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.
Yaa Gyasi in Charlotte
The other week, I got to see Yaa Gyasi at the closing event for a NEA Big Read event, coordinated by the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. Hooray for a new friend who knew about it and invited me! (Too bad I didn’t know about the initiative until the end of it and too bad that I never finished Homegoing when my book club in Dublin read it just as we were preparing to move back to the US. Guess life got busy, but I will rectify that soon especially now that I have a signed copy…)
A Book Recommendation Party
We were so happy to have a handful of people over last night. It was mostly just a way to rev up entertaining again, but as I try to suss out the hows and whats of possibly starting up some literary/book events in Charlotte after doing so in MetroWest Boston, it also served as an easy way to start dipping my toe in that world. I mean, I’m talking in a verrrrry minor way because the only book-ish thing about the evening was that it was requested that everyone bring a book recommendation to share.
Wrap Me Up in a Complicated Blardigan: On Oh William! and Transcendent Kingdom
The Boston Globe Magazine’s January 23 cover story was “30 Great Comfort Foods”; the cover was festooned with a tantalizing picture of chicken and waffles from Brassica Kitchen + Cafe in Jamaica Plain, a fairly gentrified and artsy neighborhood in Boston that nonetheless still tries to cling to a working class/relatable vibe. Here’s the lead blurb to this compilation, which includes delicacies from honey-glazed biscuits, to ramen, to nine-hour French onion soup: “When temperatures drop and New Year’s resolutions fall by the wayside, we all need something to warm our souls.
Transcendent Kingdom
When’s the last time you started a book in one place and finished it in another? I don’t mean like the couch and then your bed; more like two totally different geographic locations. Or maybe I should just say “settings” because perhaps the act of reading a book can be like its own story in and of itself.
