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Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down

My sister-in-law first introduced me to PG Tips, which for me is synonymous with British Tea. PG Tips is first choice among some choice local friends. So when Angie reviewed this book, it was a given that I'd…
Waiting to be Read

The arrival of books here is a weekly occurrence. Between Paperbackswap, Amazon and various smaller publishers, I have little Christmas moments throughout the year. I find myself frequenting my local library much les…
Isaac and his Devils

Isaac Hooker is the firstborn son from a mismatched marriage of a bookish, pipe smoking, poetry loving man and a scrappy catty white-trash woman. Isaac has a genius intellect housed in a fat, slovenly, near-sighted, de…
A Thread of Grace

There's a saying in Hebrew, he tells her. No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace.Mary Doria Russell's A Thread of Grace is a dense book. When I read it half-heartedly-dip…
Trollope's Rachel Ray

Beer and evangelicals: that's what you'll find in Anthony Trollope's Rachel Ray. What Luke Rowan, the main man in this novel, cares about is brewing good beer. He inherits a portion of the brewery of Messrs. Bu…
Random Reading Notes

Lots happening in the "Shire" and it. is. glorious. Our community is celebrating weddings, music, friendship and growth. I had not factored in how fatiguing glory can be, but surely there will be time to rest in the w…
The Book That Changed My Life

George Grant first introduced me to the idea of reading what influenced your favorite author. What shaped his views, her style...what has contributed to his voice? So a book like The Book That Changed My Life is…
Chords, Chords, Chords

I am so ready to get serious about reading Willie and Dwike: An American Profile (reissued as Mitchell & Ruff: An American Profile in Jazz). I've been flitting here and there, picking it up and reading whereve…
The Tale of Two Restaurant Critics

Last night this line from T.S. Eliot kept running through my head. It's from the Four Quartets. 'Garlic and sapphires in the mud...' I remembered that when you got into this it was almost a spiritual thing with yo…
The Art of Civilized Conversation

I felt it shelter to speak with you. ~ Emily Dickinson [The art of conversation] is the Swiss Army knife of social skills that anyone can learn to use. p.1 As much as we try to avoid it, there are times when we…