Here’s the first of my ‘this year’ lists: the best fiction books of 2017. This list covers books that I read this year, not books that were published in 2017. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958) This novel deals with life in pre- and post-colonial Nigeria during the late nineteenth century. It was on …
Fairies today are popularly viewed as enchanted creatures that are usually harmless though sometimes playful, even mischievous, but also kind, helpful, beautiful, and usually disconnected from culture. In her novel, The Good People, Hannah Kent reminds us that fairies were once viewed as so frightening, you didn’t even say “fairies” too loudly for fear of …
Today is my 40th birthday. On reflection, my twenties seem like a different life. My thirties provided a huge amount of learning. There’s been a lot of growth in the last five years in particular. There are a lot of lessons I’m still working on, but here are 40 things I know are true. I …
I’ve been working in digital communications for about eight years. I’ve spent most of that time as an online community and social media manager. Family and friends often ask me questions about Facebook. As I scroll through conversations, I also spot naive comments from users about what Facebook does and how. For example, in response …
When I first moved to Australia in 2012, a lot of things were hard. I didn’t know up from down. I didn’t have friends. I have written before about culture shock and feeling homesick. This all gets easier with time. But there are some things that don’t ease up, at least, not if you have ties to your homeland …
It’s almost Beltane. It’s almost Halloween. It’s always time for ancestors. As I wrote last month in Darkness and the spring equinox, I’ve given up on trying to create boundaries when it comes to holidays. Some local Pagans say it’s not Halloween, but it is, just like Christmas in summer, and what they mean is …