Jayber Crow Introduction and Schedule
Our November Book
Welcome to Reading Revisited, a place for friends to enjoy some good old-fashioned book chat while revisiting the truth, beauty, and goodness we’ve found in our favorite books.
Hello Reading Friends,
I can’t believe we are already introducing our November book (do I say this every month? Possibly…)! Yet, here we are, with Autumn well underway and the holiday seasons right around the corner.
We just finished Jane Eyre (though contact me if you’d like to come to virtual book club on Thursday evening), and are now ready to hop into Jayber Crow. I am looking forward to getting back to Wendell Berry.
After reading the first chapter of Jayber Crow I am more than convinced that it is going to be an appropriately seasonal Autumn Read. So far I am getting all of the Port William goodness mixed with a good dose of nostalgia.
If you missed it, be sure to listen to our latest podcast episode with
and her husband introducing Wendell Berry, Port William, and Jayber Crow (as well as why reading modern authors matters)!Check out the Posting Schedule and the Introduction (from Book Drop Day) by Elise and myself. I hope these resources help to get you excited to start reading!
Schedule
I will add links to this post as we go…so come back to catch up when you need!
Monday, October 21st: Reading Revisited ep. 22: Introducing Jayber Crow
Wednesday, October 23rd: Jayber Crow Introduction and Schedule
Wednesday, October 30th: Jayber Crow Part I
Wednesday, November 6th: Jayber Crow Part II
Wednesday, November 13th: Jayber Crow Part III
Tuesday, November 19th: Virtual Book Club (contact us for more info)
Monday, December 2nd: Reading Revisited ep. 28: Jayber Crow Revisited
Introduction
November can be a busy month with Thanksgiving traveling and family time so I wanted to schedule a book that is beautiful and fairly easy to read. So we are going to read Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. We read Hannah Coulter a few years ago (August 2021) and it received a lot of love from Book Club readers. We also just finished a Wallace Stegner book in May which has made me want to revisit Berry as well (since Stegner was Berry’s professor at Stanford). I have not personally read Jayber Crow, but it is usually Berry lovers’ first or second favorite (right before or after Hannah). So I feel very confident assigning it for us all to read together!
I have heard that some people need to come to Berry through his fiction to appreciate his non-fiction and that some people need to do the opposite. So I may “assign” an optional essay this month as well called Think Little that has been very influential on how I think and I think might open us up to his fiction even more fully. I personally love his fiction and essays and didn’t feel like I needed one before appreciating the other. Berry is also a poet, though I haven’t read many of his poems myself. The Mad Farmer’s Liberation Front is very good!
There is a Close Reads HQ series on Jayber Crow from way back in 2015. It was one of the first books they did so it will be fun to go back and listen!
Apparently none of my real life or internet friends (that I could track down and peer pressure into writing for me) have read Jayber Crow so my new Substack friend, Elise Boratenski of The Commonplace Catholic, came to my rescue. If you don’t already follow Elise she has a lovely platform where she keeps a real life Commonplace book and then writes about the books she has finished using her Commonplace quotes. She has written about a lot of our previous book club books, so please go read those while you’re waiting for the next book to drop! I knew Elise had read and loved Hannah Coulter so I reached out asking about Jayber Crow, but she hasn’t read it yet (though she did offer to read it in a few days so she could write about it and I greatly appreciate that commitment to the literary life) but said she would co-write this with her husband, Andrew, describing his experience of reading Jayber Crow for the first time:
There are books and authors that can become part of your household culture, touchstones that can help you reflect on and refine the values you hope to live by. Wendell Berry's books have, in many ways, become that for my husband and I. Jayber Crow was my husband's introduction to Wendell Berry. It's rare for me to have vivid memories of reading a book for the first time. It's even rarer for for me to remember someone else's first time reading a book. Jayber Crow, however, is the exception to the rule. I have clear memories of my husband eagerly sharing favorite passages with me, and urging me over and over again to give the book a try. He found that titular character Jayber Crow's search for home, community, and belonging struck a chord deep within him, causing him to reflect on the type of life he hoped to cultivate for himself and our family. And as he reflected, he shared his thoughts with me, and those thoughts turned into dreams and goals that have since informed decisions we've made about where we live, how we use technology, and how we spend our free time. Furthermore, Jayber Crow is book that depicts a man wrestling with questions about what constitutes true love, who God is, and the role He plays in our lives. As Jayber Crow says: "This is a book about Heaven, but I must say too that...I have wondered sometimes if it would not finally turn out to be a book about hell." It is rare to find modern literature that unapologetically deals with the virtues of faith and love, and sees God as a real and vital force, indeed as the real and vital force, in the life of the individual. Such theological depth is another reason my husband loved Jayber Crow, and another reason he continued to tell me, in the years since he first read Jayber Crow, to give Wendell Berry a try. I finally read my first Wendell Berry books (Hannah Coulter, The Memory of Old Jack, and various short stories) and am excited to finally read Jayber Crow too.
Before I found Elise’s husband I had put an SOS signal out on my Substack Notes and James M. Decker (who happens to also be the Mayor of Stamford, Texas) replied that he had just written a piece on Jayber Crow,Thy Will Be Done(he also links to two other pieces he wrote earlier on Jayber as well). I read his essay and teared up…you should definitely read it too!
Until next time, keep revisiting the good books that enrich your life and nourish your soul.
In Case You Missed It:
What We’re Reading Now
October
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
November
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
December
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Few Reminders:
If you are wanting to get in on the in person or virtual community please contact us!
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Michele Morin did a group read of Jayber Crow back in 2017 if anyone's interested in that discussion: https://michelemorin.net/tag/jayber-crow/.