Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963) Lately I seem to have been reading a lot of amazing memoirs by women, frequently dealing with psychological manipulation and coming out of a state of subjugation or abuse. (Tara Westover's Educated being the most recent example -- and it turned out … Continue reading Beautiful Books: Two psychological masterpieces
James Lapine, Putting It Together (2021) I think that putting on a theatrical production, particularly a musical, is one of the most remarkable things we human beings can do. It requires an almost unequalled level of cooperation and working together, with manifold roles that each have to be precisely and skillfully done while serving the … Continue reading Reading the Theatre review: Putting It Together
This month's Narniathon read, The Horse and His Boy, also counts serendipitously for the 1954 Club hosted by Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. It's going to be interesting to see what else was published in this year (notably including The first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings, which Lewis played … Continue reading #Narniathon21 – The Boring One
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
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
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'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
Last March I ran a month-long celebration of theatre-related reading -- plays, biographies and memoirs from stage artists, stage-related fiction and nonfiction, or whatever else might seem relevant. I missed going to the theatre! It was a wonderful month and I was glad some blog friends chose to join in. Click on the link above … Continue reading Reading the Theatre 2022: Free for all
For Top Ten Tuesday hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, the theme is "books with my favorite trope/theme." I've been wanting to feature some of my favorite books with a "castle" theme -- many of which happen to be some of my favorite books of all time. So now is my chance! Some are actually … Continue reading Top Ten Castle Books
