. And beyond and in that, it's about a woman's passion project of a graphic novel that survives the pandemic by two (2) copies, in the hands of two very different people.
And it's all woven together in an incredibly beautiful, immersive, gripping way.
Tl;dr: The most beautifully crafted dystopian novel I've ever read (with the possible exception of The Giver), with sci-fi vibes that are incredibly appealing.
(Also, there are a couple of Calvin & Hobbes references, if you needed more reasons to read it.)

What's your favorite Madeleine L'Engle book? Have you ever been to Illinois? Do you have any good funny quotes from this month?