After years of searching, I finally found a cheap copy of my favorite grammar textbook AND an exercise book to match. I am thrilled.

I read Brian Moore’s essay “Going Home” earlier this year while finishing up my degree, and it’s been in the back of my mind since. I chose to annotate the essay for school because I think one day I’d like to emulate it and make the subject my old home in Kansas City, rather than Moore’s home in Connemara, Ireland.

A lot has happened in the last few weeks, so a little update seems to be in order.

For one, I finished my Master’s program and was fortunate enough to see all my classmates and fellow graduates in person one final time, as well as walk and celebrate in person. My loving parents joined me to celebrate, which was such a blessing. I hadn’t seen them since February (the cons of moving states away from family), so it was a welcome addition to the joy of graduating.

A Short Review/Annotation of Blue Shoe by Anne Lamott

The only other book I’ve read by Anne Lamott was Bird by Bird, which is wonderful, but I had no idea how powerful, thought-provoking, and wonderful her fiction writing was.

I’ve been wanting to start a series on my blog that will allow me to gush about my love for grammar for a while now, and I think I’ve finally figured out how I want to do it. (Particularly, so it’s not dull beyond belief for my readers...hopefully.) 

Andrew Klavan is one of my favorite authors, speakers, and political commentators. I listen to his podcast, aptly named The Andrew Klavan Show, weekly (I used to listen daily, but he’s slowly retiring, and has switched his show to once a week). I stumbled upon his young adult novels as a teenager (and I’ve just recently started them again!), when I found them on the shelves of the only Christian book store my mom would let me buy books from. Years later when I first started dating Tucker, he suggested Klavan’s podcast, and I’m ashamed to admit that it took me a few months to connect the podcast host to one of my favorite author’s as a teenager. I think it’s the way he spells his name (that’s a Klavan-inside-joke for fellow fans).

The women I work with (and I work with a lot of women) have planted a little garden outside our office building and she’s already yielding fruit. Well, she’s yielding vegetables and tomatoes to be exact.

As my favorite of the Chronicles of Narnia, A Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis provides more insight into writing from the perspective of a child without losing profundity and power that I hadn’t realized until reading it for the nth time late last year. Lewis is a master at this endeavor in general, writing for all audiences in a way that neither panders nor overreaches.

I came across an old Word Document titled "Goals for Winter 2020" that I'd written over the summer. I’d written them in preparation for my last year of my MFA program...and oof did I forget about them.

I know of someone who writes a quarterly report of his life and emails it to 20 or so of his closest confidants at the start of every season. It’s thoroughly detailed, complete with spreadsheets and photos.

Annie Dillard’s For the Time Being has been sitting atop my bookshelf for too long, so I was excited to finally read this book; she did not disappoint. I was inspired to take her writing methods and use them as revision exercises in my own writing.