Fiction, Politics and Spiritual Physics: Sparrowfare’s Most Surprising 2021 Reads

It is the people you meet and the books you read that change you most in a year. Whoever said that forgot to include experiences, invited or not, that change our lives in a moment. But that line about books and people has stayed with me since I read it sometime in my teens. While … Continue reading Fiction, Politics and Spiritual Physics: Sparrowfare’s Most Surprising 2021 Reads

Begin Your Reading Year with this Book (and Live Your Own Story Well)

One afternoon during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, I listened to a lecture on the joys of reading. I love reading and I needed joy. Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg, a veteran teacher, offered the following reasons for becoming a more intentional reader, particularly of the classics: to grow in wonder, to join more fully in the … Continue reading Begin Your Reading Year with this Book (and Live Your Own Story Well)

Happy New Year! A Planner and a Playlist for the Road Ahead

Rarely do I begin a contemporary book and feel it's paid for itself before the end of the first chapter. But I've begun 2019's reading year wth Karen Swallow Prior's On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books and I'm feeling grateful and inspired. My college major was English and when I finished, I spent ten happy years teaching communication … Continue reading Happy New Year! A Planner and a Playlist for the Road Ahead

Links to Booklist Builders for a Still-Incomplete Education

My Grandma Ted was a working class woman. Her husband was a textile factory loom fixer and she was a secretary.  They raised my mom and uncle, scraping for every cent. A whiz at shorthand, Grandma's boss once asked her to take notes at a business meeting at an expensive hotel. When she went to the … Continue reading Links to Booklist Builders for a Still-Incomplete Education