books & more
Our book club read Claire Keegan's Foster this month, and it's the type of book that continues to settle in you over the days and weeks after you finish it. The cover is riddled with blurbs like, "A small miracle," or "A thing of finely honed beauty," or even, "As good as Chekhov." In my [...]
Snow hit Nashville this week, and in typical fashion the grocery store shelves were empty. I hadn't planned ahead and needed to do my normal grocery run around the same time as the panic set in. Alas, we found ourselves without bagels. But we did have some sourdough starter and bread flour at home, so [...]
If you haven't seen the poet Harry Baker's lovely, whimsical poem about his New Year's resolutions, stop everything and watch it right now. "To find a new musical act I love...or let them find me." "To buy more drinks for friends and have friends buy more drinks for me." "To share something that isn't necessarily [...]
This post contains affiliate links. For about a year, Satoshi Yagisawa's Days at the Morisake Bookshop (trans. Eric Ozawa) sat on my Amazon wishlist, just waiting to be purchased. It was an impulse add, thanks to its charming cover design. Great work, Ilya Milstein and Milan Bozic! It captures perfectly the cozy, book-loving atmosphere the [...]
Last year I shared our book club's 2024 picks, so it's time for an update! After we got started up, we had a couple people drop out, new people join, one had a baby . . . so our original list changed a bit, starting in September. So, here's what we actually read in 2024, [...]
Our family has just ended our annual marathon of Twilight and Harry Potter movies over the holiday, and the Golden Globes feel early this year. (Are they?) Nevertheless, we're way behind on watching the nominees. My husband taught a film class at our homeschool co-op last year, so he was more on top of it [...]
Meal planning is time consuming, so if I'm going to do it I might as well share it, right? It's November, so we're feeling in the mood for slow cooker meals, comforting pastas and soups, and hearty meat-and-three dishes over here. This is what I'm planning for my household of five this week. Note: One [...]
This year we are taking on Modern Literature at our high school co-op English class, and it's been the most fun list for me to put together so far. There are so many books that students will thoroughly enjoy in this category (no offense, Victorian Lit). In fact, my co-teacher and I couldn't narrow it [...]
You all have loved our post on how to read Pride and Prejudice along with the BBC miniseries (because, Colin Firth!), and some of you have requested we do a similar post on Sense & Sensibility. So, here I am to save the day! At the homeschool co-op where I teach literature, I also happen [...]
Christmas is three weeks deep in my rearview window, but my bank statement is feeling it now. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who puts off shopping until the last minute, then panic-shops and has the financial hit to go with it. This year, I'm determined to bring more sanity to my advent season. [...]
Spilled Milk 