This is my symphony

What I read & what I lived …

Take Me With You Catherine Ryan Hyde Lake Union Publishing August Schroeder is heavy-hearted: his motor home, broken down and towed to a garage; his annual summer trip to Yellowstone on hold. For two days he passes time watching his Jack Russell terrier  Woody run circles around two young boys hanging around the back of …

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The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt Caroline Preston Harper Collins One of my most precious possessions is a “School Friendship Book” I found at a flea market several years ago. It is the real deal. None of this photos cropped, matted, and embellished with stickers stuff that we do today.  No, this is a leather journal-sized wonder with dusty …

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I adore Jane Austen. I mean, I am so there. The countryside, all hedgerows and lanes; the homes—Northanger Abbey, Norland Park–gracious with their breakfast dishes and card rooms. And those Georgian manners, “high spirits and good humor” all around at a carriage ride after breakfast; or, letters hastily set aside with colourless faces.  Where new …

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The stockings are hung (although sadly, there’s no chimney), the candles lit, and creche arranged–it’s the most wonderful time of the year! And every year for the past twenty-something, I’ve added Susan Branch’s Christmas From the Heart of the Home to the stack of holiday books on my coffee table. Branch inks and watercolors every …

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