Sentimental Shores

Misty of Chincoteague book cover, photo courtesy Harford County Public Library

The warm summer sun has set me adrift to another place and another time. I’m compelled to visit a novel cherished by many girls of my generation: Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague, published in 1947.

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Book Burning

 

If you’ve ever fantasized about throwing up your hands … don’t. They can be real page turners.

But really now.

If you’ve ever fantasized about throwing up your hands, leaving everything behind, and taking up painting in a seaside cottage, this read will have you glued to its pages. Welcome to Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

Chances are, being a garden-minded gal, you’ve read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett at least once in your life. But maybe you haven’t, or maybe it has been too long since you let yourself get lost in the lush tendrils and vines of this timeless story. That’s the beauty of The Secret Garden – rather than gathering dust over the years, it somehow blooms fresh every time you read it.

Even now, a century after its original publication, you’ll find yourself wandering through its pages like the paths of a garden, peeking among the leaves and delighting in the discovery of a new flower or fruit that you hadn’t noticed before.

Here, let me show you …

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A Plain Jane

This week, my bookish brain is fixated on Jane Eyre (pronounced AIR). You know I can never resist another Jane, let alone a good story about raising a Jane. Well, a new film version of the book was released a few months ago, and it sure does look intriguing. But Jane Eyre isn’t all romance and intrigue, though there’s plenty of that.

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To Be of Use

Haven’t you always admired people who “jump into work head first”? Are you one of those people who strain “in the mud and muck to move things forward”? (For sure, there’s plenty of mud and muck to go around, and I’m not talking mud and muck.)

And if we’re not going to dive right in and strive for meaningful work, what Marge Piercy calls, “work that is real,” why bother?

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