Thinking Ahead: Books On My Reading List for 2022

(Last updated December 30, 2021)

Some of these are carryovers that didn't get located or started or finished this past year (or the one before that). But there's always hope.

Adler, Mortimer J., How to Think about the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization 

Collingwood, R.G., The Principles of Art 

Desai, Anita, Clear Light of Day 

Dreher, Rod, Live Not by Lies 

Earley, Justin Whitmel, The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction  

Eliot, T.S., Complete Poems and Plays 

Froese, Paul, On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life 

Frye, Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism 

Frye, Northrop, The Great Code 

Frye, Northrop, Northrop Frye on Shakespeare 

Fujimura, Makoto, Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture (2009) 

Fujimura, Makoto, Art and Faith (2021) 

Gardner, Howard, Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet 

Gill, Shira, Minimalista

Guite, Malcolm, Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God 

Highet, Gilbert, The Art of Teaching 

Jacobs, Alan, Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind 

Jauss, David, Words Overflown by Stars: Creative Writing Instruction and Insight from the Vermont College MFA Program 

L'Engle, Madeleine, Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life 

Levitin, Daniel J., The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

Lewis, C.S., The Signature Classics (seven books in a bindup) 

MacDonald, Thoreau, Notebooks

Nicolson, Adam, The Making of Poetry: Coleridge, the Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels 

Peterson, Andrew, Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making  

Peterson, Andrew, The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom 

 Peterson, Jordan B, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life 

Ramsey, Russ, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith 

Shakespeare, William, Selected plays 

Toews, Miriam, All My Puny Sorrows 

White, Dana K., Organizing for the Rest of Us

Wood, Michael, Shakespeare

I changed my reading list: a 2021 Challenge

Charlotte Mason labels eleven catagories of books as Some Instructors of Conscience. Here's the list:

1. Poetry, preferably spending time with one poet

2. Shakespeare’s plays

3. Novels, with characters who “become our mentors or our warnings”

4. Ever-delightful essayists

5. History, including ancient history

6. Philosophy, to allow reason to work upon knowledge

7. Theology, including the Bible

8. The things of nature

9. Science, so that “we no longer conduct ourselves in this world of wonders like a gaping rustic at a fair” (p. 101)

10. Art, approached “with the modest intention to pay a debt…”

11. Sociology and Self-Knowledge

Here's my 2021 list:

1. Poetry, preferably spending time with one poet

Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing Poetry, by Kenneth Koch (includes a mini-anthology of poetry)

Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996, by Seamus Heaney

The Making of Poetry: Coleridge, the Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels, by Adam Nicolson

 Polishing the Petoskey Stone: Selected Poems, by Luci Shaw

2. Shakespeare’s plays

Northrop Frye on Shakespeare, edited by Robert Sandler

Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream (two of the plays discussed in Frye's book)

3. Novels, with characters who “become our mentors or our warnings”

Okay. Since I have no intuition about where to go with this one, I'll take Alan Jacobs' recommendations:

"Let me mention two (relatively recent) novels that I think are so wonderful that we should have parades for their authors. The first is Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day, a heartbreakingly beautiful about memory, loss, and the love of family...It’s generaly acknowledged, I think, that War and Peace is the greatest historical novel ever written. Well, then, the second greatest is George Garrett’s The Succession. And I totally mean that."

I haven't actually read War and Peace, either, so if I wanted to make my list a whole lot of pages longer,  that might be it.

4. Ever-delightful essayists

Would these count? 

Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind, by Alan Jacobs. From the publisher's website: "In Breaking Bread with the Dead, a gifted scholar draws us into close and sympathetic engagement with texts from across the ages, including the work of Anita Desai, Henrik Ibsen, Jean Rhys, Simone Weil, Edith Wharton, Amitav Ghosh, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Italo Calvino, and many more."

Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture, by Makoto Fujimura

Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, by Madeleine L'Engle

.Heaven in Ordinary, by Malcolm Guite (this is a book of his essays)

The Givenness of Things, by Marilynne Robinson

5. History, including ancient history

The Frayed Atlantic Edge: A Historian’s Journey from Shetland to the Channel, by David Gange

6. Philosophy, to allow reason to work upon knowledge

Maybe this counts? Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life, by Jordan B. Peterson

Or this? On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life, by Paul Froese

Introducing Plato, by Dave Robinson and Judy Groves

7. Theology, including the Bible

The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, by Dallas Willard

Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians: Finding Authentic Faith in a Forgotten Age with C. S. Lewis, by Chris R. Armstrong

8. The things of nature

A Sweet, Wild Note: What We Hear when the Birds Sing, by Richard Smyth

Winter Weed Finder: A Guide to Dry Plants in Winter, by Dorcas S. Miller

Weeds: the Story of Outlaw Plants, by Richard Mabey

9. Science, so that “we no longer conduct ourselves in this world of wonders like a gaping rustic at a fair” (p. 101)

If math counts, how about All Things Being Equal: Why Math Is the Key to a Better World, by John Mighton

10. Art, approached “with the modest intention to pay a debt…”

The Principles of Art, by R.G. Colllingwood

11. Sociology and Self-Knowledge

Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, by Nir Eyal

The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, by Daniel J. Levitin

Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet, by Howard Gardner

Miscellaneous:

Angels, Barbarians, and Nincompoops, by Anthony Esolen,  "a fun yet educational romp through 98 of your soon to be favorite words."

Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise, by Katherine Rundell

Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis, by Terry Lindvall

Words Overflown by Stars: Creative Writing Instruction and Insight from the Vermont College Mfa Program, by David Jauss

Tree and Leaf; Smith of Wootton Major; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace, by Gordon MacKenzie

I'm happy with that.

Twenty-five Top Books I Want To Read in 2021

Enough with long lists. If I get these done, I'll be happy. (A couple of them are re-reads or things that I almost finished in 2020.)

1, Angels, Barbarians, and Nincompoops

Esolen, Anthony

 

2. A Sweet, Wild Note: What We Hear when the Birds Sing

Smyth, Richard

3. Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life

Peterson, Jordan B.

 

4. The Frayed Atlantic Edge: A Historian’s Journey from Shetland to the Channel

Gange, David

 

5. All Things Being Equal: Why Math Is the Key to a Better World

Mighton, John

6. Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing Poetry

Koch, Kenneth

7. Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise

Rundell, Katherine

8. Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind

Jacobs, Alan

9. Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture

Fujimura, Makoto

10. Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis

Terry Lindvall

11. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God

Willard, Dallas

12. On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life

Froese, Paul

13. Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996

Heaney, Seamus

 

14. The Making of Poetry: Coleridge, the Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels

Nicolson, Adam

15. Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

Eyal, Nir

 

16. Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life

L'Engle, Madeleine

17. Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians: Finding Authentic Faith in a Forgotten Age with C. S. Lewis

Armstrong, Chris R.

 18. The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

Levitin, Daniel J.

19. Polishing the Petoskey Stone: Selected Poems

Shaw, Luci

 

20. Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet

Gardner, Howard

21.Heaven in Ordinary

Guite, Malcolm

 

22. Words Overflown by Stars: Creative Writing Instruction and Insight from the Vermont College Mfa Program

Jauss, David

23..Tree and Leaf; Smith of Wootton Major; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth

Tolkien, J.R.R.

24. Winter Weed Finder: A Guide to Dry Plants in Winter

Miller, Dorcas S.

 

25. Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace

MacKenzie, Gordon

Mama Squirrel's List of Books Read in 2020

This time last year, I made such a long list of things I wanted to read, but in a year when the cliché is that everybody had time to catch up on their reading, I didn't seem to. For the first time in a couple of years, I wasn't obligated to read any textbooks; but I was also busy making books of my own (four books in the Plutarch Project, plus an Advent devotional) plus other writing and curriculum projects (like an update to the Canadian version of AmblesideOnline); and sometimes I was just feeling the 2020 thing and not firing enough brain cells to get into a deep reading project.

Well, enough excuses. According to GoodReads, I finished 55 books this year, and that includes re-reads, and my own books that I had to mark as "read" because it would look silly if I didn't, but I'm not listing any of those here. It doesn't include things like  the Bible, Charlotte Mason, Plutarch, and other things that are ongoing.

I'm officially partway through several other books, but being as we're into December, I don't figure on finishing more than a couple more of them before the year's end.

And as always, just because it's on the list doesn't mean I recommend it.

Favourite Christian-themed book 

Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (John Piper)

Second-favourite

The Crime of Living Cautiously: Hearing God's Call to Adventure (Luci Shaw)

and

Breath for the Bones: Art, Imagination, and Spirit: Reflections on Creativity and Faith (Luci Shaw)

One that I wish I'd read a long time ago

Fern-seed and Elephants and other essays on Christianity (C.S. Lewis)

Favourite new Charlotte Mason-related book

In Vital Harmony: Charlotte Mason and the Natural Laws of Education (Karen Glass) (read it at least twice)

Non-fiction

Intentional Interruption: Breaking Down Learning Barriers to Transform Professional Practice (Steven Katz)

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (Thomas King)

Canoe Country: The Making of Canada (Roy MacGregor)

Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes (Dana Thomas)

Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale (Adam Minter)

Biography

Flannery O'Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith (Angela Alaimo O'Donnell)

Poetry

The Creatures' Choir (Carmen Bernos de Gasztold)

some of Wendell Berry's Sabbath poems (re-read)

Arts and Crafts Style

Living with Arts & Crafts (Ros Byam Shaw)

The Arts and Crafts Home (Kitty Turgeon)

Living in the Arts & Crafts Style: A Home Decorating Workbook (Charlotte Kelley)

Clothes, decluttering, and other practical things

Wardrobe Solutions (Susie Faux)

 The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good  (Elizabeth L. Cline)

Project 333: The Minimalist Fashion Challenge That Proves Less Really is So Much More (Courtney Carver)

My Style, My Way: Top Experts Reveal How to Create Yours Today (Cindy Ann Peterson)

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life (Marie Kondo)

Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day (Jake Knapp)

The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future (Ryder Carroll)

On A Personal Note - A Guide to Writing Notes with Style (Angela Ensminger)

The Perfect Setting (Peri Wolfman)

The Useful Book: 201 Life Skills They Used to Teach in Home Ec and Shop (David Bowers)

Wear, Repair, Repurpose: A Maker's Guide to Mending and Upcycling Clothes (Lily Fulop)

Mysteries, mindless and otherwise

The Cater Street Hangman (Anne Perry)

Murder Must Advertise (Dorothy L. Sayers)

The Man in the Brown Suit (Agatha Christie)  (re-read)

The Old Contemptibles (Martha Grimes)

Other fiction 

The Substitute Guest (Grace Livingston Hill)

The Mask of Apollo (Mary Renault)

To Be Where You Are (Jan Karon) (re-read)

Come Rain or Come Shine (Jan Karon) (re-read)

Plainsong (Kent Haruf)

 That Hideous Strength (C.S. Lewis)  (re-read)

Fidelity (Wendell Berry)

Blackout  (Connie Willis) (re-read)

All Clear (Connie Willis) (re-read)

The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories

 A City of Bells (Elizabeth Goudge)

Children's books

 The Lost Words (Robert Macfarlane)

A Child's Book of Composers: Lessons and Listening Guides for Composer Study (Hannah Hoyt)

 The Black Cauldron (The Chronicles of Prydain, #2) (Lloyd Alexander) (re-read)

The Castle of Llyr (The Chronicles of Prydain, #3) (Lloyd Alexander) (re-read)

 Taran Wanderer (The Chronicles of Prydain, #4) (Lloyd Alexander) (re-read)

 The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain, #5) (Lloyd Alexander) (re-read)

  Running Out of Time (Margaret Peterson Haddix)

Frugal Finds and Fixes: Lights... Action

Since we moved in here about a year and a half ago, a couple of the light fixtures have been on the want-to-change-that list. One is the hanging fixture over the dining table: it's a bit too low and has hard edges, so, bad combination if you're taller than I am (which includes almost everyone). The other problem light is the chandelier-thing that  hangs down from the ceiling in the loft area and lights the front hall. Mr. Fixit's opinion is that it was the original dining room fixture, repurposed for whatever reason. One problem with it is that the lights shine up instead of down (see the photo), so it isn't very effective, and the front hall is dark even with the light on. Also, it hasn't been working quite right; the bulbs burn out too fast.

 When we turned our clocks back on the first of the month, things got even darker (of course).

So we bought a new fixture (with lights hanging down), put the ladder up along the upstairs railing, and changed it. Mr. Fixit said that it was a good thing we did, because the old fixture definitely had some internal medical issues.

Much better.

Over the fall, Mr. Fixit and I have done quite a lot of thrifting. I've decided to step back from my own volunteering, but we have been checking out some of the other local thrift shops and antique markets pretty much every week. Mr. Fixit's finds are generally radios or pieces of audio equipment to restore, or things like power bars (he found a good set of T.V. rabbit ears this week). We've bought some pictures...

some table linens, a few baking dishes and other odds and ends...

An odd-shaped white dish that seems like it would be good for party food, but it can do candles too

The three teapots on the lower shelf were all found this year. Mr. Fixit gave me the first one for my birthday (from a thrift store), and the other two (which are pot-plus-cup combos) were also thrifted.

Candles, 

a DVD of Charlie Brown's Christmas, and three Christmas CDs. 

And a toy Rudolph (that's Mr. Fixit's).

Also some books.

(The Castle of Llyr was off wandering somewhere when I took this. The set is lacking The Book of Three, but I'm sure I'll find one sometime.

(I had a Kindle copy of Essentialism, but I picked up a print edition.)

Some of the things I've bought for myself have already been worked into clothes posts or shared on Instagram, so this is just a roundup.

I have had the best luck lately with sweaters, and sweater dresses.

(My dollar-corner cardigan find)

(Also a dollar)

Talbots striped cardigan. My daughter thinks it's from the early 2000's, and with that cranberry and purple combination I'm inclined to agree.  The funny thing was, I went thrifting with the idea of a multicoloured sweater in my head, and that's probably because I had been looking a few days earlier at a suede-and-handwoven sweater jacket in the vintage-clothes booth of at an antiques market, and wondering if I would actually wear it or if I should just pay my respects to it and walk away. Much like this one:

It was nice, but the thrifted version came close enough, and it goes with a lot of things already in my closet.

Another Talbots sweater, and this one's only a couple of years old. Bought "by the pound," which meant it came to less than a dollar. Yassss (as they say).

Not technically a sweater, but wants to be one. Fleece zippered poncho/cape, with snaps here and there so you can make sleeves, or crisscross the sides.

I've also done well this fall with scarves and earrings.

(That last one is for outdoors. It's getting cold.)

And in general, how are we doing at saving money?

Well, like the rest of the world, there are a lot of things we're not doing, i.e. spending money on. So that helps, I guess.

We are noticing that a lot of things are more expensive than they used to be, and they're not all optional: you have to eat, right? So that makes us doubly grateful for unexpected sales, needed things popping up at the dollar store, and thrifted finds. Things like table runners and candles don't just get stashed: we use them regularly to brighten up the dinner table.

Tonight's menu? Baked potato soup, with bacon on the side.

And that's it for this installment.

The long blog catch-up

So, yes, hello February. Like the groundhog, I'm coming out of our hole.

I think this is the longest blog hiatus I've ever taken in...fifteen years. (We started here in February 2005.) Although I don't have a 9 to 5 job, I do work at this and that, and the this and that seemed to wipe out blogging for the last while. 

I finished my Adult Ed courses early in December.

Then (aside from making cookies and stuff), I spent most of December working on a book project.

The current "other man" in my life is Pompey, as in Plutarch's Life Of. He's one of the few characters to earn a whole two terms of study in Charlotte Mason's schools (most just get one). Writing study notes for Pompey is like eating a foot-long sub instead of my usual six-inch. (We're Canadians. We still do not order subs in metric. Why's that?)

And then there has been thrift-store volunteering, books to read, places to go, and winter things. Not much snow shovelling here, though...at our former Treehouse, the driveway was a team effort and could take hours (depending on how much the city plow had added to nature's abundant gifts). Our townhouse has snow-clearing services, but occasionally you do want to clear off your space yourself.

Mr. Fixit and I have visited a few more antique markets and thrift stores around town than we usually do. This is partly so he can scout out electronics to fix, but also just for the fun of it, looking for household things, sometimes music or books. Or clothes. 

One day we went to an antiques place that had a vintage booth, and I left with a cowlneck sweater.

Purse from the Salvation Army store.

Artwork from Value Village.

Sweater and pants from the MCC store.

This white sweater is going to get a post of its own.

So what's new with you?

Mama Squirrel's Want-to-read List for 2020

I did not get to all the books on my 2019 wish-list (do I ever?), so there is some overlap. I don't have any required textbooks this year, but I do have some leftover education books I picked up, and one (Biesta) that I'd like to track down and read.

Earlier this year, Malcolm Guite published a list of five poets he recommends, and representative works for each, so I've included those even though I don't own any of those books.

Education

Biesta, Gert J.J.
The Beautiful Risk of Education

Gardner, Howard
Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet

Glass, Karen
In Vital Harmony

Katz, Steven
Intentional Interruption: Breaking Down Learning Barriers to Transform Professional Practice

Kohn, Alfie
The Schools Our Children Deserve

Mumaw, Stefan, and Wendy Lee Oldfield
Caffeine for the Creative Team: 150 Exercises to Inspire Group Innovation

Palmer, Parker J.
The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life

Words and Ideas

Greenfield, Susan A
Tomorrow's People: How 21st-Century Technology is Changing the Way We Think and Feel

Boyle, Mark
The Way Home: Tales from a Life Without Technology

Levitin, Daniel J.
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

Adler, Mortimer J.
How to Think about the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization

Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books
Schwartz, Lynne Sharon

Piper, John
Think!: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God

Lewis, C.S.
Fern-seed and Elephants, and Other Essays on Christianity

Armstrong, Chris R.
Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians: Finding Authentic Faith in a Forgotten Age with C. S. Lewis

Lindvall, Terry
Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis

Shaw, Luci
The Crime of Living Cautiously: Hearing God's Call to Adventure

O'Connor, Flannery
Spiritual Writings

O'Connor, Flannery
The Habit of Being (Letters)

Murray, Donald
Writing for your Readers

Jauss, David
Words Overflown by Stars: Creative Writing Instruction and Insight from the Vermont College Mfa Program

Guite, Malcolm
Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Oliver, Mary
A Poetry Handbook

Eagleton, Terry
How to Read a Poem

Behn, Robin
The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach

Koch, Kenneth
I Never Told Anybody: Teaching Poetry Writing in a Nursing Home

Fiction

Buechner, Frederick
Lion Country

Haruf, Kent
Plainsong (Plainsong, #1)

Tolkien, J.R.R.
Tree and Leaf, Smith of Wootton Major, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth

Biography

Chesterton, G.K.
St. Thomas Aquinas / St. Francis of Assisi

Lawson, Dorie McCullough
Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to their Children

Poetry

Cairns, Scott
Idiot Psalms

Di Cesare, Mario A. (ed.)
George Herbert and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Poets

Eliot, T.S.
Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917

Heaney, Seamus
Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996

Hill, Geoffrey
Tenebrae

Lewis, Gwyneth
Zero Gravity: A Space Requiem

Shaw, Luci
Harvesting Fog

Shaw, Luci
Polishing the Petoskey Stone: Selected Poems

Williams, William Carlos
Imaginations

Wordsworth, William
Selected Poems

Miscellaneous

Macfarlane, Robert
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

Aird, Paul Leet
Loon Laughter

Lawrence, Gale
The Beginning Naturalist: Weekly Encounters with the Natural World

Lochnan, Katharine A.
The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by William Morris and His Circle from Canadian Collections

Collingwood, R.G.
The Principles of Art

Cline, Elizabeth L.
The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good

Carver, Courtney
Project 333: The Minimalist Fashion Challenge That Proves Less Really Is So Much More

Minter, Adam
Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale

Mama Squirrel's List of Books Read in 2019

It has been an interesting year, and the books seemed to go in chunks. There were several books I really wanted to read but didn't have time or opportunity for, so they're going on next year's list.

As always, just because I read it doesn't mean I recommend it!


Maybe the book that influenced me the most this year

McKeown, Greg
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

A novel about researchers that unexpectedly helped me get through a course about research

Willis, Connie
Bellwether

Better in hardcover:

Karon, Jan
Patches of Godlight: Father Tim's Favorite Quotes

A book I was coerced into reading

Young, William Paul
The Shack

Another book I read quickly but didn't like as much as I wanted to

Magsamen, Sandra
Living Artfully: Create the Life You Imagine

Things I read for Adult Education and related term papers

Garvin, David A.
Learning in Action: A Guide to Putting the Learning Organization to Work

Gostick, Adrian
The Best Team Wins: The New Science of High Performance

Illeris, Knud
The Fundamentals of Workplace Learning: Understanding How People Learn in Working Life

Merriam, Sharan B.
Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation

Prior, Karen Swallow
On Reading Well

Raelin, Joseph A.
Work-Based Learning

Wolf, Maryanne
Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World

Things I read for Charlotte Mason-related pursuits

Kingsley, Charles
Madam How and Lady Why (re-read)

Mason, Charlotte M.
Formation of Character (Original Homeschooling #5) (re-read)

Mason, Charlotte M.
Parents and Children (Original Homeschooling #2) (re-read)

Salloum, J E
Our World-God's Visible Language: Visible Creation as Testimony to an Invisible Creator

Poetry and Kindred Thoughtfulness

Berry, Wendell
Our Only World: Ten Essays

Bestvater, Laurie
Studying to be Quiet: One Hundred Days of Keeping

Buechner, Frederick
A Crazy, Holy Grace: The Healing Power of Pain and Memory

Buechner, Frederick
Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation

Buechner, Frederick
Telling Secrets

Rumer Godden (translator), Carmen Bernos De Gasztold
Prayers from the Ark (re-read)

Guite, Malcolm
After Prayer: New sonnets and other poems

How to suddenly move and have to rethink your space

Bauwens, Liz
Country in the City: Relaxed Style for Modern Living

Becker, Joshua
The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life

Boyle, Erin
Simple Matters: Living with Less and Ending Up with More (re-read)

Florke, Randy
Restore. Recycle. Repurpose.: Create a Beautiful Home

Michaels, Melissa
Love the Home You Have

Mitchell, Ryan
Tiny House Living: Ideas for Building & Living Well in Less than 400 Square Feet

Postel-Vinay, Danielle
Home Sweet Maison: The French Art of Making a Home

Smith, Myquillyn
Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff

White, Dana K.
Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff (re-read)

White, Dana K.
How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind: Dealing with Your House's Dirty Little Secrets

How to kill time in the midst of moving

Maffini, Mary Jane
Organize Your Corpses (A Charlotte Adams Mystery, #1)

Maffini, Mary Jane
The Cluttered Corpse (A Charlotte Adams Mystery #2)

Maffini, Mary Jane
Death Loves a Messy Desk (A Charlotte Adams Mystery #3)

Maffini, Mary Jane
Closet Confidential (A Charlotte Adams Mystery #4) (re-read)

Maffini, Mary Jane
The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder (A Charlotte Adams Mystery #5)

Books about money, clothes, and sustainability stuff

Button, Tara
A Life Less Throwaway: The Lost Art of Buying for Life

Heti, Sheila
Women in Clothes

Imhoff, Daniel
Paper or Plastic

Jackson, Carole
Color Me Beautiful: Discover Your Natural Beauty Through the Colors That Make You Look Great and Feel Fabulous! (old book, re-read)

Linett, Andrea
The Cool Factor: A Guide to Achieving Effortless Style, with Secrets from the Women Who Have It

Long, Charles K.
How to Survive Without a Salary: Living the Conserver Lifestyle (old book, re-read)

McCallum, Will
How to Give Up Plastic: A Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time

Rees, Anuschka
Beyond Beautiful: A Practical Guide to Being Happy, Confident, and You in a Looks-Obsessed World

Simpson, Lee
My Year of Buying Nothing

Soukup, Ruth
Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind and Soul

White, Betz
Sewing Green: Projects and Ideas for Stitching with Organic, Repurposed, and Recycled Fabrics

Miscellaneous fiction

Aldrich, Bess Streeter
Miss Bishop

Alexander, Lloyd
The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha

Christie, Agatha
They Do It with Mirrors (Miss Marple, #6) (re-read)

Goudge, Elizabeth
Pilgrim's Inn (Eliots of Damerosehay, #2) (re-read)

Goudge, Elizabeth
The Scent of Water

Goudge, Elizabeth
The Sister of the Angels

Graham, Winston
Ross Poldark (Poldark #1)

Grimes, Martha
The Old Fox Deceiv'd (Richard Jury, #2) (I think this was a re-read. I read several from this series back in the 1990's, but I'm not sure which ones.)

Grimes, Martha
The Anodyne Necklace (Richard Jury, #3)

Grimes, Martha
The Dirty Duck (Richard Jury, #4)

Hill, Grace Livingston
Not Under the Law (re-read)

Karon, Jan
Home to Holly Springs (Mitford Years, #10) (re-read)

Karon, Jan
To Be Where You Are (Mitford Years, #14) (re-read)

Penny, Louise
Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1)

A Miscellany

Brandeis, Madeline
Little Anne of Canada

Michael, Chester P.
Prayer and Temperament

Newport, Cal
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

Westley, Frances R.
Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed

The Intentional Thrifter had a coupon

It was a good day to be back at the thrift store! It's Volunteer Appreciation Week, and each volunteer was given a discount coupon. Here's what I found:

A poetry book, with CD, for Lydia

A spring dress for me (better with a belt)

A shiny necklace

And a copy of Dorothy Wordsworth's journals. (Not sure what she would have made of the poetry book.)