Category: Book Talks
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The Wind in the Willows: A Lesson in Regret & Repentance
‘No!’ [Toad] said, a little sullenly, but stoutly; ‘I’m not sorry. And it wasn’t folly at all! It was simply glorious!’‘What?’ cried the Badger, greatly scandalised. ‘You backsliding animal, didn’t you tell me just now, in there———‘‘Oh, yes, yes, in there,’ said Toad impatiently. ‘I’d have said anything in there . . . But I’ve been searching my mind…
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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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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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3 Life Lessons From Jane Eyre
One of the strongest female characters I’ve found in literature is Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. In Jane, the reader finds courage and wisdom, an appreciation for the natural world, and a loving spirit. She’s an excellent example for readers to learn from, and there’s far more I can say about her than I fit in…
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The Awakening: The Freedom of Self
“In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. . . . [mother-women] were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.” The Awakening by kate chopin, pp. 10 Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, first published in 1899, met with…