Category: Essay
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Book Review: Murder in a Teacup by Vicki Delany
Guilty as charged: I judged this book entirely by its cover. I had not heard of Vicki Delany before I saw this book on the “librarian’s picks” shelf at my local library, but a cover with a table set for afternoon tea in the foreground, a cat sleeping on a windowsill, and sailboats in the…
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The Keys of My Life
Friday, June 10, 2022, was the last day of school where I taught upper school religion this year. Today I will turn in my school keys and walk out of the door as a retired teacher–again. If you follow me on my website or on social media, you may have seen my personal essay “I…
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Book Review: Love & Saffron by Kim Fay
If books were people, and if Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin married 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, and if those two book-people had a baby, it would be Love & Saffron by Kim Fay, and that baby’s godmother would be Ruth Reichl. I devoured this book in one day. Granted I was in…
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Book Review: The Hygge Holiday by Rosie Blake
For two years I lived in a small town near Brussels, Belgium, and seeking to make friends, I joined an international cooking club. There were twelve members, and we were each assigned a month where we hosted the entire group for lunch, with foods from our own culture. Each month was new and exciting, learning…
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Book Review: Jazz Age Cocktails by Cecelia Tichi
Don’t be confused by the title of this book. Yes, it is about cocktails popular during the Jazz Age, but this is not just a book of cocktail recipes. It is a history book, a book of US social history during the time of Prohibition, with recipes for the cocktails of the day sprinkled throughout.…
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Book Review: The Dig by John Preston (Other Press, 2007)
At some point during the pandemic, my husband and I watched the Netflix original film The Dig (Netflix, 2021) starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan. We were both quite taken with it. I immediately googled it and found that it was based upon a work of historical fiction of the same name by John Preston.…
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HSPT Prep Course
Do you have a rising 8th grader planning on applying for admission to an area Catholic high school? If so, the High School Placement Test is required at many of the DC area Catholic high schools. Three of the five sections of the test are language arts-based, which just happens to be my specialty! Sign…
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Interview: Eman Quotah, author of Bride of the Sea
See my most recent published piece for Washington Independent Review of Books: http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/an-interview-with-eman-quotah
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Holding Hands for 32 Years
From almost the exact moment that we became a couple, my husband has held my hand. If we are sitting in different chairs on either side of a table watching tv at night, he will reach across the table and hold out his hand for me to grasp. When we are out together in the…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 