Deus Misereatur

  I was visiting my over-80 mother yesterday and she was showing me pictures of my childhood. Inside the packet of pictures there was a booklet for Mother's Day I had put together in 1971. Once we opened the cover, inside were two poems I had written as a 10-year-old. Five lines of youthful  and heartfelt rhyming. Poetry has been around in my heart since early on, though not a quality I've ever developed. Most of my poetic efforts trend to be at the level of "Roses are red, violets are blue, etc." So, when I opened the newly published and annotated version of George MacDonald's "Diary of an Old Soul" I trembled a bit, knowing I was entering the presence of an accomplished poet. This 296-page handy-sized hardback has been republished in the way MacDonald intended, with the poems on one leaf and a blank page on the next, to jot down reflections. Timothy Larsen, the McManis Professor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, has done a nice job introducing t...

The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories by George MacDonald My rating: 5 of 5 stars Three delightful stories written for children, and those who are young at heart. If one is well versed in C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams, one will find MacDonald's "The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories" familiar and friendly. Written in the 1860s, two of these are fairy tales layered under with symbolic meaning grounded in the Gospel and Christian Eschatology, and one is the re-telling of a Norwegian story with a moral. This particular set of fables will make great family reading, as well as satisfy individual pleasure. And if you chance upon the audio version at LibriVox, Clive Catterall's reading skill, along with his soothing style, will add to your enjoyment. I cheerfully recommend not only this book, but the LibriVox audio version. View all my reviews