The chorus of the song “Why?” by Tracy Chapman touches on enough serious social issues that I find myself thinking of it on a regular basis, for several years now. Whenever some terrible thing happens that captures one or more news cycles, we never have to wait too long after that for another awful event
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Book review: The Appetites of Girls by Pamela Moses
When I saw this book on LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers list this past spring, I knew it would be right up my alley (she said, while having an afternoon snack). So, thank you to LibraryThing, and to Putnam Books (Penguin Group), for the chance to read and review an advanced copy of The Appetites of Girls,
Read on »Let’s Take the Long Way Home: a Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell
Yesterday morning, I woke around 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep. By 445am, I’d decided to get up and start my next book. I’d first heard of Let’s Take the Long Way Home in late summer or early fall, on an episode of the Books on the Nightstand podcast, in which Michael Kindness gave
Read on »This is your life. And THIS is your life on Coumadin.
For about three weeks, I’ve been taking the drug warfarin (approximate pronunciation WORF-uh-rin), the generic version of Coumadin. Coumadin is an anticoagulant, meaning it thins your blood to relieve blood clots in the body, and/or to prevent them from forming. It’s a powerful medicine, salvation for some people, but dangerous and potentially deadly as well.
Read on »Just making a note…
I need to shut down and get to bed VERY SOON, but am making a “mental note” of sorts before the day is completely over. When I woke this morning, I told Jeff I’d just had a bad dream. I didn’t say what about. Later in the day, I kept thinking about it. What I
Read on »What was I supposed to be doing again?
So it’s just after 6pm, and I ate my sandwich up here at the computer, skimming through some discussions on LibraryThing, and then I thought I’d write a new blog – a short one, with a picture. I was looking online for a new photo or wallpaper for my desktop at work, and I tried
Read on »Book 2 of my most influential five
When I was a teenager – often depressed, no self-esteem, thinking of death and hurting myself – I bought a used paperback anthology of poetry by women. I had heard of Sylvia Plath, and might already have read The Bell Jar, but hadn’t yet been exposed to her poetry. The book’s introduction quoted these lines
Read on »Five books that have influenced me the most: Book 1
A couple months ago, a friend from my book discussion group suggested that members choose the five books that have most influenced / impacted them – not one’s “favorite books” nor necessarily what one considers the “best books” read so far, but books which had some significant, lasting impact on the member’s thinking, ideas, or
Read on »Life = Multitudes of Poems
I’ve been working on a project for my mother’s birthday – though clearly I haven’t been working hard enough at it, because her birthday is in two days and I’m not even done with it yet, so who knows when it’ll get packed up and into the mail. But it’s this: I have a few
Read on »Random thought
The old saying goes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. My own great affection for food notwithstanding, I had a thought recently that the best way to a woman’s heart is through her mind. © All the parts of my life 2008-2015.
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