So far this summer I’ve read a couple books that are out of my comfort zone–and I’ve not been disappointed. I guess it’s a good lesson in being open to new experiences. Read on and maybe you’ll be tempted to try something completely different yourself (cue the music!) … Glass Shatters (NetGalley) Michelle Meyers She Writes …
Amy Snow Tracey Rees Simon & Schuster Life just seems to move at a slower pace in the summer. Afternoons are hot and humid, the evenings languid. We spend a lot of time on the deck and not so much time in front of the television. It’s a time when we try to break free from …
The girls were three, six, and nine–all sunburned shoulders and knobby knees, pink barrettes and flipflops. The oldest two, I learned as we stood waiting for the De Smet tour to begin, were home-schooled and they obviously knew Laura’s books. As we moved to the Surveyor’s house they listened to the docent–and didn’t touch!–trying to stand …
My goal was De Smet–850 long miles from home–where I’d visit Little Town on the Prairie, The Long Winter, and By the Shores of Silver Lake sites. But I sure couldn’t travel that far without a stop along the way to the banks of Plum Creek. The small town of Walnut Grove, namesake of the TV …
Yesterday I tore another June off my desk calendar, ticking off my twenty-third year of teaching. Since I’m that much closer to retirement, I’ve started to think about about my identity as ‘teacher’–and more importantly, what the loss of that role will mean for me. Before this gig, I was ‘homemaker’, marriage coming in my teens …
A Robot In the Garden (NetGalley) Deborah Install Sourcebooks Landmark A tender story about a boy and his dog–I mean a man and his dog … I mean a man and his robot. You read that correctly–a robot. As in a little mechanical wire and steel contraption, not, I learned, to be confused with an android, who is much …
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven (NetGalley)Chris CleaveSimon & Schuster I read Chris Cleave’s Little Bee for book club just about five years ago. And I liked it–with a few reservations. I liked this new novel of his–which also received a great deal of hype–with the same uncertainty. London, 1939. Mary North, a Pimlico blueblood, signs up to help …
My Mrs. Brown (Edelweiss DRC) William Norwich Simon & Schuster Mrs. Brown is something of an anachronism. In a world that is all social media, selfies, and reality shows, she is a genteel widow who avoids excess at all cost. At sixty-six she has no bucket list and instead works at a small beauty salon …
The Railwayman’s Wife (NetGalley) Ashley Hay Atria Books There’s nothing like a story set in a time long ago and a place far away, and Ashley Hay’s new novel The Railwayman’s Wife fills the bill. The fact that the main character Annika Lachlan is a reader and a librarian? Icing on the cake, my friend, …
I never imagined I could write 26 posts in 30 days. (Ok, for me it was 24 posts in 30 days, but more on that later!) I read about the A-Z Blogging Challenge on a Facebook group I joined after I started Jeff Goins’ Intentional Blogging Challenge. Disclaimer: note that I said I started Goins’ Challenge. …
This is my symphony 