Original Painting by Lore Pemberton. My friend protecting her plants.Image originally from National Geographic 1976.
These three above selections were shared by my friend and this is what I think has been brewing for awhile in my heart, but started coming out as I simmered a bit over them. A collage of bits of letters, ephemera, and poetry for you! ♥️🌿
Nature🌲 and books 📚 – two of my very favorite things! ♥️
Hi Friends! I’m loving all the summer space to soak in GREEN & BOOKS. I’m closing out the books 😉, so to speak, on my favorite second quarter reading today! Here’s first quarter’s favorites, if you are interested. I had a WONDERFUL few months of reading and I was surprised how they fell into a few main genres with a couple of wildcards. I’m grouping my snippet reviews under those for your ease! Happiest Reading!
Historical Fiction ~
Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth by Shelia O’Conner ~ 5 stars – lovely tale told through letters between a young girl and an older gentleman on her paper route. This is set during the Vietnam War and addresses conscientious objectors, war, prejudice, family, and is SO well done.
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck ~ 4 stars – set during the Great Depression/Dust Bowl era we follow a family leaving Oklahoma to find work in California. This gorgeously written, raw, heartfelt, and disturbing. I will be thinking about it for a long time. Ma Joad was my favorite character to follow. Adult content and language.
Paint Chips by Susie Finkbeiner ~ 4 stars – sobering and disturbing look at a mother (and her twin sister) and daughter’s journey through abuse and sexual trafficking. The Christian message was super well done, woven through this contemporary setting and difficult topic. This was told through alternating chapters and flashbacks. Good twist at ending.
Rose & Thistle by Laura Franz ~ 4 stars – this is a Christian historical fiction/ romance that I felt was pretty well done. A little bit of the clean cheesy romance, but overall, lovely setting and characters! This was set in England/ Scotland around the Jacobite Rebellion.
Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee ~ 4 stars – I really enjoyed this YA historical fiction that I received for my birthday about a Chinese American girl in the late 1800’s in Atlanta. Some of it seemed a wee bit unbelievable, but overall, so interesting with great characters, humor, and twists!!!! There was one weird, random sexual moment so FYI, if you are handing it to teens.
The Princess Game by Melanie Cellier ~ 4 stars – unique, clean retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Interesting twist on fairytale, great main characters, plot, and action.
The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang ~ 4 stars – I really loved this Asian (Japanese?)-inspired elemental magic fantasy novel. It started off VERY slow, but I grew to love the characters, mothering, family aspect to this and some deep, beautiful lessons about growing through terrible circumstances. FYI: This is EXTREMELY violent with sword-type warfare, war crimes etc.
Katherine Wentworth by D. E. Stevenson ~ 5 stars – so gentle, full of peace, hope, nature, and a charming cottage. Second chance story with lovely mother & children. This reminds me slightly of The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery, although not quite as quirky!
Mrs. Lorimer’s Quiet Summer by Molly Clavering ~ 5 stars – I read a lot of stories set in Scotland 🏴 this quarter! Must be a sign. 😉😍 A sweet family tale set in beautiful Scottish scenery. I found out that Clavering and D.E. Stevenson were friends. 😍
Because of Sam by Molly Clavering ~ 4 stars – A widow and her adult daughter living in Scotland! 😂🥰 Sweet, humorous story with lots of delicious domestic details. I’ve read 3 of Clavering’s 8 novels so far and they are charming.
The Alpine Path by L.M. Montgomery ~ 5 stars -reread. A short memoir on Montgomery’s creative journey.
School Education by Charlotte Mason ~ 5 stars – reread. A challenging and encouraging vision for learning with children. The appendices are so helpful for practical application, too
Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson ~ 5 stars – a haunting poem that I so enjoyed. Thanks, Anne Shirley, for the recommendation. 😉😍
Unearthing the Secret Garden by Marta McDowell ~ 5 stars – such a lovely look at the 3 gardens created by Frances Hodgson Burnett in her lifetime.
Ourselves by Charlotte Mason ~ 5 stars – beautiful Christian philosophy for life! Reread with a friend!
The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell ~ 4 stars – a Victorian novella/short story. I read and discussed this on Zoom with Booktube group. Beautiful setting, interesting widow with two children and how good parenting can make a difference. A bit over the top twisted ending, but overall, enjoyable.
Lonesome Road by Patricia Wentworth ~ a Golden Age-type mystery. The third in the Miss Silver mystery series. Very interesting and fun mystery solved by an older woman. I like these a little better than Miss Marple.
What a wonderful reading quarter! Can you believe we are halfway through the year? 😍📚🌲 What were your favorite reads the past few months? I’d love to chat below! ♥️
Grandma, Felix, and Mustapha Biscuit by Victor Ambrus ~ I love this, I hope this is me someday! 😄♥️🌿💗
Homemaking Inspiration from Emily of Deep Valley ~
After pumping a pail of fresh water, she went into get into dinner. She put potatoes to boil, fried pork chops and opened a jar of tomatoes she had canned the summer before. She laid a cloth on the dining room table and put on jelly, bread and butter, a pot of tea. They sat down and her grandfather said grace. Through the bow window in which his easy chair stood, they could see small crooked willows and the slough, still wet from the spring rains. Some Syrian boys had a homemade boat in the pond. ♥️🌿
From the southeast came a steady summer wind that whispered sleepily around the house and on across the island. She could hear the weather report on the radio inside the house. A corner of sunshine edged across the windowsill.
Tove Jansson, The Summerbook, p.27
~Tove~
weird and wacky, yes
brightly thoughtful, I am seen
sun, moomins, and me
~ 🌲A. M. Pine🌲
What about you? Who’s art do you feel “seen” by? Tove’s combination of beautiful writing, bright painting, and whimsical illustration is a feast for me. ♥️💕🌿
Hope this finds you well. I’m pulling the old “my brain is so full I’m going to try and empty it by dumping on my blog” trick. 🤪😂♥️ Thanks for listening with your eyes and I’m sure, heart. 😌♥️ Our homeschool year is s-l-o-w-l-y winding down, we still have a field trip and a couple loose threads to tie up. Three GLORIOUS summer months stretch out in front of me full of “GREENING POWER” as Macrina Wiederkehr writes. More on her later!
I’ve been reading a lot, maybe a bit TOO much 🙃🤓📚, excessive amounts of reading escapism and excessive food have been my obsessions when feeling stressed, pressed, and down right exhausted. I’m declaring yet again popcorn abstinence 😅, more water & walk therapy, and staying far, faraway from sugar/ flour. I feel so much better when I do so. As for reading choices, I do feel I’m balancing light & fluffy (Dean Street Press books are my current favorites) with some learning (as a human, woman, Christian, homeschooler, writer, I need to always be learning!) and some hard for just challenging perspective and understanding. I recently finished the heart wrenching Grapes 🍇 of Wrath by John Steinbeck and wow, going to be thinking on that one for awhile. I’m so fascinated by the Great Depression era and the Dust Bowl currently.
The eyes of the whole family shifted back to Ma. She was the power. She had taken control. “The money we’d make wouldn’t do no good,” she said. “All we got is the family unbroken. Like a bunch of cows, when the lobos are ranging, stick all together. I ain’t scared while we’re all here, all that’s alive, but I ain’t gonna see us bust up.
John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
Bittersweet Nightshade 💜🖤💛💜🖤💛
I find myself returning to favorites when stressed so I’ve been listening to Wives & Daughters with the amazing reader Prunella Scales. It’s included with my Audible account. This is my 3rd time through and there is something just SO comforting about Mrs. Gaskell’s writing. I’ve also watch bits of my current favorite movie 🎥 and I adore it. I believe “Totoro” by Studio Ghibli will calm even a hardened criminal down. 😅
I’ve also been thinking about my summer reading plans. BookTube {niche YouTube category 🤓📚}has really helped me be a bit more purposeful about my choices, but I have to be very careful to balance that with margin for mood reading. I’m currently very interested in Native American/Indigenous stories, especially historical fiction/biographies/poetry. I asked for a poetry anthology for my birthday (June is my birth month!) , so hopefully 🤞🏻 I’ll be digging into that this summer.? I’m also super interested in archaeology , geography/geopolitics from a relational or conversational or “living” side. So in other words, not dry. 🤪😅 Do you have any recommendations? Someone mentioned Eric Cline, so I may try his archaeology book.
I’m also interested in Asian history, creativity memoirs (I’ve read ALOT of these, so I’m only interested in ones that will blow my mind 😂) , historical fiction on “side wars” not the World Wars, a bit burned out on those. I’m also on a search for authors similar to Maud Hart Lovelace and L.M. Montgomery. I realize the two Mauds are a tough acts to follow, but I’m looking for sweet family-centric, “life softening” type stories. So far, I’ve enjoyed some D.E. Stevenson, Susan Scarlett, and Molly Clavering. How’s your reading been going? Any books you are excited about this summer?
In other cheerful news 😅, I’ve been thinking about these lyrics and how so much of our world and culture is fake & dead ☠️😂. There’s a part in the MV, where the artists are with sand, water, wind, fire…and it just touches me deeply about the finiteness of this all. It’s floating and blowing away. The artist Suga smiles at the flames and as a Christian woman, I want to smile at the hard things of this world, not in denial or despair, but in a realization that it’s the spiritual that really matters. All else is going to be gone. As a pilgrim just passing through this place, I find joy in knowing that the suffering that so many are going through is finite. Catholic poetic and mystic, Macrina Wiederkehr’s book of poetry and short devotions called, “Seasons of Your Heart: Prayers & Reflections” has been so lovely, hopeful, and inspiring, touching on some of these very themes. A Christmas gift from my friend. I’m hoping to get more of her writings soon.
I’m the slowest soul to try new apps etc 🙃, but I finally got the Libby app and have been so happy checking out audiobooks and kindle things from the library! Yes, you do have to wait longer, but it’s so convenient and inexpensive. I’m trying this above manga series via Kindle and the library. How cool is that? Guess what? The manga pages turn the opposite way in Kindle, too! 🤯🤣My 4 yo son and I planted some moonflowers after I bought him a book for his birthday about them. I really hope they grow and we can watch them bloom in the evenings! 😍😌♥️Speaking of birthdays, our birthday “season” is done here at the end of July and *whispering*, I always sigh in relief. 😂♥️
Do you have ‘heart homes’? I’ve been thinking about the places that have really meant something to me over my life. Of course, there’s big amazing places, like Prince Edward Island and The Lake District, Cumbria 😏, but smaller, intimate places that I’ve visited that spoke soul-speak straight deep down. I have a few and had a chance to travel to them recently. I also often realize that the place God’s given me to curl up in currently is a stunning place. Right at my fingertips, right out my door.
Otherwise, here’s a list that swirling in the gray matter 🧠 , my love and desire to know more of tamaracks/larches and birches, Julie Cameron’s Walking in This World”, my favorite from her, my penpals, Hetty Feather series I want to check more into, loving the first audiobook, wanting to learn more about watercolors, pen & ink illustrations, thinking and loving Moon Jumpers by Janice May Udry and all the magazines to catch up on. Also, how in the world can I resurrect a floundering writing practice? By writing, of course, Amy. 🤯🤪😅🤓 I’ll leave you with more reading and nature photos, thanks for being here. Please chat with me below! What’s on your mind? 😍♥️ Till next time, grace and peace through beautiful Jesus to you!
I have reasoned it out to myself long ago that by nature I am lazy. I believe if I allowed myself I should be always dreaming & never doing anything. Best being forced either to work or to own none of the graces and beauties of life. I have will power enough to compel myself to do things. Human beings can do anything they set their minds to-if they set them hard enough.
Frances Hodgson Burnett – quote from Unearthing the Secret Garden: The Plants & Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett by Marta McDowell, p.44
Hello, friends and fellow beauty chasers! ♥️☺️🌿 I’m finally getting a chance to list my favorite reads from the first quarter of this year! Hopefully, you find a delicious new read among these!
Dragonfly Poolby Eva Ibbotson- 5 stars 🌟 This is a children’s WWII historical fiction with a classic feel to it! We follow Tally as her widowed father sends her out of the city to an alternative, unschooling-type boarding school. This felt so cozy and it reminded me of our Charlotte Mason homeschool. Matthias was such an interesting character and there was an assignation plot with a Nazi angle.
The Thirteenth Childby Patricia C. Wrede- 4.5 stars 🌟this was a slow, introspective clean YA fantasy! It is an alternative history of the westward expansion in America’s frontier. Magical beasts threaten the pioneers and magicians help set protective barriers. Eff is the 13th child of a family of 14 children and seeing the world through her eyes was interesting! I love stories with big families! The 2nd in this series is a bit slow, love the 3rd.
Live No Lies by John Mark Comer – 5 stars 🌟 This reads like a classic nonfiction on the Christian faith. This was super challenging and a high calling while being “relevant”, in which Comer shared his thoughts on today’s cultural and spiritual landscape. He really dove into the resistance of the world, the flesh, and the devil with Scriptures and practicing spiritual disciplines. It will be interesting to see if the specific topics he addressed will make this book feel dated, but I really was challenged!
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien – 5 stars 🌟 (reread) What can I say?! My reread of this was only made more wonderful by discussing this via Zoom with some Booktuber friends. 😄♥️
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arim – 5 stars 🌟(reread) This was sooo what I needed to read at the time I picked it up! Beauty and nature as a healing agent, the intricacies of marriage, being fully human, religion vs. relationships, and so much more! This follows the lives of four women who spend April together in an Italian villa. I also rewatched the film and it was just as good as I remembered!
Sinking City by Christine Cohen – 4 stars 🌟 wonderful, clean YA fantasy set in a dreamy Italian setting. Creepy sea creatures have a mysterious pack with the Italian nobles. We follow the daughter of one of these nobles who has to take matters into her own hands and teems with a powerful, unstable magician!
Dragon & Thief by Timothy Zahn – 5 stars 🌟 This is the 1st in the Dragonback series, a children’s sci-fi fantasy story! This surrounds a symbiotic relationship between dragon-like alien and a orphaned boy! The dragon becomes a tattoo on the boy’s back. They work together to try and find out who betrayed the dragon’s kinsfolk and to clear the boy’s name.
Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison – 4.5 stars🌟 The plight of the working class weighs on Ella’s shoulders and Prince Dash is lost without the curse that has plagued their family for generations. Fairy-Godfather Serge is struggling to return to his roots of caring for people in a meaningful way. These three characters as well as many others, converge into a WONDERFUL adventure story with a surprising deeper message. One caveat, I wouldn’t give this to younger children, due to some content.
Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes – 4.5 stars 🌟 This 1940’s thriller/ mystery follows a married couple who find themselves falling into an espionage plot right before Britain entered WWII! This was a psychological, slower, introspective story and I loved the married couple’s relationship. Slight humor and the last third of the novel picks up the pace.
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park – 5 stars 🌟 Tree-Ear and Crane- Man are lovely characters in this story set in 12th century Korea. Tree-Ear admires and befriends a celadon potter. Beautiful lessons about found family, hard work, and love.
The Doll’s House by Rumer Godden – 5 stars 🌟 This follows two girls and their doll family, with interwoven reality and “unreality”. So poignant , deep, thoughtful, and full of longing. About family, love, and what does it mean to be alive. This is very sad and maybe a bit scary for a sensitive child. The Tasha Tudor illustrations make it shine. I read this with a friend via Voxer.
Gods, Graves, and Scholars by C.W. Mercam – 4 stars 🌟 I believe I got this recommendation from Carol years ago and I’m so happy I finally tackled it! This was a fascinating nonfiction look at archeological discoveries up to about the 1950’s and the people that broke the codes, made the discoveries, or dug up the ruins. Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Central America/Mexico finds were all touched on. I think what I loved most about this is how much this tied into my Bible reading especially in the beginning Old Testament books, because this made the Bible come alive.
Evelina by Francis Burney – 4 stars 🌟 This long novel is said to be Jane Austen’s favorite! This was set in the 1700’s and is full of subtle, snarky British humor and a lot of class dynamics. I can definitely see Burnley’s influence on Austen’s writing. I found the excessive formality hilarious and there was a large cast of quirky characters. This has very little plot, but it was interesting to follow the young woman, Evelina, as she navigates growing older and finding her way in society. I listened an audiobook of this and really enjoyed the reader.
How about you? What have you read this year that you REALLY enjoyed? I’d love to chat below! ♥️🌿
Simplicity is the special quality of Kindness; people can be kind only when all their thoughts are given to the person or creature they are kind to, and when there is no backward glance to see how the matter affects self.
•monochromatic children playing in school yard, black & bright splashes against the drab gray of early spring• puddles fizz-pluming under my tires•theater life, two children’s makeup-encrusted smiles, as they see me gazing up at them, role reversal•spring yard clean up, imprints left in the soaked grass• bags of purge waiting to be someone else’s treasure•ruddy grinning cheeks, watery eyes, runny noses, muddy springy play, cold wind grasping at straws•
•bookish mugs for bits & bobs, gifts from friends • soft-colored sticky tags, enough to share• splashes of color against red-brown brick• discussing Grapes of Wrath, sipping oat milk latte, and conversation with a sweet friend• foam heart on latte, day of small things• little boy with bandana, ninja, he says• blocks on book shelf in alternating pattern• epic soundtrack as I slip through gray countryside, just a hint of green under her skirts•an unexpected flash of stain glass•
•little bodies being compass roses, pointing arms north•almost 14 yo birthday gift buying, disconcertingly not little girl things anymore • shafts & shadows of longer sunlight •shockingly orange chairs• midwestern goodbyes •surprise book won, Katherine Wentworth by D.E. Stevenson • reviewing, revamping, & renewing rhythms• charming nooks & crannies•
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 