The twice yearly "Reading clubs" hosted by Simon and Karen are a lot of fun. I'm going to be reviewing 1954's The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis shortly, since it was also this month's read for the Narniathon. But I found a couple of earlier reviews that I posted at The Emerald City … Continue reading #1954Club week begins
Some years ago I spent an Advent season studying the stories of people who were raised from the dead in the New Testament. All the healing stories raise so many questions for me -- I want to know more about the background of these special individuals, and what their experience might have been. I ended … Continue reading Talitha Koum: A Poem
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've had digestive problems and gastric headaches for a large portion of my life. I've tried various things but nothing has worked for long, and last year things escalated to the point where I had to have my gallbladder removed. My regular family doctor saw "malfunctioning gallbladder" as the cause of … Continue reading My functional medicine journey, Part I: Foundations
For this month's Throwback Thursday event, I'm linking back to one of my favorite reviews that hardly anyone seemed to notice on The Emerald City Book Review: my consideration of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, part of my Reading New England challenge year. Original 1938 production of Our Town This month, as I'm celebrating Reading the … Continue reading Throwback Thursday: Our Town
Literature A standout book that I did not review on the blog was What My Bones Know, a memoir by a survivor of Complex PTSD (or relational trauma, as I think it could be better described). Thanks so much to What's Nonfiction for pointing me to this powerful account of personal transformation. I also read … Continue reading Month in Review: March 2022
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind, translated by Lucia Graves (2001) In my last Make me read it poll, there was a hot contest between The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, but the gothic novel set in a … Continue reading You made me read it: The Shadow of the Wind
There is a scene in The Silver Chair that I think about a lot. It's when Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum, on a quest to find the lost prince of Narnia, are caught in a storm in the Northern Wilds. They are supposed to be looking for a ruined city of the giants, and for a … Continue reading #Narniathon21: Reading the Signs
I wasn't sure what to focus on this month with my One Word (CONNECT). But the theme of failure kept surfacing -- not something I generally want to connect with, though sometimes it is unavoidable. And sometimes, much as I do not want to acknowledge it, it is a gift. I was talking with a … Continue reading #OneWord2022: Connecting with failure
I'm always pleased to join in with March Magics, which celebrates favorite authors Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett. Both departed this life in the month of March, leaving us readers sad yet grateful for all the wonderful books they gifted us with over many years. For this 11th session of MM, I picked up … Continue reading March Magics: Meeting some new friends
We haven't been doing much traveling for the last few months, but last October on our way back from Ticino we stopped in Lucerne, a city in the heart of "old Switzerland." It was a gorgeous day to spend a couple of hours in this stunning location by the lake, with a view of the … Continue reading Postcards from Switzerland: Lovely Lucerne
