Posts Tagged ‘literature’
Beyond the Oxford Comma
By the end of that project, I felt called—not only to be in a Well-Read Mom group but to lead one. This was a big surprise to me. Although I’m a lifelong reader and a professional writer, I have never been in a book club.
Read MoreThe Things We Married: Challenges of Military Spouse Life and How We Overcame them with Literature
We moved books we’d bought for book clubs: souvenirs of conversations we’d had with friends we’d been immeasurably close to for short but intense seasons.
Read MoreAn Armchair Revolution: Take Back Your Time
Approaching literature begins with leisure. Recovering leisure reading as a kind of spiritual discipline will help us move from interior boredom to an expanding inner life.
Read MoreThen and Now: The Impact of Rereading
Then and Now: The Impact of Rereading Written by Caitlin Bootsma “You’re definitely Meg,” my younger sister insisted. “You’re the oldest, and…well, I’m obviously Jo.” I did NOT want to be Meg; couldn’t we both be Jo? There was no question then that our next sister was Amy, and, in our teenage years, no one…
Read MoreWhy Shakespeare?
It didn’t take very long for me to find out that English Literature was their least favorite class. I could completely understand—math, science, music…these were all subjects that could be understood even with a language barrier. In fact, there was more than just a language barrier—I was stunned on an almost daily basis at small little cultural references that just didn’t translate. As the year went on, my fondness for my students grew—so it was with a little trepidation that I announced that we would be tackling a Shakespeare play next.
Read MoreWe Have a Father
Our conversation continued, but through it, I recognized that I was changing. I like to think that part of this change comes about through reading great and worthy books—books that have been, as Flannery O’Connor put it, “written from a perspective in which the truth, as Christians know it, has been used as a light to see the world.” This light then shapes our heart, mind, and soul and educates our imagination to the reasonableness of faith.
Read MoreThe Evil Within
Each year, at least one of our reading selections for Well-Read Mom is so jarring that it strikes an emotional cord, reverberating through our very cores. This year, John Steinbeck’s novella The Pearl is that work. Agonizing in its subject matter—namely, the insidious encroachment of evil within the human heart—this tale haunts us long after we read the final words.
Read MoreReclaiming My Literary Patrimony: A Reflection on Reading King Lear
As I read King Lear, the word patrimony came to mind. Of course, the plot of the play centers around a king giving away his inheritance to his daughters. But I was also recalling a phrase that I first encountered in Theology of Home, The Spiritual Art of Homemaking.
Read MoreHow a Women’s Book Club Enhanced My Spiritual Life
For years, I had heard great things about Well-Read Mom, a national women’s book club, but I had never had a chance to join. Then, last year, a friend invited me to the chapter that meets once a month in her home. I was more than ready to dive into a discussion of great books with like-minded ladies. As a serious bibliophile, I get a little lonely reading in isolation. I hoped for deep literary discussion with fellow women of faith.
Read MoreDoes Reading Detract From My Vocation?
I loved reading Elizabeth Goudge’s My God and My All this Advent, but I must admit that I struggled with parts of Saint Francis’s life. It made me pause to think about this great saint whose life was so completely different from my own. Saint Francis is known as the saint who most closely exemplified Christ.
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