Julia Sneden

On those foggy days, I arrived at the bus stop very damp despite my jacket. My fine hair was plastered to my head, and my braids, having escaped from their soggy ribbons, began to unbraid themselves. I well remember the day my new red ribbons, the product of cheap, war-time dyes, got so fog-wet that the color ran, staining the ends of my blonde braids pink   more »

P.D. James has written not just a sequel to the action of Pride and Prejudice: she has somehow absorbed Jane Austen’s style whole. It is elegant proof that Baroness James deserves every ounce of her extraordinary literary reputation. Nina Balatka by Trollope is a welcome change of pace for most of us who aren’t ashamed to enjoy a romance, or in need of some entertaining preaching, even if it is to the choir more »

I live in a part of the country that has a large Moravian population. Moravians celebrate the season of Advent, putting up large, beautiful lighted white stars, and making wreaths which sit on a table or hang horizontally, with four candles on them to represent the four Sundays before Christmas. It’s a gentle introduction to the holiday season more »

It occurs to me how useful it might have been had my darling grandmothers left me some idea of how the heck to deal with growing old. They both made it to 98, and while I doubt I’ll live that long, it might be instructive to learn how they retained positive attitudes, as they did more »