Category Archives: Recommendations

Sushi, Queen Elizabeth’s Spine, and Becoming One with My Car

Creative non-fiction, Humor, Inspiration, Life and Other Existential Problems, Month in Review, Parenting, Poetry, Recommendations, Under 750, Writing, Writing process

A Scrawl of April Delights and Wonders

April, that slippery trickster, played peekaboo with my sanity and my word count, yet here I am, wrestling it all into a monthly wrap-up blog post.

The dungeon of delights I toss stuff into (i.e. a crummy little computer file called “Cool Stuff!”) is ever-burgeoning. 

I also have a file called “Can You Believe This Shit?”, a cavernous pit of my more epic fails — those are usually what I serve up here once I’ve pulled my face out of the mud of life, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of my own clumsiness. But let’s sidestep the slapstick for a moment, shall we? 

Here are some splashes of the marvelous from April 2024 :

  • I got to hear author Julie Otsuka (of When the Emperor Was Divine, among other gems) speak at an event. She talked about the musicality of her prose as a guiding force. It was revelatory to me as a writer, who gets so worried about writing well that sometimes I forget about writing with beauty and whimsy and lyricism. The Swimmers is next on my list to read.
  • How lovely is this piece about the creative seasons by Austin Kleon? (peek here).
  • Ever feel like you’re in someone else’s movie (picture of definition of “idiot plot”) and it was a movie written by a coked-up background muppet whose Mahna Mahna has slipped off its cracker? I mean…
  • I’d absolutely demolish Le Crookie, a sinfully delightful pastry mishmash taking Paris by storm. (Feast your eyes on this madness).
  • It was my daughter’s birthday on April 8. We told her we moved heaven and earth for her, and that’s cool and all, but don’t expect that every year, kid.
  • Having kids has completely reshaped my understanding of time, especially when there are milestones. It’s like living in a real-world example of relativity: they’re at once newborns, teens, young adults, and everything in between, while I just steadily decay.
  • And then the routine chaos: proms, concerts, sporting our way through life. The husband and I morphed into glorified chauffeurs, hauling our offspring hither and yon.
  • Our sports pilgrimage included track meets in Arctic temps and baseball games called by some marvelously colorful umpires — can you say, “turkey, chicken, duck”? Because one umpire sure could every time there was a foul. Games and meets are long, is what I’m saying, and I have a lot of time to enjoy things like that. Except for the Arctic temps.
  • My bookshelves are screaming under the weight of an ever-expanding TBR pile. So many books, so little time (and this doesn’t help).
  • While I’m shedding no tears — except for the workers affected — over Oberweiss flirting with bankruptcy, I’m totally drooling over Jeni’s ice cream (I mean, have you tried it?). If I indulged as often as I’d like, I’d be experiencing regular cardiac events while living in a cardboard box — but what a sweet, sweet home it would be.
  • Discovered joy with my husband at a new sushi joint that actually knows what spicy means. It’s our new “our place,” because let’s face it, my usual place is inside my own head. It’s cluttered in there and there’s no sushi.
  • Kudos to The Crown for reminding me why posture matters (thanks, scoliosis). Also I AM WELL AWARE OF HOW BEHIND I AM. I DO NOT OFTEN HEAR THE ZEITGEIST OVER THE SOUNDS OF LOCAL LEAF BLOWERS.
  • Hat tip to Redditor thewelfarestate who, in a thread about not (over)using adverbs in writing, said, “Adverbs killed my father… meanly.” 
  • This is also good writing advice:
  • Dove into k.d. lang’s “Constant Craving” and “Hallelujah” on repeat because her voice cools the burn of a world that can get too loud and cruel.
  • And not to bury this or anything, but this happened a couple of days ago. More next month.

(and also, I love this flavor, in case you’re wondering. And this one. And this one. And this one. Also this. And I cannot forget this.)

May we all come into the peace of wild things.

And may we wild things bring peace to you.

Gutterballs, Keanu Reeves, and Other Spicy Things: March 2024

Humor, Life and Other Existential Problems, Month in Review, Parenting, Poetry, Recommendations

A “Life and Other Existential Problems” Post

Greetings and thank you for wading through that title.

Let me summarize the last month by assaulting your eyeballs:

You’re welcome. I’m certain I am the only one who has used “March Madness” in a non-basketball-related way.

Continue reading Gutterballs, Keanu Reeves, and Other Spicy Things: March 2024 →

October 2023 Reads

Book Review, Reading, Recommendations

Behold my October reads: each compelling enough to see through to the end. Three of them great enough to share with you here, and other places where reviews are welcome. Like Goodreads. And Amazon. And various aisles in Target.

Apologies to the stranger who didn’t sign up for my spontaneous bookish enthusiasm while browsing olive-leaf-and-oud-scented candles.

A Roaring Toast to Well Dressed Lies

Can two trailblazing sisters seamlessly transition from American scandal to aristocratic allure in Britain, trading notoriety for nobility, and redefine themselves amidst Victorian intrigue?

WELL, HELL, I DON’T KNOW.

At least I didn’t until I read Carrie Hayes’ gorgeous new historical novel Well Dressed Lies. And if you have any interest in historical fiction and/or brilliant writing, do dive headfirst into this book.

Well Dressed Lies is a stylish imagining of the lives of occasionally conflicted women caught between trappings and liberation.

The progressive views and bold public stances of sisters Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin were considered controversial, if not radical, in the late 19th century. We join the sisters in this encore to Naked Truth: Or Equality, The Forbidden Fruit: A Novel as they head to England after enduring public outrage and formidable obstacles in the United States. Can they just traipse from America to Britain’s posh parlors without catching their crinoline on some hook or another? OF COURSE NOT, THAT WOULD BE A VERY BORING BOOK. 

(You may want to read the first book, but it’s not necessary if you are patient and/or you have some knowledge of the Claflin sisters. But do read it — it’s delightful for its own sake and replete with Hayes’s dazzling bravura.) 

Hayes is careful in her treatment of the sisters and other historical figures in the novel, fully imagining them without sentimentality. The sisters’ relationship pulsates at the core of the story, empowering them to defy society’s disapproval and withstand the relentless scrutiny of casual onlookers.   

Hayes has talent to spare and a story to tell. Her greatest gifts, among many, are her wordsmithing and her world-building. We are enrobed in the language and details of the time, which gently pinwheel us in time and place without airs or affectations, and we swing along with the moods of the era. Hayes never underestimates her readers’ intelligence. She plays to our highest intelligence, but never once is arrogant or exclusive. Her prose flows like calligraphy, exuding beauty, elegance, and astonishing flourish. Hayes knows when and how much to withhold or reveal, adroitly keeping the book from veering into melodrama.  

For anyone who’s ever tried to find love, who’s tried to reinvent themselves, who’s tried to be more than who the world wants them to be, this book is for you. 

Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

This is a necessary book, and possibly a survival guide for the nation.

Democracy Awakening was written by Professor Heather Cox Richardson, author of the insanely popular substack/Facebook posts “Letters From An American.” This book clearly and terrifyingly traces our current teetering-on-the-edge-of-something-terrible back to specific points in  American history. Some historical factors for our country’s issues are more inimical than others, but in concert, they are at odds with the nation’s ideals. 

Here’s the kicker: Democracy Awakening is not bleak. It is a firm, hopeful call to action for a future that better aligns with the nation’s promises (and its principles and its political legacies). Richardson reminds us that America is not going down without a fight.

I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life

I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life is a scrumptious and rollicking little collection of reading-related essays for those of us whose end tables (and chairs, and desks, and floorboards) creak under the weight of our books, whose veins flow with the ink of a thousand stories, whose personal taxonomy includes a subsection for “books to read before I die,” and whose favorite kind of storm is a plot twist thunderclap.

(The Egg was hit or miss, but where it hit, it hit so good.)

Did you love any of your October reads?