Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Why you should press 'record' on Thanksgiving (for the Boston Globe)

›
I began by recording Leo, and ended up recording my parents.  And I've published an essay about doing both while also researching the Un...
Friday, November 18, 2022

Why does it have to be so hard?

›
April 12, 2022 Lost diary entry Last night after a day of working in the garden in Avon and admiring my father’s books and running on the ...
Monday, November 14, 2022

Writing about Didion for CNN and revisiting 'The Second Coming'

›
I spent yesterday writing a piece about the Joan Didion auction , and immersing myself once again in her seminal 1968 essay collection Slouc...
Sunday, November 13, 2022

On all of the Joan Didion items you might want to buy (for CNN)

›
Every now and again, I file stories for CNN (instead of simply editing other writers' stories), and every now and again I am able to co...
Sunday, November 06, 2022

My Modiano obsession (and yours)

›
From the novel,  So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood: He had written this book only in the hope that she might get in touch with h...
Monday, October 17, 2022

The Little Artist Whose Mother is Addicted to Post-it Notes

›
Post-it art by our Leonardo.  Leonardo d'Atlanta. Now on display in the Gallery of the Master Bedroom. Oh I know Marie Kondo wouldn'...
Friday, October 14, 2022

Fall grief

›
One day in Atlanta, circa 2015 Lost diary entry  It feels a bit like grief, the first warnings of fall -- that sudden chill in the morning a...
Monday, October 10, 2022

Pilgrimages I made in Italy (Il Libraccio -- Milano)

›
I visited as many bookstores as possible when I was in Italy, and had the joy finally of shopping at Il Libraccio (Milano branch), which I ...
Wednesday, October 05, 2022

Who we were

›
  Who were we? We were girls who stretched out, seatbelt-free, in the spacious trunk of our noisy green station wagon, reading, writing in o...
Monday, September 26, 2022

World domination -- from the Leo Journal

›
Aug 14, 2020 Leo looks at the geese in the school field behind our house and says, “Geese are totally close to world domination.”  A few d...
Thursday, September 15, 2022

Walking the dog to the sound of Italian news

›
I hear Mike chuckle a s I grab my quilted LL Bean vest on my way out the door  to walk the dog one morning last summer. “You’re not going to...
Tuesday, September 13, 2022

The Italian trip memento group photo

›
How did it start? Why would you do it? Who can say? But as far back as when I lived in Allentown (at least), I've been gathering all the...
Saturday, September 10, 2022

Indo ttuvai (Firenze!)

›
Quante volte avrò sentito questa domanda? Comunque sia il conteggio, non basta, ora che non abito  più  a Firenze. Quando arrivai a Siena ta...
Tuesday, September 06, 2022

Italy is Italy: Chiuso per ferie (Coco Lezzone) -- Fave photos/Italy trip

›
I often worry that Italy is no longer Italy (like maybe they need the Italian equivalent of 'Keep Austin Weird' bumper stickers ever...
Thursday, September 01, 2022

In Italy the streets are my lab (Seconda volta)

›
The first morning in Milan (which is to say the first morning of the trip), I wake at 6:50 a.m. and head out  subito  -- immediately -- on f...
Saturday, August 27, 2022

Ritual ciambellina photo (so fresh!)

›
We did go to the Coliseum while we were in Italy, I will have you know, since the boy wanted to go there, and we also showed him St. Peter...
Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Diario di viaggio della ragazza americana

›
Un mese fa ero appena arrivata in Italia per le ferie. Ma ora 3 settimane dopo il rientro in USA,  è  come se non ci fossi mai stata. Come s...
Saturday, August 20, 2022

The photo I take every time I visit Florence (1966 flood)

›
A photo of one of the markers commemorating the heights the Arno River reached in 1966 when there was the terrible flood.  "Qui arrivò ...
Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Best photos/Italy: Has anyone seen this dog?

›
Tea Vela, an English setter, is missing! And some tricky commenters have weighed in on whether Tea Vela is alive (I cut out of the frame the...
Monday, August 15, 2022

In Italy for the banner hed: "Addio al governo Draghi"

›
I go to Italy to reconnect with the old Jeanne, the one who wasn't able to resist the siren call of il Bel Paese after her college gradu...