You will note in the list below that half the books I read this past month are children’s books. I read some of them to my children, some of them to investigate for making recommendations or writing reviews for parents, and some of them just because I wanted to. Reading children’s books is pleasurable on… Read More March in Books
A couple of weeks ago we had friends for dinner and my Dad. These friends are great listeners and enjoy a good yarn, so I prompted Dad to tell them some stories from his childhood in rural Georgia. He had us in stitches. They were in awe when I told them that ten years ago,… Read More Telling Family Stories
Recently my youngest child and I finished reading The Return of the King, Tolkien’s last volume in The Lord of the Rings. Three years ago, we began with The Hobbit, then moved into the trilogy, so it has been a long journey, a journey through hundreds of pages. I wonder how many hours of my… Read More Speed Reading
The other day my son said, “I wish we could know the future.” Who, as a young person, hasn’t wished the same at some time? We who are older and wiser, as in, more experienced with some of the things the future brings that we are glad not to have known ahead of time, thank… Read More The Courage Found in Reading
Good question. I am asked this often, most recently, with the request for very specific answers. The short answer is, “Any which way I can.” If you live to read, or more accurately, live by reading, books are everywhere and strategizing how to spend time in them is as habitual as sleeping, eating, brushing teeth.… Read More How Do You Fit Reading into Your Busy Life?
I love dull, bleak winter days. I pull them around me like a warm blanket and read to my heart’s content, or almost, thankful for the quiet before the hectic days consume my time again, and the little space the season allows to breathe, refresh, and read. I finished a few books I’ve been reading… Read More February’s Reading Adventures
Profoundly life changing things happen in ordinary ways—at least that is my experience. I’m sure, in my ten-year-old eagerness to enter into a new story, I checked To Kill a Mockingbird out from the library without any inkling of the effect it would have on my life. I doubt if I had finished the first… Read More A Salute to Harper Lee
Last week, I interrupted the fascinating advice of an uneducated grandmother to her minimally educated daughter from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. One page of Shakespeare per day, is her counsel. Here is the second of the two essential books recommended for the mother to read to Francie, who is a baby at the time… Read More A Second Visit to Brooklyn, Part 2
I made a friend in junior high who I got to visit with again just a few weeks ago. There have been more than four decades between visits and yet her impact on my life has been powerful. She was there for me during a rough time back then and offered me wisdom, courage and,… Read More A Second Visit to Brooklyn
A question I am fond of asking friends or strangers is, “So, what are you reading?” This is a great source for future reading, often taking me down trails I would otherwise not have ventured upon to discover hitherto unknown regions in literature. January is traditionally a good month to get some reading in, though… Read More So Far This Year