It wasn’t as straightforward as you might think
Interpretation of a Life
A recent biography of L.M. Montgomery got me thinking about accuracy and interpretation
Reading Home
Connecting with a literature of your own
A Year of Books in Review
An alternative to a “2018 Reads” list
Books on Our Shelves: What They Tell Others about Ourselves
What does your collection say about you?
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A Brief Essay of/on Book Pairings
An essayistic approach to reading
On How to Choose a Book
Among the myriad of titles, how to choose just one
The Appeal of Children’s Literature as a Grownup Person
On Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, and NOT writing for children
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Blogging in Spite of Myself
I began this post a year ago, shortly after I made Commonplace Book Blog live and published my first post. Or, it may be more accurate to say that I gave this post its current title, and it's been sitting in my "drafts" folder, devoid of any other words, ever since. I didn't know what…
The Pithy Aphorisms of George Eliot
"Aphorism" isn't a term we hear often. More commonly, we are more familiar with its close cousins: adage, maxim, proverb, or more rarely, sententia. But I'd heard the term "aphorism" tossed around during my time in my MFA in creative nonfiction, and have thought a lot about it since, especially after beginning my commonplace book. When collecting quotes, aphorisms…
