Author: michardillo
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The Second Mrs. de Winter, to be or not to be?
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why? As an avid reader my whole life, I have many “favorite books” and the list of the top ten continues to change and evolve over the decades and years of my reading life. The same 2 or 3 titles…
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Book Review: The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Random House (an imprint of Penguin Random House) for the ARC ebook of Elizabeth Strout’s newest book, The Things We Never Say (May 5, 2026, 224 pages). I lobbied hard for an ARC, and thankfully, the literature gods heard my cry, or at least someone at Random…
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Good Friday at the Shrine of St. Jude Catholic Church, Rockville, Maryland
It’s no secret that our pastor, Fr. Paul Lee, is fond of classical music, and he has commented that his favorite instrument is the cello. Over the years that he has been pastor at the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, MD, he has hosted several concerts featuring area musicians. This year as part of…
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Je parle un peu français, mais pas très bien!
What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had? The French language and I have been at odds for years, decades even. I took French in high school, but I have no memory of it. I don’t even remember who my teacher was or who was in my class. In fact, did…
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Country Mouse to City Mouse
Today is Thursday, March 12, 2026, and it is snowing here in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of the Washington, DC metropolitan area. MARCH…it’s snowing in MARCH. After the winter we have had, it’s really in poor form for it to be snowing today. Now, granted, the ground is far too warm for anything to stick,…
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Book Review: The Lost Language of Oysters by Alexander McCall Smith
Being Louisiana born and bred, especially in southeast Louisiana where oyster fishermen have made their living for decades on an oyster boat, when I saw the title of this new book pop up in NetGalley, I just had to request it. Seeing though, that it was book #6 in a series where I had not…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 