A Circle of Quiet
Written by Madeleine L'Engle
Narrated by Pamela Almand
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The beloved author of A Wrinkle in Time takes an introspective look at her life and muses on creativity in this memoir, the first of her Crosswicks Journals.
Every so often I need OUT.... My special place is a small brook in a green glade, a circle of quiet from which there is no visible sign of human beings.... I sit there, dangling my legs and looking through the foliage at the sky reflected in the water, and things slowly come back into perspective.
Set against the lush backdrop of Crosswicks, her family’s farmhouse in rural Connecticut, this deeply personal memoir details Madeleine L’Engle’s journey to find balance between her career as a Newbery Medal-winning author and her responsibilities as a wife, mother, teacher, and Christian.
As she considers the roles that creativity, family, citizenship, and faith play in her life, L’Engle reveals the complexities behind the author whose works—honored with the National Book Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and countless other prizes—have long been cherished by children and adults alike. Written in simple, profound, and often humorous prose, A Circle of Quiet is an insightful woman’s elegant search for the meaning and purpose of her life.
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L’Engle (1918–2007) was an American author of more than sixty books, including novels for children and adults, poetry, and religious meditations. Her best-known work, A Wrinkle in Time, one of the most beloved young adult books of the twentieth century and a Newbery Medal winner, has sold more than fourteen million copies since its publication in 1962. Her other novels include A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and A Ring of Endless Light. Born in New York City, L’Engle graduated from Smith College and worked in theater, where she met her husband, actor Hugh Franklin. L’Engle documented her marriage and family life in the four-book autobiographical series, the Crosswicks Journals. She also served as librarian and writer-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan for more than thirty years.
More audiobooks from Madeleine L'engle
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Other Side of the Sun: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sphinx at Dawn: Two Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miracle on 10th Street: And Other Christmas Writings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Winter's Love: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Certain Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Love Letters: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ilsa: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols in Antarctica and Other Unexpected Places Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to A Circle of Quiet
Titles in the series (4)
A Circle of Quiet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Irrational Season Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Summer of the Great-Grandmother Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related audiobooks
Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crossing to Safety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: A Memoir of Learning to Believe You’re Gonna Be Okay Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Summer of the Great-Grandmother Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Irrational Season Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Severed Wasp: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Live Coal in the Sea: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Small Rain: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L'Engle, Author of A Wrinkle in Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols in Antarctica and Other Unexpected Places Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Winter's Love: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Love Letters: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ilsa: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sold into Egypt: Journeys into Human Being Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Stone for a Pillow: Journeys with Jacob Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Beautiful Truth: How God's Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Certain Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aggressively Happy: A Realist's Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Givenness of Things: Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll Shall Be Well: Awakening to God's Presence in His Messy, Abundant World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How It Went: Thirteen More Stories of the Port William Membership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hannah Coulter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Courage, Dear Heart: Letters to a Weary World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Christianity For You
Mere Christianity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Divorce Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Grief Observed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Boundaries: When To Say Yes, How to Say No Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weight of Glory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 5 Love Languages Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cost of Discipleship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries in Marriage: Understanding the Choices That Make or Break Loving Relationships Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Garden Within: Where the War with Your Emotions Ends and Your Most Powerful Life Begins Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Return of the Gods Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5More Than a Carpenter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership 25th Anniversary: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crazy Love, Revised and Updated: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Magdalene: Women, the Church, and the Great Deception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for A Circle of Quiet
282 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What person in all of history would you want to meet? For me, it remains Madeleine. The truths she deftly covers with such grace and humility is like a balm for the soul. It is a reminder that greatness is not found within us, it is absorbed and repurposed by art. I will reread these books each year so I never forget.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a wonderful book. It consists of thoughts taken from the author's journals and other writings, during her times at the family home of Crosswicks. She expresses things I've sometimes thought but have never been able to put into words, with clarity and honesty. She talks about writing, about family life, and about the meaning of truth amongst many other thought-provoking and sometimes moving sections. Highly recommended.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madeleine L'Engle just got added to my Dead or alive author party. loved this journal/memoir
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A terrific, deeply insightful commentary on writing and life. I laughed in some parts and nodded in many others. Madeleine L'Engle is my kind of Christian.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm ashamed to say I've not read any of L'Engle's other books! GASP! But even still, I really enjoyed A Circle of Quiet. Her thoughts on mothering, reading, God and life in general are quite interesting and gave me a lot to ponder.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madeline L'Engle, the beloved author of such classics as A Wrinkle In Time, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, has also penned edited versions of her personal journals. She has taken her journals, sifted through for relevant themes and experiences at that particular time in her life, and has woven stories and events with recurring characters and created a book with an actual beginning, middle and an end.She calls this set of books The Crosswick Journals, named after their country home in the northeast. She muses about her writing, the difficulties of finding interested publishers, and the work she does at home, being a wife, a mother, and a community volunteer. She is reflective, thoughtful, and timeless, in that her conclusions are not dated or passe', but relevant even today. One ongoing theme is her faith. She demonstrates how it wavers, changes and eventually grows as she experiences various difficulties in her own life and career, as well as reflects on the hardships of others. She notes how God, moving through the actions of other people, reinforces her own faith.Music is a significant force in her life. So is nature and even her opportunities to lead seminars on writing, which expose her to the thoughts and values of the younger generation. There is much to ponder and discuss in this little epistle, and our book club discussion was indeed rich. This is a book that one can return to periodically, and be blessed each time with new ideas to ponder.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You may know L'Engle from her "A Wrinkle in Time" series. This is one of four "journal" autobiographies about her experience with writing, marriage, love, and death. I recommend all of them! This book taught me so much--how to find internal quiet when the world is going nuts.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5First of all, I should probably tell you that A CIRCLE OF QUIET is the first Madeleine L'Engle book I've read. And that I have never been very interested in fantasy or sci-fi books. But I do usually enjoy a good memoir or a journal. But this one simply failed to ever really engage me. Maybe if I'd read A WRINKLE IN TIME or some of her other books I would have felt differently, but ...I do recognize, however, that L'Engle's journals represent a precursor to similar more successful books. And here I am thinking of, say, Anne Lamott 's work or, perhaps better, Kathleen Norris's books, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography and THE CLOISTER WALK - books which I did enjoy. L'Engle's journal, on the other hand, remained just a bit too philosophical and abstract. I just couldn't get interested and found myself skimming whole pages and sections. Maybe it was just over my head, or maybe the flu symptoms I'm presently plagued with got in my way.In any case, I do have one more of her books on hand, Book 4 of the Crosswicks Journal, TWO-PART INVENTION: THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE. Maybe that one will be better, a bit more down-to-earth. I hope so.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Although I've heard of L'Engle, I don't recall ever reading any of her books, even the more famous Wrinkle in Time. I got this book on a whim and now it's one I won't part with.Circle is book one of the Crosswicks Journals. I had, wrongly, assumed this was fiction but found that this series of books are pulled from L'Engle's personal journals. Judging from the journals alone, what a fascinating, intelligent, and insightful woman! I ended up writing in this book quite a bit and have already went back and re-read passages. She speaks of living out at Crosswicks and co-owning, with her husband, the local general store in a small village. She's a writer who teaches and she does a great deal of teaching in this book, but it feels more like great conversation with a friend. L'Engle also details her failures, the times where her books were rejected by as many publishers as they were sent to. If someone like that has trouble getting published....While she has been deemed a children's author, she takes a more practical approach and claims she's just a writer. If she feels a subject is too harsh or complicated, she will make it a children's book because children are more open and not yet close-minded to ideas. One of her main topics is how to help children be children and how to not keep trying to "save" them from the world. Very interesting ideas are put forth that make a lot of sense.Looking forward to reading the other journals in the series.