I started writing this book five years ago, in the winter. I started writing it after a long, dry spell of not writing much. I started writing it during the times when my then-toddler napped. I remember I would get him down to sleep and then bring my laptop into my room and sit on the lumpy chair and force myself to write 500, … Read More arrival, gratitude
When I was eleven, my best friend and I would talk endlessly on the phone. I remember pulling the cord as far as it would go, up and down the hallway. I don’t even know what we said to each other but there seemed to be a lot to say. As an adult, I eschew the phone. I feel trapped by it. Even cordless, … Read More quiet
+ books, food, memoir, nonfiction, parenting, storytelling
When I turned over the last page of Gabrielle Hunter’s debut memoir, Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, I was genuinely devastated. I had thought I had a few pages left. I wasn’t ready for it to end. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. This is not to say that the book does not end well or just as … Read More Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
Bad Marie is a bad influence. I say this because while reading Marcy Dermansky’s second novel, Bad Marie, I was driven to do something that I, as a mother of a small, active child, never do anymore–and that is stay up past 11PM reading, which should tell you something about how engrossing this novel is if even an exhausted mother will stay up late … Read More Bad Marie, by Marcy Dermansky
+ books, memoir, nonfiction, parenting, writers
When my dear friend Kat came to visit on the day after my son’s first birthday, she brought with her several books, one of which was Rachel Cusk’s brilliant, startling book A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother. Kat expressed regret that she had not gotten the book to me sooner, but now having read the book, I have to say I think her … Read More A Life’s Work, by Rachel Cusk
My darling son, my heart, was born. This morning I am up with the birds and reliving every moment of it: The fear, the expectation, the excitement. The joy that eclipses all other joy. That moment when he is held up before you and he opens his mouth to say, “It is me. I am here. Pay attention.” And forever more, he is where … Read More a year ago today
myfanwy collins 