Reading Circle Books

Lifelong learning together

Ex Libris

On Being Broken

I am a huge fan of the listener-essay series, This I Believe, on NPR. With the tagline, “a public dialogue about belief–one essay at a time,” this reincarnation of a 1950’s radio show is a deep trove of thoughtful and beautiful writing, as well as a great resource for teaching and learning to write. If […]

Learn More

Writing Tips from Hobgoblins, Pandas, and Doves

The fantastically helpful Janice Campbell has reviewed Miss Thistlebottom’s Hobgoblins: The Careful Writer’s Guide to the Taboos, Bugbears, and Outmoded Rules of English Usage; Lynn Truss’ (or is that Truss’s?) aggressive panda is back for the kids in Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!, and from his first year English […]

Learn More

State of the Union, and the Best Speeches Ever

Now that American Gladiators is over (go, Wolf!), we are sitting in the living room watching the State of the Union Address. For us, this has become an Event, like the World Series or the Olympics. It is something bigger than our family, something that we share with our kids and try hard to help […]

Learn More

A Good Day for the Beginnings of Journeys

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood

I must admit that I think it a bit ironic that the maiden book discussion here at RCB is about a journey to birth. This has been a dream of my husband’s for a while, but I never thought I would be leading the first discussion! I first began reading Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey […]

Learn More

What Are Blogs? Not Monologues but Conversations

Here at the beginning of the 21st Century, the internet connects us (however imperfectly) across barriers of geography, race, class, age, ability, family situation, income, education, religion, culture, and even language. The monologue of the powerful few, for good or ill, is overcome by connections among the many. With those connections come power — ordinary people like you and me are given the power (and therefore the responsibility) of participation in each others’ lives.

Learn More

Our first Reading Circle!

Kriss over at Circle M Farm suggested Having Faith after reading author Sandra Steingraber’s earlier book, Living Downstream. We’ll be reading it together beginning in January, 2008, with Nicole Five Pennies as our host. So go look up Kris’ wonderful invitation to read together, get your copy (the little blue box by the title will […]

Learn More

Reading the Foundations of Religious Freedom

Kenneth Jackson, writing in the New York Times, commemorates the 350th anniversary of the Flushing Remonstrance, written in 1657 by Edward Hart and his fellow Flushing, New York, citizens to protest the public torture of a Quaker preacher and the fining and imprisonment of non-Quakers who allowed them to meet in their homes. Jackson notes […]

Learn More

What is the eternal city?

With a little Roman history and Latin under your belt, you end up seeing more everywhere…. –Harry Mount, A Vote for Latin. I completely agree–with a big thank you to Mrs. Robesonand her teaching descendants today, who taught me lingua latina and classical humanities at Lane Technical High School, and introduced me to the depths […]

Learn More

A Thanksgiving Tale from Alice’s Restaurant

There were people singing this song together who, politically, had nothing in common and probably wouldn’t have talked to each other…. It’s just the story of a little guy against a big world. It’s not so much an anti-war song as a song against stupidity…

Learn More