Welcome

Hi! My name is Margot. My blog is about the things I love to do. That could be what I'm reading, places we visit, my family, food, or whatever else is happening. I hope you'll stay and visit a while. Contact me by email: joyfullyretired (at) gmail (dot) com.

What I’m Reading

Justice

Forever

The Sense of an Ending

Wish You Were Here

A Moveable Feast

Clarissa

The Odyssey

My Book Rating System

A = Excellent in every way
B = Very good story
C  = Good/Average
D = Poor
F = So Bad I couldn't finish it

Archives

Perfect Christmas Day: 15 Essential Recipes for the Perfect Christmas by Felicity Cloake

Christmas dinner is perhaps the one meal of the year where even the most relaxed cook feels the pressure of perfection – and, although few menus can be more familiar, it’s probably the one we all feel the least confident about. The context, of course, can be stressful – small children high on pilfered tree [...]

Short Story: Brother Robber by Helene Christaller

I went looking for simple, classic short stories centered on the celebration of Christmas. I found a nice collection of them called Home For Christmas. Some of the stories from the collection are available for download at The Plough. One story in the collection is this one, a very old tale handed down through many [...]

Book Review: Sweetgum Knit Lit Society

The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society by Beth Pattillo Waterbrook Press, 2008 Rating: B- Eugenie Pierce has been the town librarian for forty years. Although Eugenie appears to be your typical small-town spinster librarian, she does have a fondness for helping what she calls her ‘strays’ – kids who need some special help. She’s found a [...]

Book Review: Keep a Quiet Hear

Keep a Quiet Heart Elisabeth Elliot Revell, 1995  Most people will remember Elisabeth Elliot from her first book Through Gates of Splendor. That was the story of five  missionaries killed in Ecuador, including Jim Elliot, her husband. That was 1956. Elisabeth successfully worked for two years with the tribe that killed her husband. Elisabeth went on [...]

Home Another Way

Home Another Way: A Novel Christa Parrish Bethany House Publishers, 2008 For me, the best books are populated with realistic characters that I think about long after I’ve finished the book. They become real people that I’ve met at some point during my life. They aren’t the perfect people we’ve come to expect to see [...]