I hope that you will please take 2 minutes and 30 seconds of your time and watch the embedded trailer. Afterwards, if you find you are interested in seeing this film (as I am), here is a list of theaters and dates: find a theater, and here is a link where you can take action.
Just read this at nerve–Amy Hempel’s Offertory: We did it twelve times — made love, all of us, to one another twelve times, the two of them doing everything two people could do to me twelve times. I was going to say only twelve times, but it wasn’t “only,” was it? It was wonderful.
It took me a long time to get through this book. Not, though, because I didn’t love it. I did love it. Very much, in fact. Mostly it was because when I got to the final sections–Illness and Decline & Death–I found I could not go on. I did not want Daisy Goodwill to get sick; I did not want her to die. I … Read More The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields
Check out the killer Kirkus Review of Ellen Meister‘s soon-to-be-released novel: Review of “Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA”: Three conflicted housewives in Applewood, Long Island, long for something more fulfilling than what their families and their membership in the local PTA offer. Read the entire review
Allen and I had the following conversation this morning: me: Do you think we’ll ever see the sun again? him: I saw photos of it in the newspaper this morning. It just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse.
Another day, another brilliant piece by Kathy Fish: Smooth Thanks to my pal Robin for the link.
It is raining again. Actually, it never stopped–only lessened. And grew worse. And lessened. And grew worse. On our walk this morning we were mostly dry until the very end when the rain picked up. Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory speaks for us all in his column today Just go away (if you’re wondering what he’s talking about in the first paragraphs–he’s referring to … Read More New Englanders: collectively sticking our fingers in the light socket
Outstanding news, this– ‘African Booker’ shortlist crosses continent: The five shortlisted writers for this year’s Caine prize for African Writing cover all four corners of the continent, from Morocco to South Africa, Kenya to Nigeria. Unusually for a mixed prize, the list also features just one man. And: Starting at the top of the continent, Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-born author who has been … Read More Laila Lalami Shortlisted for Caine Prize
Passenger, by Kathy Fish Inamorata, by Girija Tropp Colts, by Claudia Smith
It’s Roy Kesey Week at The Elegant Variation. Check it out and buy his book: Nothing in the World.
If you’ve ever been to Walden Pond and Thoreau’s cabin there–you will be touched by how small it all is, how close it seems to the larger world and yet how compact and serene. How very far away. (Unless you happen to be there on a hot summer day when it is packed out with swimmers and children in shitty diapers). You don’t hear … Read More Thoreau’s Path
I’ve seen rain before but this is RAIN. I tried to walk the dog earlier because I thought there was a break in the weather but quickly realized that I was mistaken as I was drenched within minutes and met Allen in the car on the way home as he had come out to rescue us. The rivers are swollen. The end of our … Read More State of Emergency
myfanwy collins 