“In this way Penelope’s happy and sad feelings got all mixed up together, until they were not unlike one of those delicious cookies they have nowadays, the ones with a flat circle of sugary cream sandwiched between two chocolate-flavored wafers. In her heart she felt a soft, hidden core of sweet melancholy nestled inside crisp…
Month: August 2017
Pat of Silver Bush & Mistress Pat
Pat Gardiner of Silver Bush is a nice girl. She is seven years old when her story opens. She is obedient to her parents and to the housekeeper, Judy Plum. She is helpful, loving, and kind to animals. Her life is comfortable, but she hates change of any kind, and she has to struggle against…
Thoughts About The Benedict Option
In this speech, the author of The Awakening of Miss Prim says that only a minority of readers see her story as one of a spiritual journey and conversion. I was shocked when I read that. It seemed so obvious to me that that was the only thing it could really be about. In talking…
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 Chronicles of Prydain #1: The Book of Three
Almost a decade ago, friends were raving about Lloyd Alexander and The Chronicles of Prydain. At that time, I had a newborn baby and didn’t have enough headspace to investigate their recommendation, but for some reason, I never forgot how much they loved the books. A few years ago, I was studying the Mensa reading…
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…
Book Club: The Bark of the Bog Owl
As I explained in this post, I am having great fun hosting a young readers book club at my local Christian book store, Cathedral Book and Gift. The second book in our middle-grade reader series was The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers. Bark is a fantastic first book in a very worthy…
Book Club: Henry and the Chalk Dragon
This summer I hosted a Henry and the Chalk Dragon book club at my local Christian bookstore. We had 12 kids aged 6 to 13 attend and we really did have a wonderful time together. Because we hosted this at our Christian bookstore and because I think that the Christian themes are absolutely present in…