Always a wonderful topic, courtesy of the RevGals:

1. Fiction: what kind, detective novels, historical stuff, thrillers, romance????
I haven’t read a lot of fiction of late. Poems, because they can be read in small doses. I guess I would say I read contemporary fiction, stuff like Three Junes and The Curious Incident of the Dog in […]

The RevGalBlogPals blog (link in the sidebar) is having a discussion of Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis. I was this month’s “host” and wrote the following “review.” I’m posting it here as well just because.

I was excited to have an excuse to read Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, since Jan at A Church […]

So I was a no-show at a lunch meeting yesterday.
The editor and a couple of board members for Independent Denominational Magazine had asked to meet with a group of young (young-er? young-ish?) pastors to talk about how their magazine might be more useful, interesting, or appealing to the next generation of clergy. I think […]

We’re in trouble.

Every so often I explore,
like an archeologist:
I drill down, down,
dig back in time,
recall how I heaped
one passion upon another.
The top crust is like a brulee,
thin and easy. But eureka—
Here’s where I thought I should read more novels.
Here’s where I wanted to knit better.
Here’s the parenting section,
when a stomping toddler drove me desperate.
Here’s where I graduated,
resolved […]

Only ppb can turn a trip to the bookstore into a work of art. I bought some gifts for little she and R, and a couple of books. I SO do not need any more books, but I like having souvenirs from conferences. So I bought Harold Bloom’s anthology of American religious poetry, which is […]

I started to respond to the previous post’s comments, but it got too long.
The “writing as spiritual practice” thing will not be a class so much as a small group that I will facilitate. Because, what do I know about writing as a spiritual practice other than, yes, it is?! Or can be.
I am really […]

Book discussion today at the presbytery office—Barbara Brown Taylor’s Leaving Church. Many good questions raised; few answers:
BBT’s path of faith and her desire to be authentically herself ultimately led her out of the church and pastoral ministry. Must it be that way? Can this kind of questing and questioning (including a bald admission of great […]

Forgive me for not linking. Google is your friend.
1. One Book That Changed Your Life —
The Preaching Life by Barbara Brown Taylor. It was like, “Whoa, I can do this even though I don’t have it all figured out?”
2. One Book That You’ve Read More Than Once —
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine […]

I purchased a copy of The Elements of Style–Illustrated for Writing Sister-in-Law for her birthday, and couldn’t help getting one for myself. It’s the classic volume, with illustrations by artist Maira Kalman for many of the grammatical examples…

Somebody else’s umbrella
I keep peeking at it throughout the day. It’s totally charming.
And I’m finally starting to get […]

I’ve been reading a lot of interesting stuff lately—a biography of Marie Curie (Obsessive Genius), an anthology of Jane Kenyon poems (Otherwise), and the latest Mothers Who Think collection, called Because I Said So. I really loved Rosellen Brown’s essay “No Blame,” in which she writes about being a writer and a mom. I’ve wished […]

Off with ye if you don’t want to know what happens!
• Basically I liked it, but it was not my favorite. The exposition/fleshing out of Tom Riddle was interesting, but I didn’t realize until things picked up at the end just how little was happening plot-wise. And the identity of the Half-Blood Prince was so […]

Take it from me, the voice of experience:
In your excitement over the new Harry Potter book, do not, I repeat, do not try to best your friends and loved ones by partaking of the Earthworm flavored Bertie Bott’s.
And as for Rotten Egg, just put down the candy and walk slowly away from the table.
The latter […]

I’m a Ravenclaw!
“Here in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you’ve a ready mind,
Those of wit and learning
will always find their kind.”
Long live the blue and bronze!
And I will be picking up my book on Saturday–Friday night if I have no life.

I’ve been tagged by Songbird…
1. Number of books I own.
Oh, I don’t know. I would say in the neighborhood of 800 or so? Might break 1,000.
2. The last book(s) I bought.
Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic, Reinhold Niebuhr (been on my list for a long time) Thoughts on the first few years of […]

From Love during Wartime:
1. You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451; which book do you want to be?
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Calvin from A Wrinkle in Time (I sense a theme here)
3. The last book(s) you bought:
Are You My Mother?
Horton Hatches the Egg
There’s a Wocket in […]

how many times had she passed by
that tree
and not seen?
how long had that trinket
winked at her
under withering sun?
how crammed full
did the knot hole have to get
before she realized
those gifts were for her?
it was only when
she became much lighter,
a child, really—
it was only when
she shed something heavy,
flung it over her shoulder
and didn’t look back
(maybe once. okay, […]