Live with joy. Create with courage.

Book to Share: Just Like That, by Gary D. Schmidt
Imagine someone coming up to you and saying, “Hey, you know that book you love? Someone wrote a sequel! Remember the main character? Yeah, so the story starts with him dead now, and it’s all about how the secondary character is dealing with the resulting grief. It’s amazing. You should read it.” So… I’ll tryContinue reading “Book to Share: Just Like That, by Gary D. Schmidt”
Book to Share: 365 Days to Alaska, by Cathy Carr
For today’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, I’m linking up with the folks at “In the Middle” and featuring a middle grade book that took me by surprise: 365 Days to Alaska, by Cathy Carr. Here is the summary from the publisher: Eleven-year-old Rigel Harman loves her life in off-the-grid Alaska. She hunts rabbits, takes correspondenceContinue reading “Book to Share: 365 Days to Alaska, by Cathy Carr”
Book to Share: Echo Mountain, by Lauren Wolk
I haven’t read enough new books in 2021 to make a serious Newbery prediction–and yet… I’m going to anyway. Lauren Wolk’s Echo Mountain is beautiful and gorgeous and good, and it deserves all the shiny medals. I know–there have been a lot of excellent books published in 2020. Even having read fewer of them, IContinue reading “Book to Share: Echo Mountain, by Lauren Wolk”
“The times are what we make of them.”
This morning I read a beautiful, well-meant, even insightful Instagram post that really has been eating at me. 2020 wasn’t so bad, was the general gist. 2020 was the best year of this person’s life. He’d found love, done great things in his work and vocation, learned and loved and celebrated. The key, he said,Continue reading ““The times are what we make of them.””
“I’d like to add some beauty to life.”
Anne Shirley Blythe, in Anne’s House of Dreams
by L. M. Montgomery
Anne Shirley Blythe is my hero, my literary mentor, and the inspiration for this site.
Creativity and living with passion contribute endless beauty to the world. This site is about celebrating art and artists of all kinds and the beauty of everyday life lived purposefully.