Writing Blog
A story encapsulated in a poem
My middle schooler has been learning a poem by heart for his French class. He was having a difficult time with the following poem, the excellent Déjeuner du matin by Jacques Prévert . Much of his difficulty in memorizing came from a lack of understanding. He was reading the poem as a type of ‘Ode to café…
Read MoreAnother New Year, another Goodreads Reading Challenge
It’s that time of year again for those of us who love reading – time to set our reading goals for 2018. Every year I sign up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge, and 2018 is no exception. I’ve pledged to read 45 novels in the new year. I generally meet my challenge, but if I…
Read More2018 – A happy new writing year to all!
A wonderful 2018 to everyone! But special wishes for a productive new writing year to all you writers out there! Usually, this is my time to make writing resolutions for the new year. Until now, I’ve also been pretty good about keeping my resolutions. But 2017 flummoxed me. I did very little (creative) writing, and…
Read MoreMy 2017 in books
Okay, I admit it. I’m a book nerd. This is one of the reasons I so love taking the Goodreads Challenge each year, because I can enjoy my end-of-year 2017 in books overview. I love reviewing the books I’ve read over the year, and the pages (over 18,000!) I’ve read that aren’t technical reports or…
Read More‘Tis the season … to read!
Of course it is the season to celebrate our religion, to spend time with friends and family, to be thankful for what we have, to sit down to good meals, but I can’t help associating the holidays with also squirreling away quiet time to curl up with a good book (or two, or three, or…
Read MoreMy summer holiday in books
Maybe it’s something about being smack dab in December, with some of the most depressing and shortest days of the year, but I find myself often thinking back to summer holidays. As I already wrote in a post, sometimes my reading experience conflates the books I read on holidays. Even when those novels aren’t that…
Read MoreMore books “in the cloud” – Rome
I’ve been seeing ads for this interesting book fair of small and mid-sized publishers, billed as Più libri nella nuvola (More books in the cloud). This is a play on words for the new modern Convention center designed by architect Alexandre Fuksas in the EUR section of Rome. The structure is called La nuvola (The Cloud). The…
Read MoreBook review: At the Edge of the Orchard
I enjoy historical fiction and I’ve read of all of Tracy Chevalier’s novels, so I was happy to learn about her latest when it was released. This was my favorite novel since A Girl With A Pearl Earring. At the Edge of the Orchard is set in the mid 1800s, and follows the difficult lives…
Read MoreI met this year’s Goodreads Reading Challenge
Perhaps list-making and checking off items on a list is a silly thing, but I can’t help enjoying the annual Goodreads Reading Challenge. I’m an avid reader anyway and – oddly, perhaps – I’ve always made lists of books I’ve read, so the Goodreads Reading Challenge was a perfect match for me. I love looking…
Read More600 posts!
In case you are wondering, this is not my age. Can you tell I have snippy teenagers/pre-teens at home? But I’m a big fan of marking milestones, so why the heck not? 600 posts up on my blog deserves at least a pat on the back. I began my blog back in 2012 to post…
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