READ ALL ABOUT IT
Since 2012, I’ve been writing about books. And the act of reading. And the importance of story and narrative. But, mostly, the underlying theme of all I write is how taking a moment to stop and digest some longform text — instead of scrolling, instead of watching a video, instead of multitasking — can be one of the most grounding things we can do for ourselves. Here’s the one-stop online home for all this writing.
You can read more about me and my work by moseying over here. Want to peruse periodic “essay drops” — excerpts from my work-in-progress essay collection about Homesickness? Here ya go.
Just Us / Saving Time
ISO book recs!
Calabash International Literary Festival
“Why is it that reggae achieved global status, but very little else did?” This question appears near the end of this NYT piece about the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica, but this question — posed by Kwame Dawes, one of the founders of Calabash — encapsulates some of my own thoughts about not just literary festivals (or book festivals, or whatever you’d like to call them), but about the role of books in the greater “entertainment” ecosystem. In the case of Calabash, the festival has “strive[d] to create an authenticating pipeline for Jamaican writers along the lines of what brought local musicians international attention.” Booker winner Marlon James “was ready to give up writing” until he attended a Calabash session in 2000. (!!)
Five Tuesdays in Winter
Those who create something are often offering up shortcuts and windows to their soul. Whether it be a piece of writing, a painting, a podcast (or two…thinking of a good friend here!), or, say, an Instagram account, the “creation” in question is an outgrowth of some sort of message, articulated or not, that is burrowed in one’s heart and is in need of conveyance. At least that’s how I think of it, and I know it’s how another friend — a visual artist, and the one who prompted me to finally get this book off my shelf — thinks of it too.
Lucy
I am not really a fan of the “Bloom Where You’re Planted” adage. Do I think that one should “find the silver lining” when they end up in a place that doesn’t quite feel right? Yes, of course. (Been there, done that.) Do I think you can just slot a person into different environments and expect them to simply thrive to their fullest extent no matter what the environment? 100% no. This is the flip side of “homesick” — people often refer to this phrase in a gauzy, nostalgic way, but it also can be experienced as a byproduct of ending up somewhere that just doesn’t click.
All This Could Be Different
“We all have our truth of a place. There is no universal narrative of any city that is also real. Only marketing.” This is very true and this line was a great takeaway for me that I’ve tucked away to use elsewhere. I would say the same sentiment applies to books.
Langston Hughes Wrote a Children’s Book
In 1936, Langston Hughes and the artist Elmer W. Brown collaborated on a children’s book called The Sweet and Sour Animal Book. They were never able to get it published, but now, in 2023, if you happen to be in Cleveland, you can view an exhibit called ‘The Sweet and Sour Journey of Langston Hughes and Elmer W. Brown’ at the museum ARTneo.
Jayber Crow
I’m not quite done, but this novel — Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry — has come at just the right time for me…
Boston Literary and Library Love
Here are two snippets of Boston literary/library love for you today.
Reading and Remembering With Annie Ernaux
Life has been so frenetic lately. Adult (gah…my youngest is nearly 18!) children coming and going, finishing school, starting their jobs. House on the market and all the hectic activity that comes with that. Work travels. Family visits. Lining up what seems like a bazillion interviews for this book I’m working on. (Yay!) All good stuff — life churning and chugging along.
The English Understand Wool
My brain space is [this small] these days. A long time ago I requested The English Understand Wool, a 69-page novella by Helen DeWitt, part of a series of bite-sized books by Storybook ND — a division of New Directions Publishing. The tagline? “The pleasure one felt as a child of reading a marvelous book from cover to cover in an afternoon.” Guess I was really prescient months ago when I clicked that “request” box on the library site because not only is that my speed these days…it also sounds completely delightful. (The Los Angeles Times has called this series “highbrow pocket books.”)
I’m a Reader: Here’s My Response
From Newsletter Issue No. 14:
The other day, I came across a draft of my thesis for my masters program. I have a MA in Media Studies, and in 2003 — just a few months before I had my first child (timing is everything!) — I completed an ethnography of a group of children of immigration in one neighborhood in Charlotte, NC and how their media preferences were shaped. Because of guidance from my advisor, I used a framework from a book called Is There a Text in This Class? by the scholar Stanley Fish as a way to frame my own work. In academic circles, Fish is known as one of the main proponents of something called Reader-Response Criticism. The Cliff Notes version of RRC is that the main lens through which to view literature is the reader and his or her experience as opposed focusing on the author. In the introduction to Is There a Text in This Class? Fish writes…
Fiction, Reality, and The Beautiful South
I’m really intrigued by “the role of the reader,” but on the flipside, I’m also very intrigued by how “real life” infiltrates fiction — or not.
I Have Some Questions for You
The second season of The White Lotus created so much buzz late last year, yet nothing I read seemed to point to how the entire show was underpinned by themes of “gaslighting” — how others convince us something is true and maybe more importantly, how we convince ourselves that something is true. (Maybe this analysis is out there and I missed it?) Characters continually wonder: Is my partner having an affair? Is this person attracted to me? And — zinger — is this cabal of “high-class gays” (to borrow Tanya’s phrasing) trying to kill me? Or…does the “evidence” just overwhelmingly tell me so, ergo it’s true? I thought this last season was brilliant.
The Library at Home
As we prepare to leave this house — and as we let prospective buyers through if they’ve heard about its future availability — Matt and I have spent many weekends organizing, purging, donating, scrubbing. Which of course included a massive tidy of some bookshelves. I know it’s likely I’ll be asked to “stage” them better — fewer books, more #decorativevases. Because as we all know (due to pox-on-society HGTV), the goal is to “remove” traces of oneself and one’s family from a home when it’s for sale. And since, in many ways, the books on our shelves tell my life’s story…out they go. But I can’t live like that in real life.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Amy’s Version
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Amy’s Version. Matt and I have been in Charlotte for a few weeks but have taken turns going back to Massachusetts on weekends. This weekend was my turn, and when I got up at 4 am on Friday to get to the airport, I saw that my flight was cancelled. Flying to Boston was going to be essentially impossible until Monday. Not helpful! After going through possible parent-less scenarios (could our son Uber to our house from his school, get our car, and criss-cross New England alone to these appointments at colleges?), we decided I would fly into a different airport and figure out the last part when I landed.
This is Happiness
“It seems to me the quality that makes any book, music, painting worthwhile is life, just that…”
My Name is Leon
Since college (or earlier?), I’ve pondered the theory that there are a finite number of story structures (ie “overcoming the monster,” “tragedy,” etc.)
Colleen Hoover, Crocs, and Bestseller Lists
So what are bestseller lists good for? I mean, I know they’re good for authors and publishers and might give a book a nice zeitgeisty pat on the back, but from a reader’s perspective…what’s the point? Are they “good” for readers? The number of books I’ve read in the past few years that I’d put in the “excellent” category *and* were on some sort of bestseller list is minuscule. #venndiagram
The Idiot
How in the world had I never read this book before now?!?!
Reading Culture
I’ve been thinking about the interplay between a person helping to shape a culture versus a culture helping to shape a person. “Culture” meaning the shared beliefs and values of any subset of people, I suppose.
