Hearthstone Book Club: Winter
'Reclaiming Quiet' by Sarah Clarkson
“Quiet is not an abstract thing we can pull down from the air but the formation of habit and time, a claiming of physical shapes and daily spaces. Quiet is not an idea but a form we choose and staunchly inhabit.”
Sarah Clarkson, Reclaiming Quiet
Welcome! Whether you’re a longtime friend or a new kindred spirit here (I recommend visiting the Village Green to get your bearings), I’m delighted to be a companion to you through the liturgical year.
Peek back at our previous book selections & discussions to catch up or revisit some of the incredible books, authors, and co-readers we’ve enjoyed together!
Pax+bonum, Kristin.
Years ago, back when my fledgling identity in faith was taking shape & I was barely dipping my toes into the Church calendar, I stumbled upon Sarah & Sally Clarkson’s The Lifegiving Home. And rather than finding something aspirational but unattainable, I found instant kindred-friends, raw relatability, candid struggle, & inspiring conviction. All of it was infused with a light of hope, framed through the scaffolding of time: it felt so complementary to my new exposure to the liturgical, and re-reading that book became an annual tradition of mine.
Each time Sarah penned a new book, I was there with bells on to greet it, feeling enlivened by her kind vulnerability and honesty in struggles with mental illness and more. She never hides or denies her dark challenges in these books: but she always recites the Truth that pervades them, and that was such a comfort to me in my own journey in trauma recovery.
So, when Sarah released Reclaiming Quiet: Cultivating a Life of Holy Attention, this was yet another of her books that I had apparently been yearning to read even before knowing it was in process.
The common lament of our age seems to be happening in the collision between our human nature and the technology that has come to pervade every aspect of our lives. Our limited minds and bodies are confronted with apparently-limitless noise, and that incredible accessibility to each other and to information leaves us anxious and frayed.1
In Reclaiming Quiet, Sarah wrestles with this identity crisis of our time, offering quiet as the balm that can help heal our tired minds. Through beautiful meditations and personal anecdotes, she managed to once again put words to the thoughts swirling in my own head, offering comfort and clarity in such a relatable way.
Doesn’t winter seem like the perfect time to visit this book together? I’m so thrilled to gather with you - AND Sarah!! - to ponder this book alongside each other.
Sarah Clarkson is an author and blogger who writes regularly about literature, faith, and beauty at SarahClarkson.com. She studied theology (BTh, MSt) at Oxford and is the author or coauthor of six books, including This Beautiful Truth. She has an active following on Instagram (@sarahwanders) where she hosts regular live read-alouds from the poems, novels, or essays that bring her courage. She can often be found with a cup of good tea and a book in hand in her old English vicarage home in Oxford, where she lives with her Anglican vicar husband, Thomas, and their four children.
GATHERINGS
Everyone is invited to read along with Book Club! All subscribers can share their questions and thoughts in the HF Chat and in the comments thread here.
Additionally, paid members can join for live online gatherings - including a discussion with the author herself!
Winter Book Club Gatherings:
LIVE DISCUSSIONS
For paid members.
Details and a Google Meet link will be sent the week of each discussion, and a reminder (with link) will be posted in Chat. If you can’t make it to these gatherings live, no worries; they’ll be recorded and posted for you to watch on the re-play.
Thursday, January 22 at 11 am Pacific Time
[Please note the date for our first gathering has changed from the January Almanac!]
Let’s get together for an informal chat about Sarah’s book!Monday, February 2 at 8 am Pacific Time - WITH THE AUTHOR!!
Author and kindred spirit Sarah Clarkson will be joining us to share more and chat about her book! (Also, I’m just over the moon that we get to hang out with each other and with Sarah a bit on Candlemas).
SUBSTACK CHAT
For all subscribers.
As you read, feel free to hop into our Chat space to discuss with other subscribers!
Reclaiming Quiet is available for purchase in many venues, and you can find Sarah’s suggestions here:
I know this is a quick turnaround for Book Club this time, but - Sarah’s book is truly the cadence to my January, and I hope you’ll find it to be the same for you. It’s simultaneously a dense, rich read, and also a quick one: her words have such an immediacy about them, and it’s the winter refreshment we all need.
Pax et bonum,
Kristin
READ ON
See also: Cardinal Robert Sarah’s The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise
I'd been considering reading this, but deferred knowing there would be a bookclub selection coming soon. I'll have to miss the discussions, as I get to go to an icon painting retreat the first week of February!