Category Archives: Books and reading
Books and New Beginnings
I didn’t write down a single story until I was almost forty years old. Until that day, my characters existed just for me, to keep me company and help me through my days. Even when I began to write, that …
Coming soon…
I first started working on my daughter Elena’s memoir in May, 2009. Five years is a long time to give to a writing project, especially one full of so much personal pain. Along the way, her memoir became two: a …
The Wheels on the Bus…
My body may be in Germany, but my heart and soul are still in Texas, and that’s where a set of my books will be too in a couple of days. Last week, I received this appeal in the mail …
The Dark Days
It’s late autumn in the Rheinland-Pfalz, and the days are foggy, frosty, and short. Even the kestrel, the little cinnamon-colored hawk who hunts in the fields next to my house, can’t seem to keep his eyes open, and the fiery …
Die Beiden Schwestern
While flipping through the Wilhelm Busch storybook Heidi loaned me, I came across this illustration, and I think we all know what’s going on here. (See my earlier post about this literary star whose stories paved the way for the …
A Prodigy of Grandeur and Delicacy
Did I say we would be going inside the Strasbourg Cathedral on Friday? I lied. It’s Monday, and we’re still lingering on the steps. But I can’t help it. The facade of this cathedral is one of the most beautiful …
When I entered Germany, the passport control agent inspected my Lucky Luke comic book. Well, all right, maybe he didn’t inspect it, but he paged through it happily, and he was very glad to know I was learning German from …
The Friedrich Kellner Diaries: “From the Darkness into the Light of a Better Future”
Friedrich Kellner, shown above in his World War I uniform, was a young man when Germany became a democracy, and he had high hopes that his nation would become a place of free speech and personal liberty. Unfortunately, the young …
The Grandfather of Comics
My friend Heidi recently loaned me her childhood copy of the Wilhelm Busch stories. Wilhelm Busch created Max & Moritz, the devilish duo who came on the scene in 1865 and inspired the modern comic book. Combine the morbid satire …
Learning German with Lucky Luke
I don’t just sit around and watch television all day. Sometimes I read books. Comic books, that is–and my favorite is Lucky Luke, the man who shoots faster than his shadow. Television is a great way to learn a foreign …