I visited the Southern Utah desert a few weeks ago. After I returned I was doing my usual hike in Eugene, noticing the changes spring had wrought during my week away—new leaves, flowers, a cacophony of bird chirps like a warming up symphony. And while it was beautiful, it made me a little bit sad, … Continue reading Ode to Escalante
Take a Break: Three Fun Reads
The last time I read Edith Wharton's House of Mirth I vowed it would be the last. I had read it before, three or four times, and by this point I found the slow decline of Lily Bart painfully tragic because it is so pointless. And I wanted to yell at both her and Selden, … Continue reading Take a Break: Three Fun Reads
Literary Essentials for Cocktail Parties, a Syllabus
Recently, a dear friend reached out to me asking for recommendations of "classics." She reads a lot but primarily contemporary works and felt like she missed the boat on a lot of those "big" books that people "should" read. Because I love both making lists and being a busy body, I offered to create a … Continue reading Literary Essentials for Cocktail Parties, a Syllabus
Emerging, Changing – Poems for the Spring
Last Saturday was the vernal equinox, the time when light and dark come into balance before, in the Northern hemisphere, the light begins to expand and grow leading up to the summer solstice. We arbitrarily mark this day as the first day of spring. As with other such global, astronomical events, it's an important holiday … Continue reading Emerging, Changing – Poems for the Spring
Forgotten But Not Gone: Edna Ferber’s ‘So Big’
For my birthday in January, I received a message from my brother, Paul, informing me that my birthday present might be a few days late. "Okay. No worries," I replied, curious but not concerned. And yet when the package arrived, I had not envisioned a behemoth of an old book by an author I'd never … Continue reading Forgotten But Not Gone: Edna Ferber’s ‘So Big’
In Praise of the Try-Hards: ‘The Other Bennet Sister’
It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone is the protagonist of their own story. (And also that any writing about Pride and Prejudice must re-create a version of its famous first line.) Shortly after writing my post of "unanswerable questions" and "roguish speculations" about Pride and Prejudice, wherein I shared my sympathy for poor, … Continue reading In Praise of the Try-Hards: ‘The Other Bennet Sister’
The Wheelhouse Project: Setting
"Setting" is the last of the four "Doorways to Reading" for us to discuss, the doorways being librarian Nancy Pearl's break-down of what draws readers into a book. In books with a vibrant setting doorway, readers feel taken in and entranced by the world of the book itself, whether that be a mining freighter in … Continue reading The Wheelhouse Project: Setting
Quick Lit: ‘Leave the World Behind’ and ‘Sh*t, Actually’
A few years ago I started using the library to check out books again in earnest, realizing that my budget couldn't really keep up with my appetite plus recognizing that my shelves were filling up with books I had no intention of reading again. And I discovered that checking out books from the library is … Continue reading Quick Lit: ‘Leave the World Behind’ and ‘Sh*t, Actually’
Rooting Into Place
I live in Eugene, Oregon, within Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional lands of the Kalapuya people of which they were forcibly dispossessed by the US government in order to give the land to settler colonialists who eventually tried to establish Oregon as a white supremacist utopia, the legacy of which results in Oregon having one of … Continue reading Rooting Into Place
Rosemary and Pansies, Remembrance and Thoughts: Maggie O’Farrell’s ‘Hamnet’
"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies. That's for thoughts."—Ophelia, Hamlet, act IV, scene V. There is something remarkable in the state of Stratford, at least as rendered in Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague. Something I turn over and over, like an array of items rising … Continue reading Rosemary and Pansies, Remembrance and Thoughts: Maggie O’Farrell’s ‘Hamnet’
Dogs, Coffee, & Books 