It's Halloween, and that means it's the first day of Witch Week, a special time for fantasy lovers. This is a blog event I created in my first year of The Emerald City Book Review, and I'm delighted that Calmgrove and Lizzie Ross decided to take it over when I stopped. This year, the theme … Continue reading Witch Week begins!
Hooray, Nonfiction November is back! A mostly new team of hosts has taken on the blogging event that many of us look forward to all year. This week's topic is hosted by Heather of Based on a True Story. Week 1 (10/30-11/3) Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you … Continue reading Nonfiction November: My year in nonfiction
In Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious (2012), Chris Stedman tells his story-so-far -- he was only 23 at the time of writing -- to show that atheists and the religious should still be able to talk respectfully to one another. The first part covers Stedman's mostly religion-free childhood in a … Continue reading Engaging with atheism: Faitheist
These "clubs" happen twice a year, each time focusing on books published in a particular year between 1920 and 1980 or so. It's always so interesting to read the variety of reviews! Thanks so much to Simon and Karen for hosting. I don't always manage to be organized enough to join, but this time I … Continue reading #1962Club: A Murder of Quality
In my last Make me read it poll, blog readers selected Sweet Bean Paste as the book I should read next, out of several that I'd recommended to the library. And I enjoyed it, but I find that I do not have much to say about it. It was a heartfelt little tale about prejudice … Continue reading You made me read it, and Around the World update
What? Prince Harry's royal tell-all Spare, a spiritual memoir? I admit that I did not initially pick it up as one. But as I read, it made me think about the role of royalty in regard to spirituality. For that alone, I decided to count it for my spiritual memoir challenge -- in the category … Continue reading Spiritual Memoir Review: Spare
I'm very pleased that I finished reading Krabat by Otfried Preußler this summer. Taking it slowly, one part per month, helped me get through and feel that I'd made a real step in German fluency. Here follows my summary of the third part in German and English, and some final thoughts in English. Nach Michals … Continue reading Krabat: The Third Year
This year for my Summer in Other Languages self-challenge, I am reading the novel Krabat by Otfreid Preußler. As I did with my reading of Die Kleine Hexe two years ago, I’m posting a summary in German and English, plus some thoughts in English. I’ll focus at first on my impressions from reading the book … Continue reading Krabat: The Second Year
So far, my blog newsletter has been merely a summary of recent posts (which I just noticed has not been sending since December of 2022 -- I need to fix that this month!) I've decided to start something new and send out a newsletter that is not merely a repetition of blog content, but will … Continue reading Would you like to join the Enchanted Circle?
For my personal challenge to read books in other languages than English, I've been greatly helped by an online book discussion group hosted by Emma of Words and Peace, who this year also took up the hosting of beloved blog event Paris in July. For our summer read, we had already decided to take a … Continue reading Voyage au centre de la Terre – #ParisInJuly2023
