A New Book

 I've just started Singing in the Fire by Faith Cook.  It is a lot like Foxes' Book of Martyrs, a compilation of brief sketches of the lives of a number of faithful Christians through the ages.  In Cook's book, not all the Christians were martyred, and many were less well known, if known at all.  

While dining at a local fast food chain, we looked in at the play area where our son was playing hide-and-seek with some other kids, and I saw a boy after my own heart; I am not talking about my son, who I love dearly.  I am talking about the boy sitting in the corner of the play area, absorbed in a book.  That was me.  I was the little girl sitting quietly on a bench at recess while my friends were on the monkey bars, or playing handball.  I sat with a book in my hand, absorbed in the story.  I loved Harriet the Spy, plus classics like A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, both by Frances Hodges Burnett.  I also remember reading lighter fare, like The Phantom Tollbooth, and a book about three young witches.  My literary tastes were quite eclectic.  Not much has changed.  I also started Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky today.  And for the times when the book of martyrs and the Russian novel become too intense and I need a break, I have Your'e Doing Great! by Tom Papa, one of the funniest collections of humorous essays I've read . . . and thats saying a lot-I've read a large number of humorous essay collections.