Theosophy – Relevant Obscurity

Jazzagejuneposter

Thanks to all who participated in #JazzAgeJune, including those who commented on posts. And thank you to Fanda for her support and her wonderful design of the poster. I very much enjoyed the discussion on my blog of The Great Gatsby and the varied responses toward the book. I wonder how those in 2120 will respond to it and if it will hold up as the quintessential book of the Jazz Age? Fiction Fan is hosting a readalong of Tender is the Night for later in the year and I am thinking of joining.

June was a slow blogging month, but I was busy reading. Along with reading and reviewing The Great Gatsby, I finished The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni and started The Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare. I am pleased that I am reading more contemporary novels, fantasy and nonfiction this month as my two trips to the library for curbside pickup reflect:

Novels

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
The City we Became by N.K. Jemisin
The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley
The Illness Lesson by Clare Beams

Nonfiction

The Lady’s Handbook for her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey
The Monk Within by Beverly Lanzetta
Hill Women by Cassie Chambers

And the big question: Will I finish the last of my Classics Club selections before September 13^th?

Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Middlemarch by George Eliot
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

I am also doing a slow read through G. de Purucker’s, The Esoteric Tradition.

Reading Events

A foreign language challenge hosted by Lory at The Emerald City Book Review. Although I am still so new at Spanish studies I am going to try the Spanish translation of Abel’s Island–La Isla de Abel, by William Steig.

That’s a lot of reading! Wishing you all a safe summer full of books and bikes and whatever you likes….sorry….🤭

This is excruciating. I am sure many of you can relate.

An incredible used bookstore nearby is closing its doors. I have been buying books there since I moved to Huntington Beach in 2009, because they have a wide and deep classics section. I remember I was shocked to see a copy of The Blithedale Romance sitting on the shelf when I thought, ‘no one will actually have this sitting on their shelf.’ Or Sarah Orne Jewett’s, The Country of the Pointed Firs. I bought my first Virago there (The Matriarch) as well as many of the books for the Reading New England Challenge of last year. I imagined buying my books there forever.

This is the kind of place where, though the shelves are bulging and recently bought books are still in boxes on the floor, the owner knows her stock. When you request a title she goes immediately to the section or reaches inside one of the boxes and pulls out the book. Yes, it IS like magic!

Like so many businesses, the bookshop owners are powerless over rises in rent and though the store does a brisk business, the new rate is higher than what makes sense. This is such a loss for any community.

: Will I find out why you write such depressing books?

My last purchase included the 1940 second edition of the 1935 two-volume set of The Esoteric Tradition by de Purucker in pristine condition, which I am thrilled to have. I also found R.W.B. Lewis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Edith Wharton and my first Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere. I was a bit overwhelmed as I walked through the familiar aisles…