Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

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Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: Books

  • Why I Love “The Hobbit”

        He was five, snuggled up close beside me on the loveseat for our ritual bedtime story, sucking his thumb. "Are you sure?" I asked him. "There aren't any pictures in this book. Just a lot of words." He nodded, so I opened the worn paperback and began reading… "In a hole in the…

  • Daring Greatly

    "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and…

  • The Book of Jonas

      "What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world." ~ Robert E. Lee In…

  • Born Wicked (Book Review)

    "Our mother was a witch, too, but she hid it better. I miss her." That's how Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood opens, and I was hooked right away. One of the best openings I've ever read! She says so much in so few words. Unfortunately, the book went downhill from there for me. If I…

  • Love, Life, and The Fault in Our Stars

    I hesitated signing up to review The Fault in Our Stars by John Green for the BlogHer Book Club. The blurb said it was about a teenager with terminal cancer, and quite honestly, I wasn't sure if I could handle another book about death and dying. It feels like that's all I've been writing about lately.…

  • Sky Blue, Sketches, and other Sweet!s (and Bittersweets) of the week

    Sky Blue is my favorite crayon color of all time. Today, God picked it to color the sky. I could imagine him sprawled on the floor of heaven, opening that big box of 96 (the one with the sharpener,) pulling out the Sky Blue, then, with side to side strokes, filling in the entire sky. …

  • The Rules of Inheritance: a journey through grief

        It's somehow fitting that I've been reading Claire Bidwell Smith's The Rules of Inheritance for the past few weeks. Last night I dove into the final chapters, my mind still swirling with sorrow and joy that lingered from a quick trip to Houston for my cousin's funeral. Sorrow for friends and family wrapped tight in…

  • What Electrifies You?

    Author Gayle Brandeis posed that question on SheWrites last month. “What electrifies you? What gets your heart pumping? What takes your breath away? What makes the hair on your arms stand up on end?” I answered… Dancing, which I do as often as possible, even to the extent that I missed talking to a lot…

  • Take It One Bird at a Time (and a week’s worth of Sweet!s)

    Right after work this evening, I drove straight to a stranger's house. Seven of us sat around a dining room table, munching on queso, chips and gluten-free brownies, discussing our 'babies' – the collection of words we've poured our hearts into for longer than we want to remember. Our babies range from picture book to…

  • Love at First Bark

    I start almost every morning with a walk down my dirt road with Belle and Max. Their joie de vivre is palpable. Contagious. I'm addicted to these walks, to watching my "puppies" greet each new day with passion and energy and optimism.  Max and Belle were both strays who wandered up to strange houses with a…