Wild Lily Blogs

Quote from House of Rain:
Pedigree

The bright morning held its pedigree,

racing like a cool frost o’er the grass,

learning each bluebell, a memory,

leaning at the doorway of each mass,

making truth, of our hearts, the staple:

each choice the river running ragged

to silver pond with dark red maple.

Ladybug, dragonfly, hummingbird,

on minute translucent wing will fly

hovering o’er the garden of the wild;

at late noon, resounding o’er the cry

of nature, wrapped, a child at the breast:

in tattered colors of patchwork quilt,

degrading too towards the earthly rest.

The dimming light and last poignant hour

now has almost waved and said goodbye,

what sun illumined and held for power—

sweep of olden gold on fields of rye,

carving as in oak the darkening path:

we would once more raise our chant to heaven,

chasing down the solemn aftermath.

--Emily Isaacson

Claire Ryann sings Beauty and the Beast.

Praise for A Familiar Shore:

"I took up my favored pen / and the meter of the salt roar, / the splendid gathering of stony shells / and aged driftwood / splashed off the pages…"

This lyrical mythic collection with its motifs of healing and nurturing will transport you to places you have never been, in the company of surprising characters and creatures.

- Violet Nesdoly

Poet and author

Gift For You:
Free E-Book by Emily Isaacson

A Familiar Shore: Download

Recommended Reading List for During Isolation

July Pics

Adults: The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. Photography--and fate--introduce him to Ana, whose family's interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War--as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel's photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of difficult decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.

Children: Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott

Details: Winner of this year’s award for Young Adult Fiction, Five Feet Apart poses a heartbreaking question: Can you love someone you can never touch? Stella Grant and Will Newman are discovering teenage love—the most potent kind of love—but due to hospital protocol, they’re prevented from getting within five feet of each other. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But there’s got to be a way, right?

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June Pics

Adults: On Fortune's Wheel by Cynthia Voight

Details; There are some who say that the Lady Fortune

has a wheel, and all men are fixed upon it.

The wheel turns, and the men rise, or fall,

with the turning of the wheel.

Birle has agreed to be wed to the huntsman Muir as an escape from the drudgery of life at her father's inn -- but the moment she looks into the bellflower blue eyes of the man she comes upon stealing one of her father's boats, Birle knows she cannot marry Muir. Even after she discovers the mysterious stranger is Orien, a Lord and as unreachable to an innkeeper's daughter as a star, Birle is determined to travel with him as far as he will allow.

Their travels take Birle to a world far from home, a world where Lords may become slaves, where Princes rule by fear, and where Fortune's Wheel turns more swiftly and dangerously than Birle could have imagined.

Newberry Medalist Cynthia Voigt's second novel of the Kingdom, set two generations later than Jackaroo, is a memorable combination of thrilling adventure and heart-stopping romance.

Children: The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren

Details: The Brothers Lionheart (Swedish: Bröderna Lejonhjärta) is a children's fantasy novel written by Astrid Lindgren. It was published in the autumn of 1973 and has been translated into 46 languages. Many of its themes are unusually dark and heavy for the children's book genre. Disease, death, tyranny, betrayal and rebellion are some of the dark themes that permeate the story. The lighter themes of the book involve platonic love, loyalty, hope, courage and pacifism.

The two main characters are two brothers; the older Jonatan and the younger Karl. The two brothers' surname was originally Lion, but they are generally known as Lionheart. Karl's nickname is Skorpan (Rusky) since Jonatan likes these typical Swedish toasts or crusts.

In Nangijala, a land in "the campfires and storytelling days", the brothers experience adventures. Together with a resistance group they lead the struggle against the evil Tengil, who rules with the aid of the fearsome fire-breathing dragon, Katla.

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May Pics

Adults: The Auschwitz Escape by Joel C. Rosenburg

Details: A terrible darkness has fallen upon Jacob Weisz's beloved Germany. The Nazi regime, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, has surged to power and now hold Germany by the throat. All non-Aryans -- especially Jews like Jacob and his family -- are treated like dogs.

When tragedy strikes during one terrible night of violence, Jacob flees and joins rebel forces working to undermine the regime. But after a raid goes horribly wrong, Jacob finds himself in a living nightmare -- trapped in a crowded, stinking car on the train to the Auschwitz death camp.

As World War II rages and Hitler begins implementing his "final solution" to systematically and ruthlessly exterminate the Jewish people, Jacob must rely on his wits and a God he's not sure he believes in to somehow escape from Auschwitz and alert the world to the Nazi's atrocities before Fascism overtakes all of Europe. The fate of millions hangs in the balance.

Children: I Am David by Anne Holm

Details: David's entire twelve-year life has been spent in a grisly prison camp in Eastern Europe. He knows nothing of the outside world. But when he is given the chance to escape, he seizes it. With his vengeful enemies hot on his heels, David struggles to cope in this strange new world, where his only resources are a compass, a few crusts of bread, his two aching feet, and some vague advice to seek refuge in Denmark. Is that enough to survive?

David's extraordinary odyssey is dramatically chronicled in Anne Holm's classic about the meaning of freedom and the power of hope.

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April Pics

Adults: The Custodian of Paradise by Wayne Johnson

Details: In the waning days of World War II, Sheilagh Fielding makes her way to a deserted island off the coast of Newfoundland. But she soon comes to suspect another presence: that of a man known only as her Provider, who has shadowed her for twenty years. Against the backdrop of Newfoundland's history and landscape, Fielding is a compelling figure. Taller than most men and striking in spite of her crippled leg, she is both eloquent and subversively funny. Her newspaper columns exposing the foibles and hypocrisies of her native city, St. John's, have made many powerful enemies for her, chief among them the man who fathered her children—twins—when she was fourteen. Only her Provider, however, knows all of Fielding's secrets.

Children: The Night Daddy by Maria Gripe

Details: Julia's mother is a nurse, working the night shift. A young writer eagerly signs up for the job as a baby-sitter. At first Julia is furious about the arrangement, but is gradually won over by the kind though eccentric young man and calls him her 'Night Daddy'. They are sharing midnight snacks, training his pet owl, and tending an exotic tropical plant known as the Queen of the Night.

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