Category Archives: On Books

Whoa….

I’ll have more to say later at some point, but I’ve just read one of the earliest Star Trek novels, a 1974 book called Spock, Messiah!. And it is both super weird and not weird enough. I need to think … Continue reading

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From the Books, for International Women’s Day

This is a repost from a couple of years ago. I chose to repost this, about a book by astronomer Sara Seager, because it has lodged in my brain since I read it. I generally try to avoid reading grief … Continue reading

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A Small Haul

This year I have imposed a new rule: I will buy no books until our annual trip to Ithaca in the fall. I really really need to read up on my own library! I will make a couple of exceptions for special … Continue reading

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From the Books: On Jeff Smith, problematic people, food, and memory (a repost)

This is a repost that first appeared three years ago, on the old blog. I’m reposting it now, because of the season and because I’ve been thinking today, prompted by discussions elsewhere, about problematic people and what to do with … Continue reading

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From the Books: ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD

(image credit) I’m currently reading a book called All the Beauty in the World, by Patrick Bringley. The book is a memoir of Bringley’s tenure as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, a job he … Continue reading

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From the Books: “Make the Bread, Buy the Butter” (a repost)

From the archives: I don’t own this book yet. But I’ve had it checked out of the library a majority of the weeks it’s been in the collection, which means that it’s well past time for me to get off … Continue reading

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“It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (From the Books)

A literary anniversary went by last week, and I do want to mark its passing: on June 26, 1948, seventy-five years ago, The New Yorker published a new story by author Shirley Jackson. By this time Jackson was an established writer, … Continue reading

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“Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go….”

Ho! Ho! Ho! to the bottle I go To heal my heart and drown my woe. Rain may fall and wind may blow, And many miles be still to go, But under a tall tree, I will lie, And let … Continue reading

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From the Books, for International Women’s Day

This is a repost from a couple of years ago. I chose to repost this, about a book by astronomer Sara Seager, because it has lodged in my brain since I read it. I generally try to avoid reading grief … Continue reading

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From the Books: NO NAME IN THE STREET, James Baldwin

I have just finished reading James Baldwin’s powerful essay-book No Name in the Street, in which Baldwin describes his early life and his encounters later with many figures, some seminal and some less-so, and how he relates all of this to … Continue reading

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