The very short list of good things resulting from this pandemic are people making their own bread, more time to read, and the new adaptation of Emma being released to stream in your living room. Yes, dear reader, Universal has heard your cries for Jane Austen and if you didn’t see it the movie theatre before they closed, you don’t have to wait for this viral outbreak to be over to watch Emma. … [Read more...]
CathLit2020: A Catholic Reading Challenge
One of my favorite things about the internet is having more people to talk about books with. And I love the reading challenges from my favorite writers and bloggers that pop into my inbox at the beginning of January. Except, I'm never on the ball enough to get going on January 1. So here we are mid-January and friends, I am finally ready! Welcome to the CathLIT reading challenge. Get it? … [Read more...]
Looking for Marmee: Childhood Trauma, Cancer, and How Little Women Changed Our Lives
If all goes as planned, on Christmas Day my mother and I will show up at the movie theatre with my six-year-old and eight-year-old daughters to see Greta Gerwig’s new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. It will be exactly twenty-five years (to the day) since I watched the 1994 film with my mom when it opened in theatres. This upcoming cinematic rite of passage has … [Read more...]
Fall Reads 2019 (So Many Books!)
Since I love chatting about books, I’ve been trying to share our family’s current reads on a regular basis here on the blog. (This post contains affiliate links. If a sale is made through an affiliate link, I may be compensated but all opinions are my own.) Lately I Finished…: The Life-Giving Home by Sally Clarkson Sally Clarkson continues to be my go-to voice on motherhood and … [Read more...]
Big Announcement: The Raspberry Cordial Catholic Literary Gathering! Are YOU Coming?
I could barely sleep last night I was so excited to finally share this news with everyone! For years, our Fountains of Carrots podcast listeners have been asking us to host a gathering where we can get together in real life to talk about books and drink tea with like-minded women. Friends, we're doing it! In November I'm teaming up with FoC podcast co-host and everyone's favorite bookish … [Read more...]
Andrew Davies, Stop Sexing Up Jane Austen
Jane Austen’s six novels have been adapted for film numerous times, but Janeites have been eagerly awaiting the airing of a series based on an unfinished work by Austen: Sanditon. Household name, Andrew Davies, is leading the charge as screenwriter with numerous beloved adaptations under his belt (including the 1995 Pride and Prejudice starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth). I’m not the only … [Read more...]
Why You Should Read This Book by a Guy Who Sat and Talked to People at McDonald’s: A Review of Dignity by Chris Arnade
If I could suggest only two books about the current landscape of America right now they would be Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson about our prison system and the recently released Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America by Chris Arnade. I first heard of Arnade from my husband, Daniel, who started following him on Twitter ages ago. “Have you heard of the guy who sits and talks to people who … [Read more...]
Spring/Summer Reads (And books giveaway!)
Since I love chatting about books, I've been trying to share our family's current reads on a regular basis here on the blog. And I like sharing the love by giving away books to my readers! Here’s a few of the great titles I’ve picked up lately as well as my #cathLIT2019 reads I've completed over the past month or two (And just scroll down to the end see how to enter the giveaway for these four … [Read more...]
“Tolkien” Struggles to Explain the Magic that Tolkien Effortlessly Captured
In Tolkien, the new movie based on the early life of J. R. R. Tolkien, myth and romance are the antidote to war. Guest Review by Boze Herrington “To be caught in youth by 1914,” wrote English novelist J. R. R. Tolkien in a second-edition foreword to The Lord of the Rings, “was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my … [Read more...]
My New eBook on Motherhood is HERE!
It’s here! I’ve been working for a few months on compiling my writing on my first decade of motherhood and creating an ebook designed to encourage, help you reflect on the spiritually rich transformation of becoming a mother, and affirm you by showing you that you are not alone in your struggles! It's called Burning Bright, Not Burning Out: Notes from a Decade of Surviving Motherhood. And … [Read more...]
