Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. Have you read it? If so, did you read it as a child or as an adult? In the foreword of the 60th anniversary edition, author Kate DiCamillo confesses she didn’t read it until she was 31 years old. The cover of the book scared her. But then “I was […]
FIRST WORDS FRIDAY: WEEK 10 – 2019 – THE NUN’S STORY
The Nun’s Story by Kathryn C. Hulme, copyright 1956, was a Book of the Month Club selection that reached #1 on the New York Times best-seller list. My friend’s dad, who was our mailman, tucked it in our mailbox addressed to my great-grandmother. I read her books–maybe not when I was 7, but a little […]
First Words Friday: Week 9 – 2019 – Anna Karenina
I was scrolling through my Kindle (which I hardly every look at) this morning and found I had downloaded a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. It’s been years–and years and years and years–since I read it. These words reminded me of why I downloaded it to begin with. Because seriously, how can one not […]
First Words Friday: Week 8 – 2019 – The Velveteen Rabbit
For the month of love, here are some first words from a not-for-children-only classic, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. This is a longer selection (okay it’s super long), but it’s okay as the book is in the public domain. When she was 19 years old, Williams decided she wanted to make a living at […]
First Words Friday: Week 7 – 2019 – A Wrinkle in Time
I’m taking another workshop through Tweetspeak Poetry called Writing Toward Joy and led by the incomparable Megan Willome. We are working our way through Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time by making florilegia–bouquets of sparkling text that we create out of sentences that jump out at us. We then try to see what new connections […]
First Words Friday: Week 6 – 2019 – Literary America
I bought this book–A Journey Through Literary America–as a gift to myself directly from the website, on sale and autographed. But it’s also available on Amazon. It’s “a literary pilgrimage in photography and prose.” Thomas Hummel (writer) and Tamra Dempsey (photographer) set out to find the stories and explore the places that inspired 26 of […]
First Words Friday: Week 5 – 2019 – Braiding Sweetgrass
I’m all about nature writing, especially when the words are woven as beautifully as they are in this book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Okay, so the last part of that title sounds… well, boring. Trust me, it’s not. Elizabeth Gilbert calls the book, “A […]
First Words Friday: Week 4 – 2019 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
I have to stuff marked-up (red inked, blue inked, yellow highlighted, and penciled) page chunks back whenever I pick it up. I’ve loved well my Twentieth Anniversary paperback edition of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea with its bent and faded covers. It’s a “vintage book” with an original copyright of 1955, but her […]
First Words Friday: Week 3 – 2019 – Mary Oliver
The evening of January 17, 2018, I posted the above photo with this quote: “And mostly I’m grateful that I take this world so seriously.” ~Mary Oliver in “The Gift.” My Facebook and Instagram feeds are filled with Mary quotes. She inspired me to pay attention and to be astonished. When we moved to Florida, […]
First Words Friday – Week 2 – 2019
Last week I shared some first words from A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett, a book on my to-read list. This week I’m sharing from one of my favorite books, one I’ve read and reread and occasionally slice through–An American Childhood by Annie Dillard. My word, that woman can write. From […]
