Whoever said April comes in like a lamb and out like a lion wasn’t kidding, but I always forget that May comes roaring in like a lion and flaming out like a dragon. Last week was finals (thankfully, I’m down to one class this semester), and this next weekend is my graduation. Woo hoo! I still have other projects I’m working on for the summer and the next semester, so no rest for the wicked. I am posting a bunch of reviews today, though some […]
Like a whiff of my mother’s perfume.
This book dug up a lot of feelings, so get ready for a bit of autobiography. I grew up religious in the evangelical persuasion. For many years, until my early 20s, I was a True Believer: pious, traditional, and convinced that we were both right and righteous. I memorized all the verses to all the hymns. I read theology books way past my grade level. I studied the minor prophets. I was the AWANA poster child. And then I grew up a little and started learning how […]
A balm in Gilead
Last year for CBR6, I read Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping and HATED IT. The writing is great, but the hoarding completely got in the way of the story for me. My friend C suggested that I give Gilead a try, so I found the audiobook at my local library. I finished it last night on a late commute home from school. I’m sure the other travelers on the interstate must have looked askance at the 30-year-old white lady weeping at her steering wheel. It’s one of […]
Housekeeping? More like hoarding, if you ask me.
First, a confession: I don’t mind darker family dramas. I don’t mind dysfunction in literature. I really don’t mind literature that is not light and happy. BUT I CAN’T HANDLE WEIRD HOARDING ECCENTRIC BEHAVIORS. This book kind of broke me, can you tell? Ruthie Stone and her sister Lucille have lived a tumultuous, unstable life. The novel begins with the death of their grandfather, who was killed in an accident when the train he was on went off the tracks and slid into a lake […]