• Miscellany

    Reflecting on Christmas

    Christmas brought some new discoveries our way. None of them were things I had even heard of, but it’s going to be fun to figure them out. I think they will enrich our…

  • On Reading

    Books Read in 2012

    Here’s my contribution to Lists Week at the Saturday Review. Below is a list of the books I’ve read in 2012. Over the past few years I’ve read about a book a week,…

  • On Reading

    Christmas Books

    There’s an opened jelly jar on the counter, dishes strewn on the table, toast crumbs everywhere. But outdoors, we’ve accomplished great things. 9″ of snow! That’s more than we ever got last year…

  • Literary Study

    The Discarded Image

    Have you ever wanted to escape your time? Most of us read at least partly to do just that. But our efforts are limited by something we can’t easily escape: our own minds,…

  • Education

    Order and Chaos

    This post was originally published on October 6, 2009: No significant reading going on around here — at least, not for me. I can’t seem to find a book to sink into. I’m…

  • Christianity,  Current Events

    Stable

    Last weekend, we drove several hours to see a live Nativity that my brother is a part of. It was a re-enactment connected by narrative and music, but to me the most powerful…

  • Christianity,  Nonfiction

    Leaving Church

    I was reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s Leaving Church at church the other day as I waited for my children to finish an activity, and a friend asked me what I was reading. “Uh-oh,”…

  • Current Events,  Poetry

    Paper Chain

    …police told youngsters to close their eyes as they were led from the building so that they wouldn’t see the blood and broken glass. (AP News) “Close your eyes.” It’s usually a benediction…

  • Poetry

    Brightness

    The other day at the mall, I saw a little, bent, elderly woman walking toward the Hallmark store. She had a look of determination, glancing neither to the right nor the left, and…