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.
Birthday Book Recs 4/50 : The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
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Birthday Book Recs 3/50 : All Souls: A Family Story From Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald
Birthday Book Recs: 3/50
All Souls: A Family Story From Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald
Birthday Book Recs 2/50 : Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
Birthday Book Recs: 2/50
Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
Birthday Book Recs 1/50 : Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Birthday Book Recs: 1/50
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Bad, Bad Girl
I adored Bad, Bad Girl. And it’s not just because I adore Gish Jen. (I was gobsmacked when she agreed to participate in MetroWest Readers Fest. My fan tendencies were in overdrive and she was sooo lovely.)
50 Book Recommendations on the Occasion of the Big 5-0
Hi!!! Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? This is me with what I guess is a maraca, but it sort of reads like a drumstick too. So, if you like turkey (I do not), maybe you can grab a drumstick and party hearty/hardy while drooling later this weekend. ‘Tis the season! (Guess I was teething, and yes, I also had some big-time allergies when I was little. But the ruddy cheeks just add to the whole enthusiastically disheveled look.)
Surrounded by Books: The Victory Book Campaign
The other day I posted some stories wherein I made brief mention of moving into our house — which *also* means eventually getting all our books out of storage and onto this beaut of a book wall — and included this pic with some text like “Me being distracted by unpacking my books.” Which is very true because packing or unpacking usually results in me reading my 4th grade journal, playing around with (re)discovered drum sticks, and laughing/getting mushy over some of our kids’ old school work. (One favorite = daughter’s 2nd grade story “Pick Me Out of Sixty” which boasts the first line “Stacey is getting lonely and bored in prison.”)
The Correspondent
Last year, I posted about the novel Summerwater and how I felt like Sarah Moss employed the theme of “surprise.” (And also that I on occasion have kept a “surprise” journal.) Here’s what has turned into one of the most ~surprising~ novels of 2025. I was first introduced to The Correspondent by Virginia Evans from my friend because she had been given a copy soon after it was published by someone who is mentioned in the acknowledgements. (Hi, Margaret Ann, if you see this.)
Reading Got Matt a Job
Here’s a little story about how a book played a part in my husband’s career trajectory. Yes, my husband MATT who doesn’t read books. (Except for RAWTS and btw, we have a new selection but it’s gonna have to wait until 2026: Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris.)
The Road to Tender Hearts
Ok, The Road to Tender Hearts is a BOP. A book that’s a bop?
The Wall
[Some scribbled notes…the kind that get my brain going when I’m trying to figure out what I want to say:]
‘Our Time Turn to Fable’
Here’s one of the houses where we lived in Ireland. Matt was in Dublin last week and had dinner at our (former) next-door neighbors’ house. Looks like they’ll be getting new neighbors again.
We Do Not Part
We Do Not Part: A fixation on hands and touch and how we can mend and create but also pierce and cut … and maybe, too, a declaration that idleness (“idle hands” and all that) can prevent something from being revealed.
New Words Coming Soon
I hadn’t walked this part of First Ward in a while; last time that I recall, this building was adorned with “New Words Coming Soon!” So, I guess the words have come — and they are good.
Nostalgia v Memory (and The Whistling Season)
“The Rembrandt light of memory, finicky and magical and faithful at the same time, as the cheaper tint of nostalgia never is.” — The Whistling Season (Ivan Doig)
Three Days in June
Curling up in stripy pajamas and polka dot socks to finish the Anne Tyler book that you started on the plane home the other day and soaking in the simple (but not, like, “simple” as in one-dimensional) stories of normal people who Tyler has made up (of course…because it’s fiction) but nonetheless…
Imaginary Museums
This is Shel Silverstein for adults. But not like “for adults” with an “only” tagged at the end.
Robert Munsch, Not Celebs
What makes a good children’s book?
Shelfies: My Mom and Dad
From Newsletter Issue No. 22:
I’m not on TikTok (thankgoodness) or on this particular “side” of Instagram, but I know that “Day in the Life” content is popular. Everyone likes a good, soup-to-nuts look at the benign details of someone’s life, because — let’s face it — it’s the supposed “benign details” that provide the structure for everything…
Great Expectations
“It’s never good to be a fanatic,” said my teacher. I have no recollection of the context; pretty sure she was directing us in a Gilbert & Sullivan production, so maybe she didn’t want us to get fanatical about gondoliers.
