Friday, February 03, 2023

What I read after my father died

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That was my original title for the essay -- what I read after my father died -- and still the one that best reflects what inspired this rem...
Friday, January 27, 2023

Edith Bruck on surviving Auschwitz

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This line alone says so much:  "Chi ha Auschwitz come coinquilino devastatore dentro di sé, scrivendone e parlandone non lo partorirà m...
Monday, January 23, 2023

Before and after Auschwitz (Liana Millu) Jan. 27, 2023

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In writing a summary of the research I did during a short-term fellowship at the New York Public Library this year, I had to leave out some...
Tuesday, December 27, 2022

The Year in Writing and Failing (final edition)

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The year went so badly for writing that I pre-empted this now-annual post with a precocious version over the summer, declaring that " w...
2 comments:
Thursday, December 15, 2022

What I read in 2022 & What I plan to read in 2023

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Reading is much more than a hobby for many of us, right? It's the equivalent of a runner's pre-marathon workouts. It's breathing...
2 comments:
Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Dialogue I once overheard on the bus to Bennington town from campus:

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“Down there in Texas when I was working for A&M, they asked me to make some pizzas," a passenger says to no one in particular. ...
Monday, December 12, 2022

Spode Christmas cup time (sort of like pumpkin spice season?)

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It's the little things, right?  Always the little things that make life worth living. So Spode Christmas coffee cups for my Italian co...
Wednesday, November 23, 2022

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

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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?

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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'

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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)

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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

Feeding my Modiano obsession (and yours)

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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  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

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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

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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

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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!)

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