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Pilgrimages
This afternoon, while attempting to be domestic, I caught up with one of my favorite NPR programs, This American Life. A few weeks ago, they aired a new episode called “The Book That Changed Your Life.” How could I not listen? The entire show was fantastic, but I was particularly intrigued by Act 4: Little…
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Sheer magic
The other night, I fell in love with two kids named Portia and Julian. They’re cousins and just happen to discover this lake that is no more, the wonderful, old, abandoned houses that surround it, and two quirky siblings that can’t quite let go of the past. And as I was reading, I kept trying…
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Emotional history
I finished my reread of Rilla of Ingleside the other night. I’m not sure how many times I’ve read this book over the years, but it’s one that still gets me. Every. Single. Time. When I read, I’m not one to cry or even laugh out loud often. I think part of it is…
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Everybody poops. . .
For anyone who spends any time with children, there are certain questions and subjects that come up over and over again. Subjects like bathrooms and poop. At a museum like ours, this comes up fairly frequently. We have outhouses, including one two-seater (glamour!). We also have donkeys–you can always tell when they poop in front…
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Judging a book by its cover. . .
This past weekend, I was very, very excited to find a boxed set of Anne, 1-3. Of course, this may be considered odd by some since I have more than a few copies of Anne. And it’s not like these are first editions. But, could you resist a boxed set that looks like this? There…
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Piecing it together
Last spring, our exhibit was on domestic arts. Specifically, quilts, gardening, and woodworking. We were part of a larger collaboration, and museums throughout the city were doing various exhibits on quilts. Now I like quilts as much as the next person, but when you have two years of meetings, they can get a little, shall…
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Opening Shots, Part 2
For a very different look at the first days of WWI, look no further than Betsy Ray. In Betsy and the Great World, she is almost, but not quite, in the middle of all the action, traveling through Europe in 1914. When books are set in certain years (1861, 1914, 1939), you just something historic…
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Opening Shots. . .
For years now, I’ve had a strong interest in World War I. Not the battles so much, but the social changes surrounding the Great War. And I can place the blame firmly on Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery, since I certainly didn’t learn much about WWI in school. I must have read Rilla…
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Rubbish?
In preparation for our upcoming exhibit at the museum, I’ve been reading a lot about trash. Yes, you read that correctly. The exhibit is called “Green Fields, Black Smoke,” and it’s all about the ways in which people in the 19th century thought about the environment. We often hear from visitors “People were so much…
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The Manifesto, so to speak
When I was a kid, I spent most of my time in the nineteenth century. It all started with the Little House books. My grandmother read them to me, and they became my very first chapter books that I could read all by myself. From there, it was just a hop, skip and jump to Little…
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