Category: Books

A Story Doesn’t Always Go the Way You Had in Mind: Thoughts on Faith and Suffering

~ Peggy Haslar ~ 2 Comments

My father passed away on Christmas Day. Even though he was 89, the hospital call informing us that he was "letting go" was a sad surprise: it wasn't his long struggles with COPD and atrial fibrillation or even the suspected prostate cancer worrying him that ultimately caused his death. A stone lurking invisibly in his … Continue reading A Story Doesn’t Always Go the Way You Had in Mind: Thoughts on Faith and Suffering

Favorite Reads of 2023: Four Unexpected Delights

~ Peggy Haslar

Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson's beloved comic strip, once depicted Calvin in a philosophical stance, opining to his stuffed tiger that “today’s TV-reared audience is hip and sophisticated.” “This stuff doesn’t affect us,” the impish Calvin continues. “We can separate fact from fiction. We understand satire and irony. We’re detached and jaded viewers who aren’t … Continue reading Favorite Reads of 2023: Four Unexpected Delights

No Man Is an Island: One of Many Reasons Why I Still Show up at Church

~ Peggy Haslar ~ 4 Comments

It’s a Sunday evening many years ago. I’m newly married and my husband and I are watching a news show, 60 Minutes most likely, on the little bookshelf TV we'd sacrificed a good chunk of our budget to buy. The camera pans a hopeless inner city neighborhood where crime is high and gangs tempt young … Continue reading No Man Is an Island: One of Many Reasons Why I Still Show up at Church

Books Before Newsbites: Curating the News with C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Day

~ Peggy Haslar

When it comes to news consumption, I mostly have two kinds of friends. The first backs away from any conversation about current events. “Oh, I don’t pay much attention to the news,” they say with a dismissive wave of the hand. “It’s too political for me.”  I know what they mean. Many of us are … Continue reading Books Before Newsbites: Curating the News with C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Day

Nature’s Best Hope: Your Yard and Mine

~ Peggy Haslar

"All is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil," Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote in 1877, "And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell." Nevertheless, the poet marvels at the natural world's resilience in the face of industrial degradation: And for all this, nature is never spent;   There lives the dearest freshness deep down things... I recalled … Continue reading Nature’s Best Hope: Your Yard and Mine

“Go and Be Human” with Close Reads: A Podcast for the Incurable Reader

~ Peggy Haslar

When I was a young mother trying to finish a Bachelor of Arts in English, I relished my Tuesday evening class at the local college. The English department head, a kind woman with twinkling eyes and exacting standards, required us to read a book a week and come prepared to spend the first 30 minutes … Continue reading “Go and Be Human” with Close Reads: A Podcast for the Incurable Reader

Fiction, News Addiction & The Scandal of Holiness: Standouts from a Reading Year

~ Peggy Haslar ~ 2 Comments

“One year from now, you are likely to be much the same person except for the people you meet and the books you read.”  I don’t remember who told me this back when I was young but I never forgot it; it's helped me track my reading year after year ever since. Lately the Goodreads Reading … Continue reading Fiction, News Addiction & The Scandal of Holiness: Standouts from a Reading Year

Become a Child Again with Tomie de Paola’s Book of Everyday Thanksgiving

~ Peggy Haslar

Preparing for Thanksgiving this week, I notice heaviness in my heart, yet I want to be thankful for a life rich with good gifts.  I turn to Tomie de Paola's golden-toned Look and Be Grateful and find the grace I'm seeking. De Paola's children's books have a lovely simplicity. His images transport the reader to … Continue reading Become a Child Again with Tomie de Paola’s Book of Everyday Thanksgiving

Toward Better Abortion Conversations: A Play, a Poem and a Fragile Forward Path

~ Peggy Haslar

As the Supreme Court was pondering the landmark case Roe v. Wade, my generation came of age. "Abortion? What's that?" I asked my dad, who seemed to always have an informed opinion on the news. After explaining the basics of abortion to me, my father sent me to the high school library to research the … Continue reading Toward Better Abortion Conversations: A Play, a Poem and a Fragile Forward Path