I've decided to start a readalong of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. This follows two book-a-month readalongs hosted by Calmgrove that I have greatly enjoyed: the Narniathon in 2022 and LoveHain in 2023. As he's not hosting another such event next year, I know I'm going to miss this part of my reading … Continue reading Pinned post: Join us in an Ozathon? #Ozathon24
I've decided to start a readalong of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. This follows two book-a-month readalongs hosted by Calmgrove that I have greatly enjoyed: the Narniathon in 2022 and LoveHain in 2023. As he's not hosting another such event next year, I know I'm going to miss this part of my reading … Continue reading Pinned post: Join us in an Ozathon? #Ozathon24
Summer is over, and it's time to wrap up my 10 Books of Summer challenge. I packed my list with books I wanted to complete for various other challenges -- The #LoveHain readalong, #ReadingtheMeow in June, Read All Around the World, Spiritual Memoir Challenge, and StoryGraph Onboarding Challenge -- or that had been on my … Continue reading 10 Books of Summer / Summer in Other Languages Wrap-Up
Raynor Winn, The Salt Path (2019) After The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I read another book about catastrophic loss that calls into question what we truly need, what is most essential. In Bauby's memoir of being almost completely paralyzed, he lost his power of movement and normal modes of communication. In Raynor Winn's The … Continue reading #20BooksofSummer23: The Salt Path
Le scaphandre et le papillon was recommended to me some years ago by a French-speaking English student who thought I might enjoy reading it in the original language. I have not so far managed to do that, but I have finally read the English translation, and I was blown away. It's an extraordinary document of … Continue reading #20BooksofSummer23: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
When I picked out Thomasina to read for a cat-themed reading event at Literary Potpourri, all I knew about it was that the title character was a cat, and the author had also written Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris, a book I'd recently enjoyed. I didn't pay attention to the subtitle ("the cat who thought … Continue reading #ReadingtheMeow2023: Thomasina
I haven't been writing full reviews of the spiritual memoirs I've read in the last few months, but I want to give at least a short update on each of them. Here are the last three: A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith by Timothy Egan A mix of … Continue reading Spiritual Memoir Challenge update
Summer is almost here, which means it's time for 20 / 15 / 10 Books of Summer! I've packed my list of 10 with books for my reading goals/challenges this year: The #LoveHain readalong, #ReadingtheMeow in June, Read All Around the World, Spiritual Memoir Challenge, and StoryGraph Onboarding Challenge. If I manage all of these, … Continue reading 10 Books of Summer / Summer in Other Languages
Joy Harjo, Crazy Brave (2012) and Poet Warrior (2021) After my uncomfortable experience reading Autobiography of a Yogi, it was a relief to dive into poet Joy Harjo's memoirs and encounter a completely different kind of spiritual teacher, an older-sister guide who can instruct me about the path I also want to follow: Poet, Warrior, … Continue reading Spiritual Memoir Review: Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior
Paramhansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) When I embarked on my Spiritual Memoir Challenge this year, I did not expect the first book I chose to read for it to be so ... challenging. It raised a lot of questions for me, and I'm not sure how to express them. I don't want to … Continue reading Spiritual Memoir Review: Autobiography of a Yogi
