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“Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.” ― G.K. Chesterton ―

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“Music could ache and hurt, that beautiful music was a place a suffering man could hide.” ― Pat Conroy ―

Patrick and the Fire - A Legend about Saint Patrick

Title: Patrick and the Fire - A Legend about Saint Patrick

Author: Cornelia Mary Bilinsky

Illustrator: Maggie Coburn

Rating: ★★★★☆

Age Category: Children's Books

    Back Cover Synopsis: 

    Saint Patrick escaped slavery in Ireland only to return with the message of salvation. In the midst of darkness and superstition, this missionary bishop proclaimed the Truth to villagers and kings alike. Join Bevan, a young goatherd, as he witnesses Patrick light a fire that never goes out- the fire of faith in Jesus!

“If Music is a Place — then Jazz is the City, Folk is the Wilderness, Rock is the Road, Classical is a Temple.” ― Vera Nazarian ―

Sonnet 27 by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 27

by William Shakespeare

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,

The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;

But then begins a journey in my head,

To work my mind, when body's work's expired:

For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,

Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,

And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,

Looking on darkness which the blind do see

Save that my soul's imaginary sight

Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.

Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,

For thee and for myself no quiet find.

“If I cannot fly, let me sing.” ― Stephen Sondheim ―

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“Music sounds different to the one who plays it. It is the musician’s curse.” ― Patrick Rothfuss ―

“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart..” ― Pablo Casals ―

“Music brings a warm glow to my vision, thawing mind and muscle from their endless wintering.” ― Haruki Murakami ―

A Place to Hang the Moon

Title: A Place to Hang the Moon

Author: Kate Albus

Rating: ★★★★★

Age Category: Middle Grade

    Back Cover Synopsis: 

    A heartwarming story about three siblings, evacuated from London to the countryside during World War II, who are hoping that a temporary living situation will turn into a forever family.

 "The greatest adventure is the one within." -- Jon Miksis --

Sonnet 20 by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 20

by William Shakespeare

A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted

Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;

A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted

With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;

An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,

Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;

A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling,

Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.

And for a woman wert thou first created;

Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,

And by addition me of thee defeated,

By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,

Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.

"The danger of adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort." -- Paulo Coelho --

 "Adventure is a mindset, not a destination." -- Anonymous --

"Adventure is not outside man; it is within." -- George Eliot--

"The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure." -- Christopher McCandless --

Something Beautiful for God

 

Title: Something Beautiful for God

Author: Malcolm Muggeridge

Rating: ★★★★☆

Age Category: Adult Literature

    Back Cover Synopsis: 

    "For me, Mother Teresa embodies Christian love in action. Her face shines with the love of Christ on which her whole life is centered, and her words carry that message to a world which never needed it so much." -- Malcolm Muggeridge

    Something Beautiful for God interprets [Mother Teresa's] life through her conversations with Malcolm Muggeridge, the quintessential worldly skeptic who experienced a remarkable conversion to Christianity because of her exemplary influence. He hails her as a "light which could never be extinguished."

    "If we took her seriously as a manifestation of the possible - not as the saintly exeption that proves the rule of self-interest - we would be forced to review our aims and values. Muggeridge's work makes it clear that she is just a simple Christian woman with common sense and uncommon faith; we are the geniuses of amorality." -- Christian Century

"Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure." -- Bob Bitchin --

Sonnet 13 by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 13

by William Shakespeare

O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are

No longer yours than you yourself here live:

Against this coming end you should prepare,

And your sweet semblance to some other give.

So should that beauty which you hold in lease

Find no determination: then you were

Yourself again after yourself's decease,

When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.

Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,

Which husbandry in honour might uphold

Against the stormy gusts of winter's day

And barren rage of death's eternal cold?

O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know

You had a father: let your son say so.

"Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures." -- Lovelle Drachman --

"Then one day, when you least expect it, the great adventure finds you." -- Ewan McGregor --

"Instead of trying to make your life perfect, give yourself the freedom to make it an adventure." -- Drew Houston --

"As soon as I saw you, I knew adventure was going to happen." -- A. A. Milne --

A Passage to India

Title: A Passage to India

Author: E. M. Forster

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Age Category: Adult Literature

    Back Cover Synopsis: 

    E. M. Forster's magnificent novel captures the troubled spirit of India during the Raj. 

    Journeying out to marry Ronny Heaslop the predictable City Magistrate, Adela Quested, full of good intentions but curiously myopic, blunders into an incident which quickens the pulse of Anglo-Indian mutual distrust. 

    What happens to Adela at the infamous Marabar Caves, and the subsequent ordeal of charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, is wrought by E. M. Forster into a drama as memorable and breathtaking as India itself. 

    To read what I thought of this book, and why I rated it 3 stars, visit these two links:

    https://rhiannareadsbooks.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-passage-to-india-chapters-1-16.html

    https://rhiannareadsbooks.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-passage-to-india-chapters-17-37.html

"Poetry, I feel, is a tyrannical discipline. You’ve got to go so far so fast in such a small space; you’ve got to burn away all the peripherals." —Sylvia Plath—

Sonnet 44 by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 44

by William Shakespeare

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote where thou dost stay.
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee;
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But ah! thought kills me that I am not thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that so much of earth and water wrought
I must attend time's leisure with my moan,
Receiving nought by elements so slow
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.

"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language." —W. H. Auden—

"Poets are the sense, philosophers the intelligence of humanity." —Samuel Beckett—

 "Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness." —Alice Walker—

"Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it begins as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth." — Mary Oliver —

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts." -- Eleanor Roosevelt --