Category: Reading Nook
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The Princess and the Goblin, Curdie and Faith
George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin and his sequel The Princess and Curdie are beautifully crafted fairytales. The language, the setting, and the characters delight the mind, but as in all great fairy tales, they also touch important truths. Throughout the books, MacDonald provides a picture of the nature of faith. Really, he provides…
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Half-Truths by Carol Baldwin: Truth and Prejudice
Join us for a review of Carol Baldwin’s new book Half-Truths, a YA Historical Fiction novel, and a discussion on truth and prejudice.
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Anxious People & Deep Kindness: Everyone’s Doing Their Best…Aren’t We?
“We can’t change the world, and a lot of the time we can’t even change people. No more than one bit at a time. So we do what we can to help whenever we get the chance, sweetheart. We save those we can. We do our best. Then we try to find a way to…
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Book Review: The Sword in His Hand
“I believe there will be justice, Torsten, for all the terrible wrong that has been done to you. But until you can forgive, you will never be free. You will never be free to love anything else but the sword in your hand,” (J.J. Fischer’s The Sword in His Hand, pg. 515) *** A fugitive washed…
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Book Review: The Aroma of Beauty
“Beauty could not rebuild our cities, but it helped to rebuild our humanity and to bring us closer to one another. Beauty could not bring back family and friends, but it helped us weep for them, remember them, and celebrate them,” Aroma of Beauty, pp.138 What is the role of art in the midst of a…
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People in A Story: How Book Characters Teach Us to Love Well
“I wish we could sometimes love the characters in real life as we love the characters in romances. There are a great many human souls whom we should accept more kindly, and even appreciate more clearly, if we simply thought of them as people in a story.” ― G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America Loving characters…
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The Giver: Choosing to Live In Color
“Sometimes I wish they’d ask for my wisdom more often–there are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don’t want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable–so painless. It’s what they’ve chosen.“–The Giver, Lois Lowry (pp. 130). If given the choice between a life that’s painless…
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Learning to Empathize with Hedda Gabler
“It’s a liberation to know that an act of spontaneous courage is yet possible in this world. An act that has something of unconditional beauty.”― Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler Reading a play produces a very different experience than seeing it performed before your eyes. In a play, every detail adds layers to the words–the subtleties of tone,…
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: When Society Trades Truth for Lies
“I think there’s a natural goodness built into human beings. You know when you’ve stepped across the line into evil, and it’s your life’s challenge to try and stay on the right side of the line,” (Lucy Gray, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, pp. 493). *** “‘If even the most innocent among us turn…
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Q&A With Bob Shumaker: Author of ‘Return of the Schmooney’
This week, we’re excited to be talking with children’s author Bob Shumaker. After retiring from his sales and marketing company, Bob chose to focus on his lifelong passion of writing. His character the Schmooney was the South Carolina Mascot for Literacy for several years, and also the Simpsonville City Mascot. Now, he’s excited to…