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"Reading is fundamental."
R and G hard at work We’re raising readers in our house. I wish I could say instilling in our children a love of reading was part of a very strategic parenting plan. It’s really more selfish that...
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What are you reading?
Happy Monday! I’m starting a new feature on Red Shutters: a page called “What I’m Reading.” This page is part motivation, part memory keeper. Ever since my kids were born, the time I had for reading...
View ArticleWhat’s on your nightstand?
There is no friend as loyal as a book. -Ernest Hemingway I don’t remember how old I was when I started to read; I wish I did because it should be an anniversary I celebrate. Reading for pleasure, for...
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What is your passion? (Thoughts on Aging, Part 2)
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a friend in which she mentioned how she didn’t have passion for one aspect of her job. She was troubled by this, and felt that this lack of passion was one of the...
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Summer Reading
One of my hopes with Red Shutters is to celebrate my love of reading. To that end, I started a what I am reading list and have written several times about the importance of reading and books. After my...
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Book Review: The Sandcastle Girls
Last week, the laundry sat on the chair in the den for several days, unfolded and wrinkling. I just couldn’t find a moment to fold it; each free second was spent reading The Sandcastle Girls, the new...
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Poetry Monday: Tectonics
Finding beauty in small moments One of my picks for my not-quite-finished summer reading list is Delights and Shadows by Ted Kooser, an anthology of poetry by the 13th Poet Laureate of the United...
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Book Review: State of Wonder
I was excited to have State of Wonder by Ann Patchett on my Summer Reading List. Having thoroughly enjoyed two of Patchett’s previous books (The Magician’s Assistant and Bel Canto), I looked forward...
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Book Review: The End of Your Life Book Club
Today, I am pleased to share an expanded version of my first review for Red Letters Reads, an online book review site, founded by Jessica of Don’t Mind the Mess. I met Jessica a few months ago at a...
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Finding Me Time
I don’t know about you, but once Thanksgiving is over, I feel like life takes a non-stop-way-too-much-to-do-here’s-another-thing-to-add-to-the-to-do-list kind of pace. It’s exhausting. And, it doesn’t...
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Summertime Reading
I’ve been thinking a lot about books lately. Likely, it’s the result of the dearth of time to read these days. There’s a stack of 13 books on my bedside table, calling to me. Some of them have been...
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Soar with Reading
Recently, I was approached by JetBlue to discuss Soar with Reading, the company’s summer literacy initiative that places age-appropriate books in the hands of children in underserved areas in the...
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Making Books a Priority in 2014
I use Grammarly’s plagiarism checker because, as my mama told me, stealing is bad. What’s Grammarly? It’s a website for people like me (and maybe you?) who know when to use the terminal comma, who...
View ArticleBooks I’ve Read in 2014
The other day, I stayed up way past my bedtime, all the way into the next day, to finish my book, “Written in My Own Heart’s Blood,” the eighth book in the addictive Outlander series. My Kindle app...
View ArticleMy Book Clubs
Tonight, my book club celebrated its one-year anniversary. Fourteen of our 17 members gathered in an Asian fusion restaurant in our town to toast our 12 months of meetings and celebrate one another’s...
View ArticleNotes From a Blue Bike Book Review
Recently, at dinner with two friends, the subject of our kids’ extracurricular activities came up. My husband and I had been considering signing our son, R, up for a local swim team—he has the aptitude...
View ArticleMy 2015 Book List
Last week was quieter on the blog than I had anticipated because I got lost… in a book. Yup. A book. It’s been divine. I’ve always been a big reader, but I have found that I often struggle with finding...
View ArticleThe Secret Life of Book Club Review
As a longtime member of a book club (my current one is made up of moms from my town), I was intrigued by the premise of Heather Woodhaven’s new novel, The Secret Life of Book Club: women in a...
View ArticleBooks I’m Reading in 2015
Last week was a quiet week for me here on Red Shutters, and that’s because I was reading. Reading three books at once. That’s a new one for me; I’m a monogamous reader, a one book at a time kind of a...
View ArticleFinding Me Time
I don’t know about you, but once Thanksgiving is over, I feel like life takes a non-stop-way-too-much-to-do-here’s-another-thing-to-add-to-the-to-do-list kind of pace. It’s exhausting. And, it doesn’t...
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