Across the Page

Elizabeth Goudge’s autobiography leaves me with mixed feelings.
In the first half, I was enthusiastic. She is witty and self-deprecating, and I felt that my expectation that I would like this writer personally was confirmed. I really enjoyed the details of her childhood in an Edwardian home and garden, interspersed with trips to the Channel Islands [...]

Dallas Willard’s Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship With God is less a how-to book than a renovation of our commonly accepted ideas about prayer. Quietly but assuredly, it confronts the skepticism that God would speak regularly and understandably to his children. It meditates on the qualities of God’s voice and emphasizes the disciplines that [...]

Shireen Dodson’s The Mother-Daughter Book Club is a wealth of inspiration and practical information about starting a multi-generational reading group. As the lengthy subtitle suggests, it tells “How Ten Busy Mothers and Daughters Came Together to Talk, Laugh, and Learn Through Their Love of Reading.” It’s an idea I was thinking about, and a friend [...]

“It is the first day because it has never been before and the last day because it will never be again. Be alive if you can all through this day because this day today is your life. What’s to be done? What’s to be done?
Follow your feet. Put on the coffee. Start the orange juice, [...]

Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art is an extended meditation on the nature of the creative process, the purpose of art, and the significance of an artist’s faith. The short answer is that the artistic process is essentially careful listening, the purpose of art is to tell the truth, and an [...]

I’m reaching the end of Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. L’Engle is wrestling with what it means to be a Christian artist, and what is meant by Christian art — if there is such a thing.
In the chapter “Names and Labels,” L’Engle is trying to make the point that our [...]

I picked up Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor at the library in connection with our study of history. We’ve only just passed the Luddites, yet this book, written for adults, was nevertheless recommended for children because its many photographs by Lewis Hine give a glimpse of what it meant [...]

I thought Reflections on Revival was one of my husband’s books. He thought it was mine. The mystery deepened: inside the book is the name of a man from my in-laws’ church. Perhaps it was in a box of books my mother-in-law passed along to us awhile back. In any case, the title has stared [...]

Sometimes in the early mornings, I just read my Bible. In other seasons, I find it enriching to read a daily devotional too. I’m in one of those seasons now, and I thought I’d share some of the favorite books on my shelf, starting with the two I’m currently reading regularly.
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My Utmost for His Highest [...]

Richard L. McGuire’s Passionate Attention: An Introduction to Literary Study provides an overview of four approaches to investigating literature. In 80 pages, it offers a summary of my entire literary criticism course in college. Maybe that’s why the professor recommended that we pick up a copy. I did, obediently. But then I plunged, along with [...]