Reading Kinship

It always amazes me how books can connect people. I know that whenever I meet someone new, a question that is sure to show at least part of our “kindred spirit-ness” is “So, do you like to read?”. If the answer is in the affirmative, and the person starts waxing eloquent about their beloved authors and books, I know we’ll definitely have something to talk about for awhile.

dusting bookshelves

dusting bookshelves

Our little living room may not have much going for it in terms of real furniture, but it does have three matching bookshelves. The books they hold make up the lack, creating the kind of cozy decoration that, to me, helps to make a house into something more. The pretty ones are as good as any picture hanging on the wall.

The thing with books and bookshelves is that many little (and big) hands can quickly vanquish any sort of order in record time, no matter how you arrange them! It is a good thing that dusting the bookshelves and putting them back into place is a job that is more fun than work…

Why Sequels Aren’t Equals

Why Sequels Aren’t Equals

If you’re a book lover, like me, you have a favorite author (or several). And at some point, you will have read all the works by said author. What happens then? Do you sigh sadly, make a cup of tea, and begin writing yourself? Perhaps you check out a new author from a reading list, or ask a friend for a recommendation. You could even read a book about the author (I have two such books on my reading list, biographies of beloved authors Elizabeth Goudge and Bess Streeter Aldrich) or make a pilgrimage to places they lived, wrote, or wrote about.

Or, you can read a sequel by another author.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a great deal of variation in the quality of such “sequels.”

Letters of a Woman Homesteader

Letters of a Woman Homesteader

I can’t remember where I first saw the book Letters of a Woman Homesteader. The wonderful cover caught my eye right away and the title was intriguing, but the clincher was the fact that I could read it right away on my iPod — for free!

I was not disappointed. Not only is the premise interesting — a young widow with a small daughter who decides to go out West and claim her own homestead — the writing is excellent…

The Chasm at the Edge of Eternity

The Chasm at the Edge of Eternity

When I opened Randy Alcorn’s latest book, The Chasm: A Journey to the Edge of Life, I had some idea of what I’d find. The Chasm, I knew, would be the gulf that separates us from God — and the bridge over it, the Cross.

But The Chasm is a lot more than just a little book expounding on that apt illustration. It is a modern-day version of Pilgrim’s Progress in the style of Lewis, Tolkien, and Peretti…

Books About Books

Books About Books

I have a special section for them on my bookshelves: books about books. As if I don’t have enough books already, I have books full of more book titles to find!

There’s Books Children Love: A Guide to the Best Children’s Literature by Elizabeth Wilson. And of course, Jim Trelease’s ever-popular The Read-Aloud Handbook, along with Terry Glaspey’s Book Lover’s Guide to Great Reading: A Guided Tour of Classic & Contemporary Literature…

Reading

The Reading Balance

Years have changed a lot of things for this bookworm. The responsibilities and demands of life have shifted my priorities: I don’t read as much as I use to read, and for a while, I read almost nothing at all. In part, many moves that kept books tucked into boxes for months or years at a time were to blame. But that wasn’t the only reason.

I doubt that over-reading in general is something that much of the population today has to worry about. But sometimes I wonder if we take time to find balance in our reading, in what we read, how we read and yes, even how much we read…

What’s a Girl to Read?

I love reading. Books are beautiful – the covers, the pages, the words. The smell of the paper and the ink, too. And then there’s the story!

But what’s a girl to read? The choice of books is vast. And although it’s tempting to judge a book by it’s cover and read a book that displays a gorgeous picture or an intriguing title, that’s not always wise—not for a girl who loves Jesus.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life…”

One Thousand Gifts

One Thousand Gifts

I’m really not one for “inspirational” books. Too many of them seem fluffy, unsubstantial, or fake, written by people who seem to not realize that life is actually really hard sometimes.

When I first heard of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp, I wasn’t even planning on reading it…

you read what you are

I was at another meeting of homeschool moms. Tonight, the discussion topic was a book that only half of us had read.

I hadn’t read it. And I’ll admit, I was slightly prejudiced against the book and the authors.

But listening to one mom, I thought it sounded like a fabulous book on parenting.

Hearing another, though, I was afraid it might be filled with too many rules and not enough grace.

I laughed as I concluded that you could easily think you were hearing reviews of ten very different books when in a room full of ten homeschool moms who were talking about only one book…

The End.

The End.