Unexpected Magic: Celebrating the final edition of March Magics with All Good Things

March 19, 2023March 18, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 14 Comments

When Kristen of We Be Reading announced she'd be hosting March Magics (a celebration of favorite fantasy authors Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett) for one final time, I wanted to do something special. It was hard to choose what to read, from among both authors' voluminous and wonderful works. All good things, indeed! Somewhat … Continue reading Unexpected Magic: Celebrating the final edition of March Magics with All Good Things

Spiritual Memoir Review: Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior

March 12, 2023March 12, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 6 Comments

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

Advent/Lent: A Poem

March 9, 2023July 26, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 12 Comments

Recently I had two poems published in the online journal Kosmeo, which is subtitled "Adorning the profession of the gospel through creative offerings." One of the poems, "What the Rich Young Man Said," was published in an earlier version on my blog here -- but I've revised is since then, because I keep thinking about … Continue reading Advent/Lent: A Poem

Beautiful Books: The Tombs of Atuan

February 22, 2023February 22, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 4 Comments

This is a re-post of my review originally published at Shiny New Books. And if you'd like to go on to read about the next in the series, over at SNB you can read my latest review of the Folio Society edition of The Farthest Shore, which posted today. In our upside-down world of reversed … Continue reading Beautiful Books: The Tombs of Atuan

Spiritual Memoir Review: Autobiography of a Yogi

February 12, 2023February 26, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 23 Comments

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

A new writing (and publishing) impulse

January 29, 2023January 21, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 15 Comments

In the last few years, I started writing poetry again. I'd done it in fits and spurts since childhood, but was never really satisfied with my efforts. Then a personal crisis gave me a new impetus, inspiring me to produce one or even two or three poems a day, for several months. I found this … Continue reading A new writing (and publishing) impulse

Shelf Control: The Hainish Novels and Stories

January 25, 2023January 21, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 13 Comments

This week I am featuring my Library of America edition of the Hanish novels and stories by Ursula K. LeGuin. These are LeGuin's major science fiction works, spanning the whole course of her long career, linked by the notion that different worlds were settled at some point by people from a planet named Hain. It's … Continue reading Shelf Control: The Hainish Novels and Stories

My Year in Fiction

January 22, 2023January 15, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 10 Comments

I hope you'll continue to indulge me as I do more wrap-up posts, which are mostly for my own edification. Last year was the first time I assembled a post reviewing all my fiction reading for the year, and it was interesting to see what patterns emerged. I noted that there were a lot of … Continue reading My Year in Fiction

Around the World project update

January 18, 2023January 19, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 24 Comments

I have not been good about posting my progress on this project, but I didn't read so many books for it in 2022, so it's simple enough to list them now. See the books I've read so far on the Around the World project page. In January I started out the year with the long, … Continue reading Around the World project update

Plans for 2023: Something old, something new

a woman writing numbers on sand with her hand

January 14, 2023January 17, 2023 ~ Lory ~ 41 Comments

It's always difficult to find the balance between making too many reading and blogging plans, which causes me to feel stressed out and unjoyful, and not making any plans, which robs me of the pleasure of anticipation and accomplishment. There are some challenges and projects that I want to keep long-term, while others come and … Continue reading Plans for 2023: Something old, something new