The Resolute Woman

Category: book

  • “A hidden smile from within”

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    resolutewoman
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    We’ve just read a delightful book by the Jesuit priest James Martin—Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life. The book is filled with reminders about the importance of humor and laughter in our lives. Of course, Martin reminds us that we’re not supposed to be…

  • “Gentle and kind, principled, ever curious”

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    resolutewoman
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    I just finished reading Anthony Shadid’s thoughtful book House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family and a Lost Middle East. Anthony, you may remember from an earlier blog post, is the son of Fayteen’s cousin Rhonda. He also worked as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times before he died in Syria earlier…

  • The wonderful extravagances of marriage

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    resolutewoman
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    We talked about Sandra Cisneros and how she explains about family stories and connections in our last blog post. We also like Cisneros discussion of the “wonderful extravagances” of marriage in her novel Caramelo. After the “little grandfather” dies, his wife thinks about what she misses. “Everyone complains about marriage,” Cisneros writes to explain the…

  • The awful grandmother

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    resolutewoman
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    In her semi-autobiographical novel Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros tells the multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family. Cisneros once explained that she originally just wanted to explain the life of her father. However, to explain her father’s life, she also had to explain the life of her “awful grandmother,” who was her father’s bossy mother. And, she…

  • “Resilient optimism”

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    resolutewoman
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    Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of Louis Zamperini in her book Unbroken—A World War II Story of Survival, Reislience and Redemption. Louie’s story is incredible. It starts as a tale of an untamable boy who gained notoriety from his pranks and thefts. Louie was a runner at the Olympics in Berlin in 1936 before he…

  • Why it’s okay to be an introvert

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    resolutewoman
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    We often praise teamwork and prefer the life-of-the-party to the loner. But Susan Cain, writing in an article in the January 29, 2012, issue of The Dallas Morning News, reminds us that being an introvert can offer some distinct advantages. Cain is the author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t…

  • Yes, it was a perfect afternoon

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    resolutewoman
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    You may remember that I wrote recently about a perfect January afternoon I spent with my daughter, Mary Elizabeth, at the horse rescue where Mary Elizabeth volunteers. The perfect afternoon ended with a car accident. We weren’t hurt, but our car was damaged so much that it couldn’t be repaired. The questions that I asked…

  • Lily’s rules for housekeeping

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    resolutewoman
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    In her second book Half Broke Horses, best-selling author Jeannette Walls tells the story of her grandmother Lily Casey Smith, who was at times “a cowgirl, horse trainer, mustang breaker, jockey, airplane pilot and Chicago flapper as well as mother and teacher who helped her husband run” a huge ranch. Lily was a character and…

  • Resolute Woman on the ranch

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    resolutewoman
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    Lily Casey Smith, author Jeannette Walls’ grandmother and the heroine in Walls’ true-life novel Half Broke Horses, rode 500 miles to get to her first teaching job.  On a horse. Alone. At age 15. When World War I ended and she lost that teaching job, she returned to her parents’ ranch. But not for long.…

  • We all have texture

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    resolutewoman
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    Jeannette Walls, the best-selling author of The Glass Castle, told the audience at a recent benefit for The Stewpot about dating a man from a family of privilege. When she revealed to him that she has burn scars from a childhood accident, he said: “Don’t ever apologize for your scars. They show you survived.” Walls…