Everyone who has traveled a long distance with children knows the universal question: “Are we almost there?” I confess to wondering this as I reread George MacDonald’s children’s tale, At the Back of the North Wind. An experienced reader, I kept trying to recall the plot and to predict the wind up. After awhile, I… Read More Are We At The End?
This holiday is viewed as sacred by some and scorned as an advertising gimmick by others. For me, at least this year, it is a special day because I hope to celebrate the birth of another grandchild whose mother is due any day. Besides being the mother of six myself, I have a lot to… Read More Happy Mother’s Day
1. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. It is our year in the twentieth century of history. I have read this book to all my children. This is why: one day, when I closed the book at teatime, my 12-year-old son wistfully said, “I wish we could do that.” I waited. “You know, rescue people,… Read More In April, I read
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
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
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
I just read the opening chapter of Far From the Madding Crowd, my book club’s next selection. The one word judgment pronounced by the farmer glimpsing the girl in the story for the first time is “vanity.” I’m sure the rest of this novel will bear out this truth, but Hardy is letting me know… Read More First Impressions
I often joke that I’m waiting for a “normal” school year to pass, one without interruption of moving, family death or illness, or other significant event that interferes with our daily routine. I always seem to have to be carrying on school lessons in the midst of something pressing or unusual or distracting. It is a peril of homeschooling.… Read More Staying on Track
The year has flown. It seems just a month ago I was posting my 2014 reading list. All the major milestones of life, the three great celebrations as Thomas Lynch puts it, have occurred this past year: a wedding of a daughter, the birth of a grandchild, and death of a sister. Life has brought great moments, merrymaking, and… Read More My Year in Books