I recently finished a training for caregivers that involved two days a week of classroom time, over eight wintry weeks. Each day, after so much intense learning in a language that is not my mother tongue, I felt the need to get out and walk during my lunch break. I wandered in various directions through … Continue reading Can we build a path to peace?
Greetings! It's good to be back, after a bit of a break. I've come up with some new post graphics, and a new format for this review -- I hope you enjoy it! What I read this month Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart The Beginning Place by Ursula K. Le Guin Bird Summons … Continue reading Month in Review: January 2025
I'm still on a blog hiatus till February, but I couldn't resist joining in with Top Ten Tuesday to share some thoughts about where this blog, and my reading and writing life in general, may be headed this year. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The meme was … Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Reading and writing goals for 2025
With this poem by Swiss poet Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, I bid you farewell for a time. I’ll be back in February or so. Till then, my very best wishes to you at the turning of the year. Peace on Earth Conrad Ferdinand MeyerTranslated from the German by Lory Widmer Hess When the shepherds left their … Continue reading A poem for the season: Peace on Earth
I am doing my yearly review a bit early, and including my December reading, because after this I'll be taking a break -- scroll down to "Looking Ahead" for some news about that. But first, what did I read in 2024? It was quite a year! Nonfiction I had a lot of fun reading books … Continue reading 2024 Reading in Review – and a look ahead
I read this book for the True Crime category of Nonfiction Reader Challenge, a genre that I usually don't gravitate to. The factual starting point was a matricide by a young boy in Victorian London. Records from Robert's trial, his subsequent time in the Broadmoor insane asylum, and an intriguing glimpse at this later life … Continue reading Nonfiction Reader: The Wicked Boy
Calling all knitters! Have you ever wanted a resource that would guide you through a process of creating your own clothing, rather than always having to be dependent on patterns devised by others? Are you interested in how the products of the natural world and the human form can come together harmoniously, honoring the beauty … Continue reading Knitting By Heart — A book project worth supporting
As the year comes to an end, I am wrapping up my personal Ozathon -- there is still January to finish if you're following the book-a-month plan, but I read the last two books in quick succession and will discuss them here. The second-to-last entry in the series, The Magic of Oz, was perhaps the … Continue reading #Ozathon24: The Dangers of Enchantment
This has felt like a really long month in many ways, with so much going on. In terms of reading and blogging alone, it started with what turned out to be the final Witch Week, celebrating the centenary of Joan Aiken's birth. I found it a wonderful finale to an event I started back in … Continue reading Month in Review: November 2024
It's painful to admit, but I am getting tired of the Oz books. Having completed books 11 and 12 -- The Lost Princess of Oz and The Tin Woodman of Oz -- I can feel Baum's weariness and distraction, understandable since his health was failing and World War I was raging. Both books do have … Continue reading #Ozathon24: Losing steam
