“If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers… February is for doers.” — Marc Parent. “ ... I'm not sure who Marc Parent is, or more to the point, which Marc Parent I have quoted here. There...
Yesterday, at last, I dove into my new book -- or at least I'm hoping that it will come together in book form eventually, as planned. The subject? People! Working title: "Saints or Sinners?" Some of my subjects I've known (and some of those all...
I've not quite finished Michael Frank's latest book -- three pages to go -- but "my eyes say quit" as my grandmother used to say. And I can't wait to tell you about it! Mostly, I just want to say: "Get it! Read it!" And by the time you get to...
Louise Penny's latest book arrived on my front porch right on time. In fact, probably 12 hours earlier than the "pub date" which was November 30th. I was waiting with baited breath, having timed my life so I could dive right in. A World of...
The invitation arrived this morning by email from Josephine LaCosta, a woman I'd never heard of (or so I thought) and, apparently an author. I was a part of a string of folks being invited to a book launch party because I was "so generous as to...
I think I missed a cog. I'm trying to remember why bigger is better, why new ideas are now always preferable to the "tried and true," and why being in a constant state of turmoil and uncertainty is a good thing. Have we completely given up the...
...over the years I have met more people than you might imagine who are utterly mystified about tides. Not one among them was unintelligent and all of them, except for one, lived right here on the Peninsula where, for most of us, the gentle...
When you live in a house filled with five generations of great books, it makes no sense at all to run out of reading material. Except... how did people 100+ years ago manage that teeny-tiny print? There are shelves and shelves of books from the...
I'm re-reading Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, The Complete Short Stories, a 1985 compilation by G.P. Putnam's Sons of previously published stories. I'm sure I've read them several times before -- certainly when this book was published and...
"I learned so much about oysters that I hadn't known before," my neighbor Paul told me. He was lending me a book by Rowan Jacobsen called The Living Shore -- a smallish book that I felt I might be able to handle, at least in bits and pieces. It...
Last summer -- or was it summer before last? -- Nyel and I were on a garage clean-out marathon. Among the things we put a "For Sale" sign on was the ugliest chair in the world. It had been in the Back Forty for as long as I could remember. I...
A copy of author Louise Penny's July Newsletter arrived in my inbox this morning. It was just what I needed -- a welcome diversion from the "sea of despond" which laps at my toes now and then. The last family members returned to their normal...