book recs

Jane Yolen (1939-2026)

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Jane Yolen has died. In my recent writing classes I always shared a handout on creativity by Jane Yolen. The way I found out that she died was on Threads from the granddaughter of Owl Moon illustrator John Schoenherr in a beautiful tribute that included some of her memories of the book. It was so sad and yet a beautiful way to have discovered this loss that affects not only the book world but the entire world.

The author of over 400 books in many different genres, Jane will be deeply missed.

Jane Yolen’s website

Write every day. You don’t have to write about anything specific, but you should exercise your writing muscle constantly.

Jane Yolen’s For Writers

I simply have a passion for writing, and I do it with joy

Anne Frank

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I grew up in a Jewish household in a Jewish neighborhood visiting grandmothers and cousins and observing holidays with the typical complaints of a child with too much energy to sit still and do nothing while the parents were at temple. We were often told to quiet it down while all of the kids were doing their best (or not so best) in the temple parking lot. I can still feel the heat on my face that came up from the asphalt even on these early fall days. These were my formative years. I lived this way in Queens, New York until I was ten, almost eleven when we moved to Long Island, which was different as night was to day.

While we moved east, my cousins moved south to Florida, and while we wrote often, we were bereft [th] of each other’s company which had been constant practically since I was born. My grandmother was their aunt, and my Bubbe (great-grandmother) was their grandmother. My new neighborhood was more diverse than Bayside’s Oakland Gardens, although our immediate neighbor was Jewish and he had a mixed accent of Eastern European and the Yiddish language. We traveled into Queens to see my grandmother, and into the Bronx to visit my uncle.

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National Biographer’s Day

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To celebrate, here is a list of five biographers and a few of their recommended books:

  • Darren Bonaparte: A Lily Among Thorns: The Repatriation of St. Kateri Tekakwitha
  • Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila: Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII
  • Douglas Brinkley: Cronkite
  • Joe Jackson: Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary
  • Ron Chernow: Washington: A Life
    • Alexander Hamilton
    • Grant

And here are three exceptional memoirs:

  • Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
  • Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
  • The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power

100 Days…And Going

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Yesterday was the hundredth day of my 100-Day Project. That would presume that I have completed one hundred prompts. Well…

Overall, I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished and would highly recommend Suleika Jaouad’s book, The Book Of Alchemy: A Creative Practice For an Inspired Life. The essays she wrote and the ones she shared range from the funny, tales of life to the poignant heartbreaking twists and turns of life. Some resonated and some did not as all things in life can do. Some prompts were more difficult than others. I don’t recall which one, but I believe there was one that I completely noped out of, and went in a different direction. I laughed, I cried, and each prompt made me think and feel and wonder.

Today, I am on prompt 94 so I am nearly done with the book and I have decided to take two days with these last ten. I want the book to continue on. Last weekend, I was on a writing retreat with my wonderful writing group, and so my concentration was on that writing and reading, plotting and planning. I felt no guilt at all. Once Monday arrived, I got back in the flow of Alchemy.

The most recent one was a prompt about enchanted places and what makes them enchanted. There’s more to it than that, but that’s what I took away. I set that one aside on Friday, and went to one of my enchanted places: The Kateri Shrine in Fonda, New York. I spent about an hour there walking around, photographing flowers and chapels, signs and statues, and yes, writing. There was one picnic table with benches there and I sat there with my kindle and my keyboard and got out just over nine hundred words. There will be edits and additions.

After about day twenty, I made a plan to return to the prompts, and that is my plan for the summer between writing my book and keeping my deadlines, publishing on my website, and perhaps a Substack or two.
When all one hundred are completed sometime in the next week or so, I will read the end pages of the book, the contributors notes and bios, and then I plan to go back to what I’ve written and add, edit, flesh out the ones that have somewhere else to go. After all, that is what being a writer is: writing, writing, writing.

For the most part, I wrote my responses to the prompts on the same day I read them. I kept track of the subjects, categories, and word counts, although sometimes I feel as though word counts are arbitrary. I am stretching these last few out, savoring them. Even though I plan to go back to the ones written since the beginning of the project, there is nothing like doing something for the first time.

On some I added thoughts and paragraphs to the writing. Sometimes, I included ideas that were floating around formlessly in my head. Each prompt had so much potential, and it really is a wonder how many different ideas and inspirations I could get from one prompt. It’s glorious to see what others come up with from the same prompt as well.

Tangentially related, in the memoir class I’ve been taking this season, a book was recommended to me that I’ve begun, and it has given me the framework for my next book once St. Kateri’s Shrines (not the actual title) is completed. I had been struggling with that subject and how to approach it for years, and so seeing this one random inspiration is a gift to myself.

And now, on to prompt #94!

Check in for Lent

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Lent has snuck up on us again this year. It is quite early with Easter happening the first weekend in April.  I just finished listening to Fr. James Martin’s Ash Wednesday podcast, and it reminded me of many of the things that I want to do to make my Lent intentional. As with the last few years, I am not giving anything specific up. I am going to continue to be intentional in what I am taking in whether that is food, candy, drink, or media. I want to put more thought into the things I’m doing, saying, and bringing into my life.

This year marks the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis, and Pope Leo has declared this to be a Jubilee Year in his honor from January 10, 2026 through January 10, 2027. There are all kinds of ways to earn plenary indulgences and what not, but that’s for someone else.

Another exciting event this year is that it is the 350th anniversary of St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s baptism. This happened right here in New York state, and the shrine in Fonda will be celebrating. One way is by having mass on Easter Sunday, which is her baptismal anniversary to the day.

Some of my other Lenten Intentions include:

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International Book Giving Day

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Here is a very simple list of my Top 5 books to give, to read, to re-read.

Happy Valentine’s Day and Book Giving Day!

  • The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad (one of my current reads!)
  • Armand Gamache Series of Books by Louise Penny
  • Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
  • Come Forth by James Martin, SJ (next on my reading list!)
  • The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

Also check out Richard Osman’s and Bernard Cornwell’s books! All excellent.

Happy Reading!

Indigenous Peoples’ Day

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I wanted to begin by acknowledging that I write this (and most of my writing) from the traditional, unceded land of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, primarily the Kanien’keha:ka or Mohawk people.

I have always been a student of history with a deep interest in New York and Native Iroquois since childhood and have a deeper appreciation and understanding through my research for my book about St. Kateri. It is with that basis and love that I share some resources, for reading, for music, for traveling for some of the indigenous spaces in upstate New York and southern Canada.

Haudenosaunee Flag.
(c)2025

Picture heavy below the cut.

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World Book Lovers Day

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I’m having surgery next week. This is the list of books added to my Kindle for Recovery Reading:

  1. The Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clark
  2. 100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings
  3. War by Bob Woodward
  4. Lieutenant Nun: The True Story of a Cross-Dressing, Transatlantic Adventurer who Escaped from a Spanish Convent in 1599 and Lived as a Man – Gambling, Duels, and Leading Soldiers into Battle by Catalina De Erauso
  5. Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary by Joe Jackson
  6. How We Learn to Be Brave by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde
  7. The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America Edited by Allan Greer

As a bonus treat, I discovered this in my emails, and plan to visit the next time I am in Montreal:

Cafe Three Pines – Inspired by the bistro in Penny’s Three Pines novels, their cafe is a haven for book lovers, croissant seekers, and anyone in need of a quiet moment. They can be found at 51 Chemin Lakeside, Knowlton Quebec J0E 1V0 and on Instagram! They are open Tuesday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm.

World Book Day

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On this World Book Day, I have three that I want to highly recommend to you:

  • The Writer: A Thriller by J.D. Barker and James Patterson
    This is not generally a book that I would gravitate towards. I don’t know if someone mentioned it to me or if I saw it online. As a writer, I was drawn to the title, although put off by the idea of a thriller – those aren’t really my thing, but I read this, and despite the cliché on the cover – you’ll never forget the ending – I read it, twisted and turned along with the characters, and the ending, well, let’s just say I will never forget it. In fact, I had to read the last two pages twice – it was that unexpected!
  • The Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay
    I was drawn to this by the talented Georgia Tennant who narrates the audiobook. I listened to a sample, and I was hooked on the story! I have just begun reading it and will eventually listen to the audio version. What happens when serial killers get married and have a child? This is your answer. Brilliant concept, very engaging, and I anticipate fun.
  • The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
    I read this when it came out last fall, and I am now listening to the audiobook narrated by Jean Brassard. I love his voice, and he really brings out the Quebecois culture and accent which is a large part of the Armand Gamache series. Read the first eighteen books first if you can – this newest book has several call backs and old favorites who return. The next book, The Black Wolf, comes out in October of this year.

What three books would you receommend for this World Book Day?