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Book Review–The Home-Maker By Dorothy Canfield Fisher
. The Home-Maker is the story of the Knapp family. Evangeline Knapp is determined to do right by her family; to keep a clean house, feed the family well, and carefully care for her children. She is admired in the neighborhood and held up as an example of a perfect homemaker. The problem is she hates it. What was her life? A hateful round of housework, which, hurry as she might, was never done. How she loathed housework! The sight of a dishpan full of dishes made her feel like screamng out. And what else did she have? Loneliness; never-ending monotony; blank, gray days, one after another, full of drudgery. No…
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A Day Out–Arundel Castle
Knights, jousting, swords, armor, moats, towers. These have always fascinated my son. When he found out we were going to England his main request was that we tour a medieval castle. England is full of castles but it was hard to decide which would most fit his interests and be doable as a day trip from London. I asked for recommendations in a blog post and @LouLouReads on Twitter promptly responded with the suggestion of Arundel Castle. It was perfect. We took the train from Victoria Station and it was about a ninety-minute journey. The train trip itself was fun for the kids. Train journeys are not common in our lives…
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More Than You Wanted To Know About Me
I read a blog post recently debating whether or not personal posts should be included on book blogs. People seemed to come down strongly on one side or the other. Either they wanted book posts and nothing but book posts or they enjoyed the posts that let them get a glimpse into the personality behind the blog. I am firmly in the personality behind the blog club. I like to read about books but I am also insatiably curious about people. I like to know a little about their lives, their interests beyond books, where they live, their favorite dessert. You can call it nosy, I call it…well, if I…
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In Defense of Fluff
Well-written literature is a wonderful gift. There is nothing like closing the cover of a book and knowing you have read something truly great. Whether, for you, that is a Dickens novel or a modern classic that feeling is unmistakable. But sometimes you just want to read fluff. A cozy mystery, a Regency romance, a detective novel, chick lit, whatever your fluff of choice is, we all need it sometimes. But all too often, we feel like we need to apologize for it. “Well, I wouldn’t usually read this but….” or “It was fun for what it is but….” There is always that “but”, that implies that the fluff isn’t…
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On Writing
I always wanted to be a writer. I, obviously, loved to read and the natural progression was that I wanted to write. What I wanted to write varied widely depending on my age and interests at the time. My dad was a newspaper editor so being a journalist sounded fascinating. I loved fiction so wouldn’t it be wonderful to create my own stories? For a long time, I wanted to be a travel writer. Imagine being paid to travel and write about it. It sounded like the best job on earth. To be frank, it still does. If anyone wants to send me around the world in return for a…
