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
When italki made it possible for teachers to create a podcast and share it on the platform, I jumped in. I'd been thinking for a while about creating a podcast for English learners, based on excerpts from real literature in English -- starting with poems that I've collected, but eventually including prose works as well. … Continue reading A new project: the Enchanted English podcast
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is this month's Narniathon read. I was looking forward to it as I remember it as my favorite of the seven books. And I still greatly enjoyed this journey through lands full of enchantment and danger, an adventure of the spirit that stirs me to this day. We start … Continue reading #Narniathon21: Into the utter East
Since I went to high school in the 1980s, of course I've heard of The Color Purple, Alice Walker's 1982 novel that won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into an Oscar-winning movie a couple of years later. But I never read it (or saw the movie), and had no more than a vague idea … Continue reading Beautiful Books: The Color Purple
