Review of To Hear the Forest Sing, by Margaret Dulaney

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

To Hear the Forest Sing

Some Musings on the Divine

by Margaret Dulaney

Listen Well Publishing, 2016. 229 pages.
Review written July 3, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I always seem to enjoy “Musings” and put a whole category for them on Sonderbooks. But when I’ve finished a book of musings, it’s usually hard to explain why I enjoyed reading them so much. The title of this book hints that there will be plenty about nature, and the subtitle hints that there will be thoughts about faith and about God.

As usual, I think I’ll fall back on giving you a few quotations to give you the flavor. In this book, the essays were originally broadcast on a spoken word website, so each one is separate. But they do present a unified, thoughtful voice.

Here’s a part from the Prologue explaining the title:

Every early teacher who had me in her class – and most of them were very kind and patient – wrote the same comment on my twice-yearly reports: “Margaret is a well-meaning girl, but her head is always out the window.”

“Oh, but it makes so much more sense out there!” I would answer in retrospect now, if I could, “Trees don’t confuse, birds don’t baffle. Give me simple, clear things to learn like the roll of the hills, the turning of the seasons, and I will be as learned as the rest of them. Give me a field, a patch of woodland to read and I will unlock the wisdom of the ages, break the shackles of ignorance! Of course my head is out the window! You have to be in the woods to hear the forest sing!”

I loved this part about making art (both music and writing):

It’s love that propels us to create, not cynicism.

After many years of wrestling with my own frustrations, I have concluded that our gifts are just that, they are gifts. We might possess the power to postpone their use, try and hide from them, but I suspect we only manage to shade ourselves for a time from the intensity of our passions. This love of ours still shines brightly all around, and waits for us with the focused attention of a beloved dog. When we finally step out from under the protection of our denial, our loves will leap and bark and joyously circle us, too long neglected, racing forward and dashing back to us, hurrying us along on our illuminated path….

Perhaps all that this day really requires of us is to step out from under the cover of our resistance, step out and into the warmth of our loves. To say, today I will do this because I love it. I will write what I love, sing what I love, listen to what I love, read what I love, practice what I love, speak what I love.

I will love what there is to love today, and leave the details to a wiser hand.

And here’s a bit about giving and receiving advice.

As I age, I am more drawn to those who speak honestly to me. No matter how bitter the pill, no matter how long it takes to work, I do want this medicine. Give me your truth and allow me to determine whether it is the right remedy for me. Time will reveal its efficacy.

I would rather hear a truth from a friend, and adjust my behavior accordingly, than meet the reactions of cold consequence which could be much more harsh.

Maybe it’s time to turn that old line from the prayer book around to read, “Speak now and try never to hold your peace.” Speak if you must, absolutely. Speak and then step back. Give room. They are God’s to teach, God’s to hold, God’s to heal.

And yes, God is mentioned in this book. I also love this one:

This has me thinking that I might have discovered my next daily prayer. Dear God, please disabuse me of my calcified notions of how you work in this world. Surprise me, please.

Please don’t ever let me think that I am finished.

That should give you an idea of what you’ll find in this book. I enjoyed musing with Margaret Dulaney.

listenwell.org

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of March Sisters, by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jane Smiley

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

March Sisters

On Life, Death, and Little Women

by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jane Smiley

Library of America, 2019. 182 pages.
Review written November 2, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

This book is a collection of four essays by four distinguished authors about Little Women. Each author focused on a different one of the March sisters. Kate Bolick wrote “Meg’s Frock Shock”; Jenny Zhang wrote “Does Genius Burn, Jo?”; Carmen Maria Machado wrote “A Dear and Nothing Else”; and Jane Smiley wrote “I am Your ‘Prudent Amy.’”

I loved this collection. Mind you, I read Little Women enough times in my youth to understand every single reference, no matter how obscure. Every single quote brought recognition. I’ve read a lot about Louisa May Alcott’s family and knew about the originals of each sister as well.

So for someone well-steeped in everything about Little Women, this book was a delight – delving deeply into psychological ramifications of details in the text, complete with references to the essay authors’ lives as well as references to Louisa May Alcott’s life.

Honestly? I’d never given this much thought to the other sisters – I was all about Jo. I was fascinated and captivated to think about the lives presented here with adult eyes, and through the lenses of the essayists.

I must recommend this book to my own sister. (One Christmas the two of us received an entire set of Louisa May Alcott’s books, split between us.) Anyone who has ever read and loved Little Women, take note!

loa.org

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Review of This Here Flesh, by Cole Arthur Riley

Christian, Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

This Here Flesh

Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us

by Cole Arthur Riley

Convergent Books, 2022. 203 pages.
Review written May 13, 2025, from my own copy, ordered via amazon.com.
Starred Review

I feel at a bit of a loss to describe this book. I read it a chapter at a time as part of my devotional times, and noted lots of passages to post on my Sonderquotes blog, and finished each chapter inspired and uplifted. But I’m not sure I can adequately describe what you’ll find here.

I like to call this kind of book “Musings,” and these are Christian musings mixed with family stories and questions and thoughts about life.

Let me copy sections from her Preface, in hope this will give you the flavor of this contemplative book. I’m just going to show you a few pieces – but I hope it will pull you in to read the entire book.

My spirituality has always been given to contemplation, even before anyone articulated for me exactly what “the contemplative” was. I was not raised in an overtly religious home; my spiritual formation now comes to me in memories – not creeds or doctrine, but the air we breathed, stories, myth, and a kind of attentiveness. From a young age, my siblings and I were allowed to travel deep into our interior worlds to become aware of ourselves, our loves, our beliefs. And still, my father demanded an unflinching awareness of our exterior worlds. Where is home from here? What was the waitress’s name? Where do we look when we’re walking? If a single phrase could be considered the mantra of our family, it would be Pay attention….

I used to think that Christian contemplation was reserved for white men who leave copies of C. S. Lewis’s letters strewn about and know a great deal about coffee and beard oils. If this is you, there is room for you here. But I am interested in reclaiming a contemplation that is not exclusive to whiteness, intellectualism, ableism, or mere hobby. And as a Black woman, I am disinterested in any call to spirituality that divorces my mind from my body, voice, or people. To suggest a form of faith that tells me to sit down alone and be quiet? It does not rest easy on the bones. It is a shadow of true contemplative life, and it would do violence to my Black-woman soul….

And as we pay attention, we make a home out of paradox, not just in what we believe but also in the very act of living itself. Stillness that we would move. Silence that we would speak. I believe this to be a spirituality our world – overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest – so desperately needs….

This is a book of contemplative storytelling. The pages you hold are where the stories that have formed me across generations meet our common practice of beholding the divine. Feel now, they are wet with tears. Look how they glisten like my skin in sun, and they bear the grooves of many scars. As you cradle these pages, it is my sincere hope that they might serve as conduits for mystery, liberation, and the very face of God.

Yes, that’s what you’ll find here – contemplative storytelling. Cole Arthur Riley tells stories of her family and weaves them through with contemplation – and it all shines with light.

colearthurriley.com
convergentbooks.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Joy Document, by Jennifer McGaha

Musings, Nonfiction Review 0

The Joy Document

Creating a Midlife of Surprise and Delight

by Jennifer McGaha

Broadleaf Books, 2024. 196 pages.
Review written February 28, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com

When I saw the book The Joy Document, it was just after I had finished going through Champagne for the Soul, by Mike Mason, with my church small group. I’d previously gone through it in probably 2017 with a different small group – and it’s still my favorite book for small group study. It’s all about Joy – with 90 meditations for 90 days of looking for Joy, including a Bible verse about Joy on each day. Reading and discussing the book got my group noticing and talking about our Joys each week.

So when I saw The Joy Document, I thought, Wonderful! It’s a secular version of Champagne for the Soul! But I’m afraid it wasn’t that. So my expectations limited my appreciation a little bit.

What is it? Well, it’s also about noticing things in an ordinary life that surprise, delight, or intrigue you. The book is a collection of short essays – the kind I like to call “musings” about ordinary things. Yes, they left me smiling. And yes, I appreciate her practice of looking a little deeper at the details of life, finding her way to wonder.

And I think my favorite part was the list at the back of questions to ask in order to make your own Joy Document.

In fact, that helps me put my finger on what might be the difference between the two books. In Mike Mason’s book, every short entry, besides being about his experiences, was also about how the reader can apply the ideas. In this book, we got all fifty musings – and then at the end were ideas for applying the thoughts from the rest of the book.

But for both, the underlying thought is this: There are many reasons for Joy out there, if we will open our eyes to them.

And this book, too, helped me do just that.

jennifermcgaha.com
broadleafbooks.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Anthropocene Reviewed

Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

by John Green

Penguin Audio, 2021. 10 hours, 3 minutes.
Review written September 7, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

First, a big thank-you to my coworker Lisa for recommending this book and telling me it was available with John Green reading it himself. More than anything else of his I’ve read, this reminds me of how I first found out about John Green — in his vlog with his brother Hank, discussing random things together.

I like the way John Green’s nerdy mind works. He knows all kinds of bizarre facts and goes off on multiple tangents, and I think it’s all so fascinating.

In this book, John Green reviews random things on a five-star scale. But in order to do that, he tells about his own experiences with them and sometimes random facts about them and basically what it means to him. He explains at the beginning that reviews are inherently personal. I completely agree, and that made me feel good about this website and how I review books with respect to how I enjoyed them.

The things he chooses to review are somewhat bizarre. We’ve got Halley’s Comet, Canada geese, scratch ‘n’ sniff stickers, diet Dr. Pepper, and Lascaux cave paintings, for example. What could you possibly think of that all these have in common? Well, they’re all reviewed in this book.

I have to say that although I enjoy listening to John Green talk and found the subjects fascinating once he starts talking about them, when I had the physical book checked out, I didn’t get much read. It may have to do with the random nature of the selection of topics and no plot to keep me going. To my surprise, when I started listening, at first my attention wasn’t engaged either. But then I had the idea to listen at 1.25 speed — and I’d hit the sweet spot. I happily listened to the rest of the eaudiobook on my phone while driving and while doing housework (as one does) and maybe a little in between those times because I was so interested.

I happily give this book four-and-a-half stars.

johngreenbooks.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan

Audiobooks, Musings, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

by Amy Tan
read by the Author

Books on Tape, 2024. 6 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written August 20, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This book is what the title suggests – the story of the birds who came to Amy Tan’s backyard, since 2016, when she took a class on nature journaling and started paying attention.

The nature journaling class was also about sketching birds – saying you notice better when you draw the birds. The audiobook is supposed to have an accompanying pdf, but I wasn’t sure how to access it, so I’ve put a hold on the book to glance through the pictures she drew.

And this book is excerpts from her nature journal, telling about her visitors, as she got to know them. Mind you, Amy Tan has a bird-friendly garden and a green roof on a home overlooking the San Francisco Bay. And she has multiple feeders out for different kinds of birds – in fact, some of the fun in these chronicles is her quest for feeders that are squirrel proof and scrub jay proof.

The book was a little repetitive in spots, I think because it was a journal. Occasionally she’d refer back to something that had happened before as if we hadn’t just heard about that in the earlier part of the journal. But that didn’t really detract from the meditative writing, all about noticing her visitors.

I listened to almost all of this book while obsessively doing a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and it was soothing and comforting, making me feel like I was observing nature while I was actually doing a puzzle and thinking about nature.

I am lucky – I live in a second-floor condo. My downstairs neighbor puts out and fills a bird feeder, so I can sit out on my balcony and be on the level of the birds lining up for the feeder. Although the book didn’t convince me to try sketching the birds, it did make me want to notice a little better, pay attention, and enjoy the visitors here.

So – this is a book about bird-watching. In the author’s backyard. In the hands of a skilled author, that turns out to be a delightful and interesting topic.

amytan.net

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Somehow, by Anne Lamott

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Somehow

Thoughts on Love

by Anne Lamott

Riverhead Books, 2024. 194 pages.
Review written August 27, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Yes, when Anne Lamott brings out a new book, I need to read it. They are a little bit about faith, a lot about life, and always inspiring and encouraging.

Anne Lamott has a quirky perspective, and she knows how to bring the reader along with her, so we look at things a different way. She’s also self-deprecating and never makes you feel bad for being spiteful, angry, or whiny, because she tells hilarious stories of when she was all those things, too, and really, who wouldn’t be?

Anne Lamott writes about the human condition and helps us realize how much we have in common and that we’re all in this together.

I didn’t mark quotations in this one. There are lots of great paragraphs, but they’re generally all from a longer story and the power of her words is in the path she leads you down to get you there.

So I think for this review, I’m going to give you the first and last paragraph, to give you the flavor. Here’s how the book begins:

My husband said something a few years ago that I often quote: Eighty percent of everything that is true and beautiful can be experienced on any ten-minute walk. Even in the darkest and most devastating times, love is nearby if you know what to look for. It does not always appear at first to be lovely but instead may take the form of a hot mess or a snoring old dog or someone you have sworn to never, ever forgive (for a possibly very good reason, if you ask me). But mixed in will also be familiar signs of love: wings, good-hearted people, cats (when they are in the right mood), a spray of wildflowers, a cup of tea.

And here’s the last paragraph:

I’ll tell you what Blake actually wrote more than two hundred years ago: “And we are put on earth a little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love.” If the younger ones in our lives can remember only this one idea, that they are here, briefly, a little space to love and to have been loved, then they will have all they need, because love is all they need, rain or shine – love, cough drops, and one another. Good old love, elusive and steadfast, fragile and unbreakable, and always there for the asking; always, somehow.

In between you’ve got the wonderful musings of Anne Lamott. I read a chapter each day and they always leave me feeling uplifted and more hopeful. If you haven’t read an Anne Lamott book yet, it’s time to dive in!

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Book Bonding, by Megan Dowd Lambert

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Book Bonding

Building Connections through Family Reading

by Megan Dowd Lambert
illustrated by Mia Saine

Imagine! (Charlesbridge), 2023. 160 pages.
Review written December 4, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Book Bonding is a collection of essays about the joy and wonder of reading to and with your kids, but especially about the powerful connections you can build that way. The author is a children’s literature professor and a mother of seven, so she has lots of experience with this topic.

Here’s an excerpt from the Preface that captures well what she’s doing in this book:

So how can I best bridge the distance that exists between my children and me, while I recognize and celebrate that they are their own human beings and not “mine”? How can other parents and caregivers do so, too? My multiracial, adoptive, queer, blended family life affirms that familial bonds are rooted not only in biology but in legal measures, choices, and above all, in shared experiences and love.

This is where “book bonding” comes in. I coined this phrase during my time as an educator at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in western Massachusetts. It highlights the social and emotional impact of shared reading in classrooms and libraries. It’s a happy truth that my work as an author, educator, and children’s-literature scholar is deeply enriched by my life as a mother. The books on my family’s bookshelves hold not just words and pictures but also memories of time spent together and of moments when reading and talking about reading have helped us better understand each other. In other words, books have helped us bond.

Time and again, shared reading has forged a common ground for my children and me as we reach toward each other across the distances between us. Witnessing my children’s minds and hearts in action when we read together — or when we discuss books we read separately — gives me a greater appreciation for their individuality. This, in turn, helps me be a better parent, attuned to my kids’ specific needs, strengths, and interests….

I’m convinced that the sort of book bonding that my family experiences is similar to that of anyone who reaches out to the children in their life with a book in hand. I hope my essays will enrich your family’s reading and perhaps inspire you to write down some of the book-bonding memories and connections you’ve created when you and a child have met in the pages of a book.

The essays themselves are beautiful. Yes, they will inspire you to read with kids.

This book is a good defense against book banners, too. In her multiracial family, she talks about reading and discussing books with her white kids and her Black kids and talking with all of them about how diversity is portrayed in books. Diverse books get adults and kids thinking and talking.

She talks about specific books that inspired her kids and tells stories about their interactions with books. Yes, you’ll learn about specific wonderful children’s books here — and there’s a list of books mentioned at the back.

I also love the way she models talking with kids about books. She gets the kids’ perspectives on how books are mirrors and windows for them, and gets insights from the kids that she wouldn’t have noticed on her own.

I read this book too slowly — an essay now and then as I had time, and I didn’t have much time because I was reading for the Morris Award. But whenever I did dip into it, I was reminded of the power, beauty, and joy of reading with kids, and this made my children’s librarian heart happy.

megandowdlambert.com
agoodson.com/illustrator/mia-saine
imaginebooks.net

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Gift of Story, by John Schu

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review 0

The Gift of Story

Exploring the Affective Side of the Reading Life

by John Schu

Stenhouse Publishers, 2022. 170 pages.
Review written August 1, 2023, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review

First, a disclaimer: John Schu is a librarian I’ve met and even was briefly on a committee with. He’s also the kind of person whom once you meet, you think of him as a friend. He has Mr. Rogers’ ability of focusing on the person he’s talking with, making you feel like he cares – and you can’t help but care back. So this is a review of a book by my friend and fellow librarian, and of course I’m going to love it.

That said, this is a wonderful book for people who love children’s books and want to influence children to love children’s books. It’s a book about Story, and the wonderful ways that Story touches and enriches our lives. The book is written mainly for those who work with kids in schools, teachers and librarians and staff, with many ways for connecting children with books they will love. Here’s how John sums it up in a note at the front:

I want you to know that this is a book of my heart. In it, I’ll share thoughts, recommendations, stories, and the interactions I’ve had with thousands and thousands and thousands of students and educators over the past twenty years. And, even as I write — without the energy of a live audience providing input, guiding the conversation, and filling the room and my heart with joy — I will imagine you are sitting beside me as we take this journey together, working tirelessly to create environments in which all children interact with teachers, teacher-librarians and administrators who read to them, booktalk with them, and view them not as labels but as individuals who need to be surrounded with authentic literature, given opportunities to discuss, debate, connect, laugh, and cry over stories — and experience buckets and buckets of love.

What is Story, anyway? John Schu has been pushing children’s books in schools for years, and so he has connections with hundreds of authors. He asked authors what Story is to them, and their answers appear throughout the book. In fact, he invites people to make their own #StoryIs statements, and you can find responses by searching the #StoryIs hashtag.

He sums up where he’s going at the end of the first chapter:

Stories affirm our experiences. They challenge our comfort zone. They give us space to hibernate and pull us out of our isolation when we need to be reminded we aren’t alone. They help us evolve. They feed our human existence. In the following chapters, we’ll explore how stories can change us, inspire us, connect us to others, answer our deepest questions, and help us heal. We’ll look at ways sharing our hearts through literacy can help us celebrate, tell, define, revise, and imagine our own stories and how experiencing other people’s stories can connect us through universal truths. And we’ll do all of this while shining particular light on the important role books and libraries in our communities play to help us connect across stories.

The chapters that follow focus on particular aspects of Story: Story as Healer, Story as Inspiration, Story as Clarifier, Story as Compassion, and Story as Connector. Each chapter talks about the topic, has a section “From the Brain to the Heart” talking about what it means in lives, a section “From the Heart to the Classroom” about getting the ideas into the classroom, a section bringing in other voices on the topic, including other librarians and teachers and authors, and many recent book recommendations that tie in with the theme. And of course the whole thing is peppered with authors’ #StoryIs quotations. At the end of every chapter, there’s a place to list your favorite titles for that chapter’s focus on Story.

I was reading this book on vacation and saw my sister who’s a school psychologist. She needs this book! In fact anyone who works with kids in schools needs this book. There are so many ideas of ways to bring books into your students’ lives, so many great children’s books introduced, and inspiring reminders of how you can touch and uplift students’ hearts.

Yes, it’s also fantastic for public librarians who work with kids. You’ll get a fantastic list of books to check out and recommend, and you, too, will get ideas for ways to connect books with readers and be inspired.

This book reminds me how lucky I am to do the important and wonderful job of connecting children with books that will touch their hearts.

johnschu.com
stenhouse.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of A Rhythm of Prayer, edited by Sarah Bessey

Christian, Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

A Rhythm of Prayer

A Collection of Meditations for Renewal

edited by Sarah Bessey

Convergent, 2021. 146 pages.
Review written March 7, 2023, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com.
Starred Review

A Rhythm of Prayer is a book of prayers and meditations about prayer from a stellar group of Christian writers — I found some new books to buy from the credits after some of the selections.

This little book gave me something to think about each morning as I read and prayed a selection, and usually this included something I hadn’t thought of before in that way.

In her Introduction, Sarah Bessey says she thinks of this book as calling you into a prayer circle.

When I first began to envision this book about prayer, I knew right away what I didn’t want to give you: a nice and tidy new set of prayers to co-opt for your own. Nope, what I wanted was equal parts example and invitation, permission and challenge, to acknowledge the heaviness of our grief and at the same time broaden our hope.

Frankly, I love to pray, and I think the prayers of people like us — however we show up to these pages — matter. Not in spite of scripture but because of it. Not in spite of Church but because of her. Not in spite of our questions and doubts but because of them. Not in spite of our grief and our longing, our yearning for justice and our anger, but because of them.

So no, the point of this is not to give you prayers to pray but to show you: you still get to pray. Prayer is still for you. You still get to cry out to God, you still get to yell, weep, praise, and sit in the silence until you sink down into the Love of God that has always been holding you whether you knew it or not.

This book will give you things to think about, things to meditate on, things to contemplate, and yes, things to pray. And it will also inspire you to do those things on your own.

I’m thinking about prayer often lately, because I recently finished writing a book about prayer, using patterns from the book of Psalms. (I’m still seeking a publisher for that book.) This book fit beautifully with all that I’m thinking about, modeling opening your heart to God in prayer.

sarahbessey.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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