Literature After last month's reading frenzy, my reading speed slowed waaaaay down this month! I completed only five books, and three of those were comfort rereads. Oh well, some months you have to take it easy. Other things, like wrestling with my digestive health, have been taking up a lot of time and energy. That's … Continue reading Month in Review: May 2022
#OneWord2022: Connecting, disconnecting, reconnecting
Even though my One Word this year is "Connect," I know full well it's not possible to be connected to everything all the time. We humans are too weak and frail for that; we need breaks, or else it's as if we've stuck our finger into an electric socket and can't get it out. So … Continue reading #OneWord2022: Connecting, disconnecting, reconnecting
#Narniathon21: The unforbidden fruit
And so in the course of our Narniathon reading we come to the book that C.S. Lewis started second, finished last, and yet is chronologically first in the series, including as it does an account of the creation of Narnia. In my last post on The Horse and His Boy, I explained my new theory … Continue reading #Narniathon21: The unforbidden fruit
Month in Review: April 2022 (and Blog Break)
Literature I dedicated this month to Reading the Theatre, and though at first I thought I might read two or three books, it was so much fun I found it hard to stop. Of course, any time of year is great to read theatre-themed books, but an occasional binge seems to increase the fun for … Continue reading Month in Review: April 2022 (and Blog Break)
Beautiful Books: Two psychological masterpieces
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
Reading the Theatre review: Putting It Together
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
#OneWord2022: Connecting and communicating
The one word I chose to contemplate this year is CONNECT. So far I've been thinking about connecting with various things, shifting slightly from month to month. Last month I reflected on connecting with failure. That brought up memories of failures in communication, my own and others'. For me, connecting and communicating are so close … Continue reading #OneWord2022: Connecting and communicating
#Narniathon21 – The Boring One
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
#1954Club week begins
The twice yearly "Reading clubs" hosted by Simon and Karen are a lot of fun. I'm going to be reviewing 1954's The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis shortly, since it was also this month's read for the Narniathon. But I found a couple of earlier reviews that I posted at The Emerald City … Continue reading #1954Club week begins
Talitha Koum: A Poem
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