Maria Parr, Poor Bishop Hooper, and, my new hero, Suzanne Maxon

& more!

For the Littles:
Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
We recognized Blackall’s illustrations straightaway because of our obsession with A Fine Dessert, and this book was both lovely to look at and poetically written. It is the story of a lighthouse keeper’s life, the rhythms and changes over time. The dramas of saving sailors, live births, deadly-illnesses contrast sharply to the changes the lighthouse undergoes at the end (not to give away the ending!).

Family Readaloud:
Lena, the Sea, and Me by Maria Parr
I am a huge fan of Parr’s book Adventures with Waffles…but this sequel was disappointing. The translation isn’t as good. The drama is more middle-school kid oriented and just not as funny and entertaining as the first book. I love Trille as a character but found him kind of whiney in this one. Overall, I’d skip it!
(I was going to do it as a readaloud, but we’re in book 3 of AoK and book 4 of Borrowers—so I ended up reading through this on my own though it is the grade-level I would typically choose for a readaloud.)

For Myself:
EveryPsalm Songs of Ascent Devotional by Poor Bishop Hooper
My family and I enjoy the music of Poor Bishop Hooper, both their Psalm paraphrases and their original works, and this devotional did not disappoint. The format is that they have an overview of the Psalms of Ascent history and structure first. Then with each devotional, you can read the associated Psalm, their paraphrased lyrics, a quote from a theologian, and a prayer. I think this would be an excellent resource to go through with a Bible study or as a family like we are.

Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk by Michelle DeRusha
I liked this book and would recommend it, BUT there were quite a few times where the author inserted her own opinion drawing conclusions that may or may not be true. For example, there was some part where Luther had a bunch of students hanging around him, and DeRusha comments on how Luther condemned the Pope for enjoying fame, but seemed to enjoy it himself. Maybe so? But I would have liked more evidence to back up that statement. If you kind of keep that in the back of your mind though, to look for evidence for unqualified conclusions, it was a pretty straightforward biography of a marriage, and did not lesson my admiration for Katharina.

Movement by Suzanne Maxson
The poetry world tends to celebrate the emerging artist, the young promising writers who come into the writing world in a whirlwind. I have been finding, however, what an over-looked treasure older poets may be. Movement is Maxson’s debut collection, and, judging from the back cover, she has to be at least…well it would be rude for me to guess her age, but maybe as old as my grandma. And I’m no spring chicken. Age aside, there’s a depth of wisdom in these poems that you just don’t find in most debut collections. Much of her poetry asks questions concerning privilege, wealth, the brevity of life (she doesn’t have a website, but I found some of her poems HERE). A good example and one of her shorter poems is “The Shoes in My Closet,” where she utilizes rhyme to create almost a chant-like rhythm, culminating into asking “Is it right that I own these many shoes / for every possible weather, work / or celebration, while so many / have no shoes?” So if you want a collection that will make you slow down and consider life for a moment, I highly recommend Movement.

Writing Updates:
Exciting/disappointing news—my work-in-progress was a finalist for the National Poetry Award! I was excited to see it get so close in such a big contest!

Coffee + Crumbs included a poem about my daughter’s hatred of bees in their Fall Issue: “An Elegy for Bees”

The Rabbit Room published my essay on how to organize a poetry manuscript.