“Believe me, you never know the best about men till you know the worst about them.” — Horne Fisher, the sleuth of The Man Who Knew Too Much These are mystery stories, eight of them, deeply immersed in the world of Edwardian England. The stories are atmospheric. They present between the lines a picture […]
My copy of How To Stop Worrying and Start Living is quite old now. The printing date is 1984. I can’t remember who gave it to me or if I bought it myself. But when you look at the outlined pages of my copy one thing is clear. As a young woman, I went through
Being Over 60 Being over 60 isn’t easy, even when you’re Boy George. Maybe I should say, especially when you are. But having finished his memoir Karma, I find that Boy George builds up your optimism for living life fully, for being true to your impulses, even the bad ones, and to sticking around to
A Reflection on the Famous “Banned Book” The book, are you there God, it’s me, Margaret, might be said to be an icon to my generation. Published in 1970, the book details the struggles of one 11 year old girl, Margaret Simon, who faces sixth grade and puberty as she moves from New York City
Go past the shocking opening of the Barbie Movie, which has a laughing Barbie towering like a Greek goddess over a bunch of drab five year old girls smashing their baby dolls. (The scene is a reprise of 2001, a Space Odyssey, which might be a bit confusing.) Travel past to zoom in on Barbies
What I’ve been reading, generally stuff I’ve read this year, which was interesting enough to put down for future reference. And which is immediately available online: Blogs Mr Money Mustache (it’s there, but can’t be linked directly) — Who can help but be impressed when someone tells you you can retire in nine years flat, just
Changing the way you think is tough. Brianna Weist’s 101 Essays that Will Change the Way You Think will help you re-frame your worldview and your relationships. A couple weeks past, this book showed up at my doorstep. No doubt a helpful friend wanted to give me a chance to change the way I think.
I don’t often read books about Being a Writer. Because you know I’m above all that, ha ha ha. At least I used to think I was. But Bird by Bird is famous among writers, a book that everyone at writer’s group has heard of. Of course I didn’t rush out to read it. Because
Book review: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I loved this book, which is strange when you realize that the subject itself is dark: it concerns the sudden death of Didion’s husband, John Dunne, after nearly 40 years of marriage. Despite the tragic subject matter, reading it became, for me, not a guilty
The Sound of Gravel Book Review: It’s dark outside and in the beginning of The Sound of Gravel. The polygamous cult in which Wariner is raised, 200 miles south of Juarez, Mexico, is a land of rural beauty and grinding poverty. Living off the land is not exactly working for the 30-odd families of
