This week I felt compelled to compile a list of book titles that can be used to teach empathy. Before I share this list with librarians and teachers in my district I wanted to share my motivation for doing so... It is challenging being a teacher when traumatic events unfold. I taught 12th grade English … Continue reading Books That Teach Empathy
Author: Lisa Helm
Reflecting on 2020 and setting goals for 2021
Welcome, 2021! Last week I reflected on my year of reading. The titles, the genres, the authors. Around March last year, I had to take the reality of my “COVID mindset” and my inability to focus into consideration and set a milestone much lower than I usually do at 50 books. As an English teacher … Continue reading Reflecting on 2020 and setting goals for 2021
Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys
Truth be told I picked up this book because my mother’s side of the family comes from Saskatchewan, and years ago my mother taught in Weyburn. She had lots of teaching stories to share but I don’t ever remember her telling me about the mental hospital. Leonard’s is our protagonist. Leonard’s only friend in the … Continue reading Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys
Purging in Purgatory
You know that place you sometimes go where you feel all itchy and unsettled inside. Like you don’t know if you should go out and run a mile or just sit down on the floor in a puddle and try to cry? You’re feeling something but you can’t quite name it? You’re not happy, you’re … Continue reading Purging in Purgatory
Shards of Bare Mute Blackness
I keep journals. Journals possessing emotional streams of consciousness. Travel journals. Journals that read as an itemization of my day. Journals with ideas and impressions from anything and everything. But I also have a journal filled with quotes. Quotes from novels. Lines from poems. Dialogue from movies. Chains of words I find especially poignant and … Continue reading Shards of Bare Mute Blackness
Corpora vs Spiritus
"The day of the corpora is the night for the spiritus. When the bodies cease their labour the spirits in man begin their work. The waking of the body is the sleep of the spirit and the spirit's sleep a waking for the body." (Paracelsus cited in Lawrence Durrell's "Justine") Well, this explains why I'm … Continue reading Corpora vs Spiritus
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Adaline lives in 17th century France with 17th-century societal expectations- she must marry. Now Addie doesn’t want to get married. She wants to travel and learn and meet new people. She definitely doesn’t want to keep a home and have babies. So she does the only thing she can do to get out and makes … Continue reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Delicates
Delicates is the second in a graphic novel series by Breena Thummler. Where the first novel Sheets introduces us to Marjorie Glatt’s story and her story, Delicates continues her story but also introduces us to a new character Eliza Dunn. At the beginning of Delicates, Marjorie is still coming to terms with her mother’s death with the support of … Continue reading Delicates
A Meditation on Thornton Wilder
“There arose a perfume of tenderness, that ghost of passion which, in the most unexpected relationship, can make a whole lifetime devoted to irksome duty pass like a gracious dream” (pg. 74) The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. I have fallen in love with Thorton Wilder because of this quote. How wonderful … Continue reading A Meditation on Thornton Wilder
A Book To Read on Remembrance Day
I’m not a “re-reader”. I rarely re-read books mainly because there are so many stories out there just waiting to be read I don’t want to “waste” my time visiting the ones I already know. One story I DO revisit at least once a year is the novel A Long Long Way by Sabastian Barry. … Continue reading A Book To Read on Remembrance Day
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Ok, I've read a lot lately about Matt Haig's books. I've meant to increase my exposure to speculative fiction, and Haig's books seem as good a place to start. If you look on Goodreads, almost all of his books have a 4+ star rating (not that Goodreads ratings matter. Ok, Goodreads reviews may gently nudge … Continue reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Covid Conundrum
I wanted to read.But I couldn’tI wanted to write.But I didn’t.I am at a time in life that is opaque, where there are no bold lines, only shadow and shades. So I have begun to redefine myself. On the cusp of retirement, a time when I aspire to hone my passions and strengths (without being … Continue reading Covid Conundrum
The Sound of Lightening
We are having a bout of hot weather and lightning storms before the arrival of autumn. I love the sound of lightning. No, I don’t mean thunder. I don’t like thunder. It sounds ominous and threatening and downright mean. But lightening…the flash in the distance. The moments of silence. The beauty without the boom. It’s … Continue reading The Sound of Lightening
