REVIEW: HILLBILLY ELEGY, by J. D. Vance I have heard a great deal about the haughtiness and self-satisfaction of “Yankees,” and when Vance refers to “Americans,” that is who he is referring to – the types he met at Yale Read more
Virginia Woolf: The freedom money gives. …my aunt’s legacy unveiled the sky to me, and substituted for the large and imposing figure of a gentleman, …a view of the open sky Read more
Virginia Woolf: The inferiority of women, or so they say How [is a man] to go on giving judgement, civilising natives, making laws, writing books, dressing up and speechifying at banquets, unless he can see himself at breakfast and at dinner at least twice the size he really is? Read more
Have some time over the holidays? Read a couple of classics THE BOOK OF TEA and WHAT THE STONES REMEMBER Read more
Christmas is just another day In this dark season I dispense with Christmas and reflect in gratitude upon the invention of the light bulb. Read more
MEMOIR WORKSHOP: What's a Memoir? A common trap for memoirists is to replace what really happened with what they wish had happened, or what was the right thing to do. Read more
Insomnia Overcome A lot of my writing is done in my sleep – I wake up in the morning with the resolution of a challenge, a few choice words, a title to something, an idea for a new project, whatever. Read more
BOOK REVIEW: City of Thieves, by David Benioff How many risks would I be willing to take to find an egg for my family? Read more
Women's liberation comes from the inside — eating alone Women’s liberation comes from the inside, and some of the outdated thought patterns of my childhood have been slow to dissolve. This aversion to eating alone was one of the last to go. Read more