In a recent phone call with my Mom, we talked about the usual suspects…weather, food, family. Then she threw me a surprise pass:
Mom: I’m listening to a book about football. It’s real good.
If anyone should know (or care) less about football than I, I suspect it is my 97-years-young mother. Had Candid Camera launched a new series and was I being spoofed?
Sherrie’s Blogs
A blog that explores books and their relevance to our everyday lives, the value of literacy, and what it means to be a curious person.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “Tis the good reader that makes the good book…" I hope that the same is true about good blogs. Thank you good readers.
Confessions of a Book Voyeur
A Legend, a Legacy, and the Days of Grace
The US Open is underway. No fans cheer from the seats of Arthur Ashe Stadium this year because of the pandemic. Reading Arthur Ashe’s autobiography, “Days of Grace” is a bit of a deja’vu. Born in the segregated South, Ashe made history in as the first African-American to win the US Open men’s singles in […]
The Great Outdoors
When the pandemic put the kibosh on our normal lives, people found various outlets to pass the time and help cope. Some Marie Kondo’d their way through decades of unworn clothes and knickknacks. Friends around the world connected and reconnected by phone, FaceBook, Instagram, and in Zoom rooms. Some bibliophiles polished off their “TBR” stack. […]
Books that Sustain Us: Redux
The 2014 Curious Cats Read debut blog post explored how books can help sustain us during difficult times. As I write this more than six years later, many of us are confronting unprecedented challenges of sudden physical solitude and social isolation coupled with uncertainty and fear arising from the COVID-19 global pandemic. This seemed an […]
Slow Down. Read On
Read more books. It’s a noble resolution for bibliophiles, but lately I’ve been contemplating the opposite. I hesitate to even write these words as they sound like reading heresy. But slow down and read on….Like slow eating improves our dining experience, or slow medicine brings longer comfort, the concept of slow reading is designed to encourage more thoughtful engagement.
The Secret of Happiness
When the Mega-Million lottery swells to what seems to be a bursting point, I buy a ticket, giddy imagining the happiness those millions would bring. Or would they? From Aristotle and his Nicomachean Ethics to the U.S Declaration of Independence to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” a simple little ditty that you’ll hum all day, happiness—or at […]
Reader’s Best Friend
Having a pet is not an even trade. Sure, we provide the gravy train, but think about what it would cost us to see live comedians, acrobats, or therapists who are half as entertaining or therapeutic as our dogs, cats, horses, hamsters, or even goldfish? I don’t know about you, but I’d be in the poorhouse in no time flat.
Smart, loyal, and offering unconditional love: anyone who has ever curled up with a good book and a good pet (or two, or more) understands about a reader’s best friend.
Arbor Vitae: Give Thanks
Arbor Vitae—Latin for Tree of Life. But in truth, aren’t all trees? Of all the things people give thanks for when they go around the gravy-laden table, you usually don’t hear, “I’m thankful for trees.” Doesn’t happen. But considering that a large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people, […]