I’ve been camping and backpacking a lot lately. I like the gear, the challenge, the beauty, and getting away from it all. But there’s always some new horizon to explore or a new trial to endure. Once I’ve tried something, I always find myself looking for something just a little bit harder. For me, that was winter camping. Summer camping is delightful. The temperature is generally comfortable. You have sunshine and light until almost nine o’clock at night–giving you tons of time to hike and […]
And they lived happily ever after
Sometimes I crave romance novels. Whether it’s because I’ve read too much serious literature and non-fiction or I just need the escapism, the best thing to do is curl up with a romantic novel as soon as possible. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened with Midnight Angel (1995) by Lisa Kleypas. Feeling the need for some romantic distraction, I got on the library website, looked up Lisa Kleypas–because she’s a good, reliable author–and picked a book that was available. Tasia, a young Russian heiress. is about to […]
May the Force be with you
“If anyone reads this when I have passed to the big bad beyond I shall be posthumorously embarrassed. I shall spend my entire afterlife blushing.” Carrie Fisher is an icon. Even kids today know that white dress and the hairdo, made famous in a movie forty years old. Having been introduced to Star Wars at a young age by my brothers, I’ve found that I know the films so well that I can’t even look at them critically. They’ve just always been a part of my life. […]
Put a Ring on it
“But it’s an error to assume all marriages are good marriages, and to fall into the narrative trap laid by Disney and Shakespeare, the one in which a wedding is the satisfying conclusion of a story.” (146) Rebecca Traister immediately won points for naming her book, All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation (2016) after a Beyonce song. I found it–like so many of the books I read this year–through NPR’s list of Best Books from 2016. It is a serious look […]