My pop-culture illiterate daughter trying to explain to friends which songs she is playing for her next concert: Lucy: I don’t remember the name of it, but it’s something about rocking somebody… Morgan: “We Will Rock You”? Phil: No way. [Because it’s a symphony, after all. It has to be more classy than that!] Lucy: […]

I am totally smitten with this book. First, I have to tell the story of how I came to read it. The book and its author, Francisco X. Stork, were in no way on my radar, until someone suggested I read Cheryl Klein’s The Magic Words, which is a how-to on writing middle grade and […]

So I’m a little behind in my reading, but this week I finally got to the February 8 issue of Commonweal.  There is an illuminating article in there by Jonathan Malesic which contrasts the American work ethic with the dignity of the human person, and specifically, the way work is treated in Benedictine Monasteries.  (You […]

Clare: Why don’t people want to go to Mass? Lucy: They probably think it’s boring. Clare: I love the readings.  Except the ones that start “brothers and sisters”, they’re usually pretty boring. Me: raucous laughter Sorry, St. Paul.  I guess you can’t please everyone.

A friend recently asked me for recommendations of children’s novels where the day is saved…but not by lots of violence.  He has a ten-year-old son who loves Narnia and Middle Earth, but he doesn’t want his son to count on Glamdring to solve all his problems.  (I am aware that it is Aslan’s sacrifice, as […]

Just a tidbit from Luke Timothy Johnson’s recent piece in Commonweal entitled “How a Monk Learns Mercy: Thomas Merton and the Rule of St. Benedict.” “The most destructive forms of speech in community, Benedict understood, are those that involve judgments against the other.  Benedict calls this form of speech ‘murmuring,’ included [sic] all forms of […]

A year ago – or maybe closer to two – I was at a friend’s house.  She had a little hand-written note on her refrigerator, on red construction paper, which said, “Lay hold of goodness, rather than justice.  -St. Isaac the Syrian” I commented that maybe I needed one of those for my fridge.  We […]

More importantly, can your dinner save your life?  Alexandra Petri’s piece for the Washington Post is hilarious.  (If you love puns…if not, there’s nothing to see here.  Keep moving.) EAT CHEESE LIVE FOREVER

By Nicola Davies, Illustrated by Nick Maraland This is my kind of kids’ non-fiction.  The text is informative but engaging, and not overwhelming with too much information.  The illustrations are also fun and clear.  

First, the funny story. A friend of mine had just had a baby.  The baby was fussy and spitting up a lot, and so she thought the baby might be reacting to the cows’ milk my friend was drinking.  She might have to cut out dairy. She was willing quit milk, cheese, and the like, […]