A few more thoughts on the novel, which I wrote a bit of first thoughts about yesterday. I’ve known women abused, traumatized (by priests, by husbands, by fathers) for whom religious things are a trigger, a door opening to the wide gulfs of anxiety, panic, horror. I know people for whom confession triggers massive anxiety. […]
Archive | books
Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy
I finished reading Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy last night. It’s a beautiful novel but I’m not sure what I have to say about it. This was my second read through and the thing that connected with me most unexpectedly this time was not the religious life and the protagonist’s mystical experiences– though I […]
Consequences Come Home to Roost– Rereading the Dresden Files
I’ve just finished a re-read of The Dresden Files. I read the whole series at the same time of year in 2018, so I guess January is my Dresden binge season. Makes sense because I tend to get a touch of seasonal blues and binge reading favorite authors is one of my coping mechanisms. The […]
Favorite Books of 2019
(I’m still, perhaps madly, hoping to maybe catch up on my reading notes for the last few months of 2019, but in the meantime, I put together this list for a friend and thought I’d share it here.) My favorite books that I read in the past year: 1. I re-read The Brothers Karamazov (Richard […]
Reading Notes September 2019
Finished in September 1. Uptown Local by Diane Duane (Kindle only) A collection of her short stories. I really liked the first story from the point of view of a slave boy in the Roman Coliseum. There was a Young Wizards short story that was quite fun too. All in all an enjoyable book. 2. […]
Among the Monsters: Fairy Tales and the Problem of Evil
What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? (Luke 11:11) Some years ago I acquired a copy of Hansel and Gretel illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger. I’m an avid collector of picture books and I’d fallen in […]
Summer Reading Notes 2019
Summer doldrums hit and I never got around to publishing my book notes for June or July. And now August is over too. So I’m just going to make one massive Summer Book Notes post and clear the slate for the fall. I read a lot this summer, mostly in series. Finished in June In […]
Podcasts with kids
Now that the kids are older I’m finding that podcasts work really well at hitting that sweet spot for listening to while I cook or on a short drive. Here are some of our current favorites. Do you listen to podcasts with your kids? I’d love to learn about your favorites. Many of my readers […]
On the Day I Called for Help
(An off the cuff reflection on Sunday’s Readings.) “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great… that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out.” “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered […]
Quarantine and Cultural Memory
Today I’m thinking about quarantine and cultural memory. On our road trip to Pennsylvania we listened to Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome. In the novel the children we met in Swallows and Amazons, the Walkers and the Blacketts, are enjoying a post-Christmas winter holiday in the Lake District before heading back to their boarding schools. […]