woman reading

Lessons in timely reading

Have you ever experienced the pure serendipity of reading a book at the precise moment you needed to read it? Perhaps you started reading a book about characters learning to grieve, as you were learning to grieve. Or you read a book with a protagonist overcoming an obstacle that you were also attempting to overcome. Regardless of how it comes about, the impact of timely reading can be life-giving, sometimes life-changing, even if it’s in the subtlest of ways.

(more…)
mother holding child's hand_pink jackets

Mothers in fiction

In the wake of US Supreme Court Justice Alito’s leaked drafted opinion regarding Roe v. Wade and Mother’s Day, which was yesterday, I am wondering: Does fiction about mothers and motherhood reveal more about our society and how it treats women than we readily acknowledge? Mothers in fiction are typically distraught, depressed, scared, prone to run away, etc.

(more…)