This summer felt like A LOT as we said goodbye to the community we have loved for nineteen years and prepared to move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern California. I read as much as I could, needing bite-sized breaks from our upended reality, and much of that was on audio book as … Continue reading Reading – Summer 2025
Tag: reading
Reading: May 2025
FICTION The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank BaumMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThe movie has been such a touchstone throughout my childhood & life that I never got around to reading the book. In my 2025 Year of Play, the time finally came.How similar, & HOW different! The book reads more like a … Continue reading Reading: May 2025
Reading: April 2025
FICTION All the Colors of the Dark by Chris WhitakerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsWhat a gorgeous book! Yes, it has some ghoulish subject matter, & as the title suggests, that's what makes the colors shine all the brighter. Just wow… Patch & Saint's friendship & the ways in which it shapes their lives is … Continue reading Reading: April 2025
Reading: March 2025
FICTION All the Colors of the Dark by Chris WhitakerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsNote: I'm putting this review at the top, out of alphabetical order, because it's my favorite book of the month. What a gorgeous book! Yes, it has some ghoulish subject matter, & as the title suggests, that's what makes the colors … Continue reading Reading: March 2025
Reading: February 2025
Lots of books for young readers, because the turmoil of these times requires the simple telling of profound truths. One fabulous novel by a Pulitzer Prize winner. And two nonfiction-Christian books by women willing to ask hard questions and take a stand. What are you reading? FICTION The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton JusterMy rating: 5 … Continue reading Reading: February 2025
Reading: Sept/Oct 2024
What are YOU reading? Here's my recent list: FICTION The Thursday Murder Club by Richard OsmanMy rating: 5 of 5 starsI love a book that centers characters society puts to the margins. I'll quote the friend who recommended this to me: "This book is candy!" I can't wait to read the rest of the series, … Continue reading Reading: Sept/Oct 2024
Reading: July/Aug 2024
It's been a great reading summer! Fourteen books—six novels, three memoirs, and five non-fiction—and all four or five stars. I listened to five of these as audiobooks and the other nine I read with my eyes, either on paper or on my Kindle (do you use Libby for Kindle reading? It has been an absolute … Continue reading Reading: July/Aug 2024
Reading: Mar-April 2024
The most amazing recent events in my bookish life are as follows: I attended the Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin University, where I heard great lectures on books and writing and other fascinating things writers write about, connected with old friends and met so many wonderful new people, many of whom I already … Continue reading Reading: Mar-April 2024
Reading: Jan-Feb 2024
FICTION Amazing Grace Adams by Fran LittlewoodMy rating: 5 of 5 starsEmotionally intelligent & entertaining novel about a woman having a significant mid-life crisis on her daughter's 16th birthday. It is ironic, & the book says so toward the end, that a woman who can speak five languages can't communicate with her loved ones, & … Continue reading Reading: Jan-Feb 2024
Barbara Kingsolver: “Novels are True…”
Dave and I heard author Barbara Kingsolver speak at Dominican University last week. Her latest novel, Demon Copperhead, won the Pulitzer Prize. I haven’t read it yet, but I will now that I’ve heard her talk about its inspiration in Dickens’s David Copperfield and her intention to write “the great Appalachian novel” as a window … Continue reading Barbara Kingsolver: “Novels are True…”