Book Club Start

We love book clubs here at Plumfield and talk about them everywhere – on the site, on social media, and on the podcast. We often get a lot of feedback from listeners and readers that for many people finding a setting up a small book club or finding a reading buddy (from among strangers) is…

Pillaging Anne

Stop pillaging Anne. For the love of Lucy Maud Montgomery, please just stop. In the last week I have been called a pearl-clutcher (laughable if you know me), closed-minded, small-minded, an ostrich, and a fear-monger. I guess my post on The Handmaid’s Tale hit a nerve. Mercifully, I knew what I was getting into when I…

Something like Tolkien’s Leaf Mould

This spring Diane, Jennifer Halverson and I re-read one of my top ten favorite books: Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. A funny thing happened in this reading that I was not expecting. As a child, I feasted on the 1982 made-for-t.v. Ivanhoe movie featuring Anthony Andrews, James Mason, Olivia Hussey, and John Rhys-Davies. When I say…

Ears to Hear

In our book club, we delight in talking through the different ways we read. The question “do audiobooks count?” comes up frequently. Yes. Audiobooks count. You don’t have to take my word for it, a quick internet search will yield a lot of articles like this one at Forbes detailing the science and studies which…

The Awakening of Miss Prim

  I feel almost silly trying to write a review of The Awakening of Miss Prim by Madrid writer Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera when Joseph Pearce’s piece in The Imaginative Conservative is light years better than anything I would write. Please understand that my attempt here is not to match his eloquent review. Instead, I hope…

The Bark of the Bog Owl

This review is of the first book of the trilogy. If you wish to read our review of the whole trilogy, click here. “‘Who knows what the future holds? Only the One God,’ explained Aidan. ‘You live the little bit of life that you can see in front of you. You live it well. And…

Books Boys Love

Moms often ask us for book recommendations for their 8-12 year old sons. This particular gender and age reader combination can be challenging for many families. Even if the boys are reading independently, many do not just dive into novels the way that girls seem to. Keeping in mind that boys tend to love “real” things,…

Books for Bedrest

Our book club has a number of moms who are recovering from surgery, on bedrest, nursing babies, or are dealing with a heavy burden. Many of them have requested book recommendations that would be light and wholesome reading for those times when we are tired, hurting, nursing, or just in need of a little retreat….