Plot Points #57 💌
Plot Points #57 💌
trusting yourself, Screwtape's candidate, unlearning the Lost Cause, and some receipts
Plot Points is a weekly newsletter where I share my favorite books, links, words, and more. If you enjoy what you find here, please consider subscribing or buying me a coffee.
Hello friends! It’s good to be back!
After a quick hiatus, I feel refreshed and eager to get connected with my Substack community again. I’ve been peeking in here and there on Notes—which I love for its cozy vibes, genial conversation, and access to all sorts of great writing, but which I also kind of loathe because it is definitely social media, albeit more thoughtful—and The Nook has welcomed quite a few new readers. So, welcome! Here’s a little bio and what you can expect to find here:
My name is Wendi Nunnery and I’m a writer, wife, and homeschooling mother of two. I advocate for maternal mental health, nuance within our conversations about faith and the Church, gentler rhythms, and reading as much as humanly possible. Also coffee. Big advocate for that, too.
I’m the author of a young adult duology and a spiritual memoir called Good Enough: Learning to Let Go of Perfect for the Sake of Holy, which was released by Paraclete Press in October of 2020. (Pandemic book releases = super fun!) It’s high time for me to publish another book, and editing my current manuscript—a speculative fiction novel involving a magical bookshop, a decades-old mystery, and a handful of extraordinary women—was the reason for my recent break. The good news is I’m all done now and agent queries have been submitted! Now we wait…
Here’s a quick guide to some of my favorite posts I think will help you get acquainted with things at The Nook:
Stop Listening to John MacArthur — May 8, 2024
We Live in the City and Let Our 10-Year-Old Go On Walks Alone — January 3, 2024
Jesus Still Bears His Wounds. Why Shouldn’t We? — November 15, 2023
Saint Paul Showed Me a Better Way (Or, Why You Can Buy That Tinted Moisturizer Without Guilt) — July 26, 2023
Trying to Set Ourselves Free (I’m Tired. Aren’t You?) — February 1, 2023
I also want to let paid subscribers know subscription billing has been turned back on as of today. I deeply appreciate your generosity! There are so many readers who’d like to give to their favorite writers but cannot afford multiple regular subscriptions, so if you’d ever like to give financially as a way to support my work, you can simply buy me a coffee. Thank you so much for being here, however you choose to show up!
Deo gloria,
Wendi
Word of the Week ✍🏻
Lalochezia: (n.) the emotional relief provided by swearing.
Point # 1: You, image-bearer of God, can trust yourself.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a piece by
that I haven’t wanted to highlight four-hundred times. She writes in this essay “with many of life’s big decisions, barring obvious sin, there’s no right or wrong answer. Any number of choices could be both permissible and something God can work with.” As someone who has undergone multiple major life changes in the past year, I couldn’t agree more.Point #2: “The family lives inside the city limits, but owns a bunch of chickens, anyway.”
Oh, look, here comes
with more laughs from my childhood. I need a book of this guy’s essays 🤣.Point #3: You won’t know which one is which, and that’s the point.
After my recent re-read of Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, this fantastic piece written as an endorsement from the demon Screwtape of a particular presidential candidate was absolutely brilliant: “This is precisely what we want: humans demeaning themselves in the name of morality, anger propagating in the name of peace, hate being enacted in the name of love.” Ouch.
Point #4: When my kids ask me to play, most of the time I say no.
“I’m your mother, not your playmate.”
Receipts from a No-Buy Year 🧾
This has been both hit and miss. My birthday was in August and I stretched my gift money for a good long while. Then I sort of…kept on stretching. Not too much, but I definitely haven’t stuck to my commitment to buy nothing unnecessary. There haven’t been any large purchases or even items that I won’t be using for a long time, but I did replace a skirt and a sweater (thrifted, of course!) and decided against renting the dress for my niece’s wedding and bought a 100% silk one at Goodwill instead. It was only $7 and I used the $70 rental money to buy tickets to Anne Wilson for a mother/daughter date in September instead. I also picked up a couple of books at the thrift store, too, but mostly we’ve been using the library multiple times a week. It’s very much like getting a present when that “Your book is ready for pick-up” email comes through!
For Halloween, I purchased mums and pumpkins for the family, but we re-used old decor or made our own nature crafts for the rest. It was so fun to create this little mushroom garland for with the kids and decorate the house with fall foliage. I also printed out cozy Halloween art and temporarily place the images in frames around the house. The vibes are immaculate.
I don’t have receipts for each item since it’s been two whole months since I last wrote and haven’t been keeping count, but I did some digging and wanted to share a few numbers:
Compared to my 2023 thrift store purchases alone, in 2024 my spending has decreased by almost 68% and our giving at this time versus last year is up by 77%. Those numbers are astounding to me. Absolutely bonkers.
It has been incredibly hard not to get caught in the perfectionist spiral, but when I look at those simple facts I’m so glad to have made the effort. This year has given me such a different perspective on what value really means and how to engage in a healthier way both with the things I already own and within the wider consumer culture.
As we prep for the holiday season and all that it entails, I’m praying for increased freedom from the trappings of “more” so that we, as a family, can find joy in each other and, most importantly, our Savior.
Reading in The Nook 📚
So many books! So little time!
The library stack on my nightstand is getting a little out of control, but I’m not mad about it. I’ve been reading loads of cozy, romantasy, magical, folklore-ish novels, but only a few have really scratched the itch. The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer, How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin, and the Fourth Wing series by Rebecca Yarros have been big faves. Others were either too dry, too trope-y, or over-the-top explicit. So much commercial fiction right now includes multiple depictions of pornographic on-the-page sex, and while—as a grown-ass married woman—I do enjoy a bit of spice, it’s getting tiresome to find it in almost every.single.novel. Like, we get it. You want to sell books. Maybe you should just tell a better story?
I’m currently sucked into Ty Seidule’s fascinating cultural memoir Robert E. Lee & Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause. It’s such an important book. I grew up in the rural South where Confederate battle flags could sometimes be found flying on the backs of trucks (my boyfriend had one on his tag 🤦🏼♀️) and our rival high school, whose mascot was a gray-uniformed traitor to the United States of America, literally had a Confederate flag painted on the side of their gym. I was always bothered by these realities, but still the overarching narrative of these symbols was “it’s history, not hate.” Like many of my neighbors, and like Seidule, I was taught the myth of the Lost Cause. Seidule’s book tells a different story—a truer story—and it’s one so many of us still need to understand.
So far, I’ve finished 84 books of my 100 book goal for the year! Never in my life have I read so much in such a short time (as always, picture books count!) and I have high hopes of reaching my goal.
What are you reading right now? 👇🏻
(All book links are affiliates through Bookshop.org. Thank you for supporting The Nook with your purchase.)
“It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.”
—J.R.R. Tolkien—
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