I read in two homes, across a move. I read mostly library books, across three different states where I have borrowing privileges. I read very very little on planes, between covid and a toddler who spent most of a flight trying to steal my mask off my face. I read aloud, and I do a… Read More
Tag: Bookshelf
Lyme and Literacy in Suffering
I got to read and review Ross Douthat's memoir of Lyme disease, The Deep Places for National Review. The book is thought-provoking and unsettling. It is as much about how to endure suffering as how to address medical mysteries. In some ways, Douthat’s striving for a cure is a transposition of the same meritocratic story… Read More
Books I Plan to Read in 2021
Last year, I had a baby... and finished all the books on my 2020 list! (With the caveat that my husband and I took up Cardinal Sarah's The Day is Now Far Spent as our shared Sunday readaloud book, so I get a pass since we're reading it slowly together). All in all, I read… Read More
My Favorite Books of 2020
These are my favorite books I read in 2020, listed in roughly chronological order. Nearly all of them were read as ebooks, many as library books, as I (initially) read with a sleeping newborn on my lap and (later) read standing up, ready to run to pluck our adventurous baby off the stairs. I rely… Read More
Recommending Playborhood
Philanthropy Daily is collecting reading suggestions for coronatide. I was obviously tempted to suggest The Ghost Map or Microbe Hunters, both of which I love. But I decided to go with something more focused on how we can gather again. We're still a long way from being able to gather, but, even after a vaccine, many streets will be… Read More
Books I Plan to Read in 2020
Technically, I did pretty well on my 2019 reading list, finishing nine of the eleven books on my list. It's just that it sounds a lot better if you didn't see the grocery bag of books I schlepped over Christmas break when I finished three of the books on my list during the Octave. Beyond… Read More
Your Roots Shall Make Ye Free
I reviewed Michael Brennan Dougherty's epistolary memoir, My Father Left Me Ireland, for The American Interest. Dougherty's rage is directed at the eunuchizing modern mindset that sees us as most free when we can be stripped of all the ties we have to others. A father can leave his children, provided the financial pain is assuaged by child support or governmental… Read More
Books I Plan to Read in 2019
Last year was not a very good year for my "Books to Read in 2018" list, with five of my fifteen books unread. On the other hand, I got to read Middlemarch (for the first time) and Kristin Lavransdatter (second time) with online book groups. And those big, shared books made it hard to find the right… Read More
Kristin Lavransdatter, Motorcycles, and Docility to Reality
I've been reading Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter in concert with a group of folks who have all committed to "Kristin by Christmas!" One passage I particularly loved comes when Kristin goes to stay and be schooled at a convent. Abbess Groa welcomes Kristin with these words: I have heard good things of you, and you… Read More
Death and Dappled Hope: Meditations on Biden’s Memoir
Sustained by his family’s love and his love for them, Biden can carry the weight of tragedy and offer it as a gift to others. At the beginning of the book, he describes visiting the family of Wenjian Liu, a police officer murdered on duty, and offering the widow his personal phone number. He tells… Read More