Monthly Archives: November 2015
Quick Link: Google Doodles and Anne of Green Gables
Today is Lucy Maud Montgomery’s birthday. Her Anne books are some of my perennial favorites. Be sure you stop by Google to see all of the lovely doodles!
My Advent Reading List
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it’s time to look ahead to my favorite part of the year–Christmas! This year I’ll be reading three books during the Christmas season, one is an annual favorite, but the other two are new for 2015.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I’m so thankful for the kind words of encouragement you have shared with me over the last months. I hope you enjoy this time with your family and friends. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies […]
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Whenever anyone asks me for a fiction recommendation, this is one of the first titles that pops into my head. A friend of mine recommended this book to me a few years ago, and I re-read it this weekend. Good news: It’s just as delightful the second time around. Oscar Wilde said, “If one cannot […]
What do they teach them at these schools? (Textbooks Fall 2015)
The end of the semester is swiftly approaching, and I’ve forgotten how much I loved being able to add textbooks to my book list for the year. I think a few of these books will be really helpful later on in my program, and I think they even have some great information to pass on […]
A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War by Joseph Loconte
2015 has been the year of excellent nonfiction, and Joseph Loconte’s book did not disappoint. The full title is A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18, and Loconte does justice to all of those topics in under 300 pages, which is pretty impressive.
Henry IV, Part II
If you ever need proof that history repeats itself, read Henry IV, Part II. Just like Henry IV, Part I, this play focuses on King Henry IV, his son Hal, and Hal’s less than perfect friends. In Part 2, however, Shakespeare plays on the reader’s expectations. He knows we are all waiting for Hal’s reformation, waiting for Hal to “banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.” He knows we are waiting, and he makes us wait. And wait. And then wait some more.
Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
Every year I try to read from several different genres, poetry included. While I’ve read some poetry this year, this was my first book of poetry of 2015. Dog Songs by Mary Oliver is a collection of poems written about and in celebration of dogs. The poems are short and simple, and there is also a great […]
The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part I
Confession time: About fifteen minutes into this film I had to go get my copy of the play and follow along. I could hardly understand what anyone was saying, and it was difficult to understand the plot. There are a lot of people in these plays, and none of them go by their real names! If […]
Henry IV, Part I
Prince Hal is the Shakespearean character I want to love–but it’s tricky. At the beginning of the play, he’s a prodigal son. He wastes time in taverns, pulls pranks, and commits petty crimes. It’s easy to like this Prince Hal, the easygoing, carefree friend of Falstaff. But there’s an edge to Hal that doesn’t let you laugh along with him.
Book Fifty 