Anne of Avonlea

Anne of Green Gables is pretty nearly a perfect book. Even if you don’t love the story or the character, it is hard deny that Anne Shirley, in her debut novel, has been an international sensation for more than 100 years. According to Wikipedia, Anne of Green Gables has been translated into 36 languages and…

The Monks of New Skete

“…the best image to capture what a monk is can be found in the words of the Russian author Dostoevsky, who remarks in The Brothers Karamazov that a true monk is nothing more than what everyone ought to be… he was pointing to an attitude of heart that he believed was characteristic of monks. The…

The Wednesday Witch at Stump Lake

The Wednesday Witch at Stump Lake I could almost believe a whiff of certain smells, caught just right, has the power to physically transport me to another time or place.  Sourdough can be like that for me.  This summer it was the mint in my garden.  Mmm, Oregon cow pasture!  Most recently, though, I experienced…

The Blue Castle

“Valancy was in the midst of realities after a lifetime of unrealities.” L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle is one of her stand-alone novels.  It is also one of the few she wrote for adults.  The story opens on the morning of Valancy Stirling’s twenty-ninth birthday.  “The only homely girl in a handsome clan, with no…