The Florist’s Daughter by Patricia Hampl is a deep exploration of two extremely influential individuals on the author’s life: her mother and her father, though much more emphasis seems to me to be on the mother. There’s an intended irony, I think, in the author’s title, the florist’s daughter. Hampl has always considered herself “hisContinueContinue reading “The Florist’s Daughter by Patricia Hampl”
Category Archives: books
Full Body Burden – Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
I recently finished Kristen Iversen’s book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, an important and terrifying account of the dangers that lurk in the secrets of our personal and national lives. It is especially important and worrisome as the Denver area experiences such dramatic flooding, stirring up buried plutonium deposits.Kristen Iversen accomplishes whatContinueContinue reading “Full Body Burden – Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats”
Well, Hello There
Would ya look at that? It’s been a month. The MFA summer residency was here and then gone, those two weeks that last two months and then feel like just days once it’s over. I think it might have been the smoothest residency we’ve run since 2007, which is saying something, since I was alsoContinueContinue reading “Well, Hello There”
Grace Notes by Brian Doyle
I JUST finished Grace Notes by Brian Doyle, literally just finished the last page and set it down on my desk and sat back in my chair and sighed that long, contented, choked up sigh of YES. This! “…after fifty years, I am absolutely sure what I am supposed to do: sense stories, catch some byContinueContinue reading “Grace Notes by Brian Doyle”
Next Big Thing
I’ve been tagged by my dear friend Marilyn Bousquin in the Next Big Thing, a blog chain letter of sorts to talk about what’s happening in your writerly life and then to tag five other women writers to hear their stories. I met Marilyn a few years ago through the Ashland University MFA Program. She runsContinueContinue reading “Next Big Thing”
Book Ten: The Memory Palace
Dad and Lydia sleddingChristmas break almost always involves a marathon reading of at least one book, a can’t-put-it-down, block-out-the-family, full on obsessive read. I started and finished The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok in about 36 hours with breaks for skating, sledding, eating, and sleeping. The Memory Palace is a beautifully composed memoir about the relationship betweenContinueContinue reading “Book Ten: The Memory Palace”
Advent Days Ten and Eleven
Package Christmas Cookies, and Open a Christmas BookWe made an unplanned trip up to Great Mom-O’s house last night, so we took care of yesterday’s advent activity when Lydia got home from school today. We prepared our cookies from Saturday for delivering to neighbors and designed a few cards to go with them. The planContinueContinue reading “Advent Days Ten and Eleven”
Advent Day Two: Read a Christmas Book
Each year, opening the Christmas boxes releases magic in our house. The homemade ornaments, treasured angels and globes, snowmen mugs and dishes, candles, Christmas lights, stocking hangers, wreath, and so on cause eruptions of “Oh! Look at this!” from the kids, and honestly, from me, too. I find myself picking up ornaments and carrying themContinueContinue reading “Advent Day Two: Read a Christmas Book”
Book Nine: The Darkness Around Us Is Deep
I recently veered off of my Books to Read in 2012 list in order to indulge in a little dystopic narrative, and I don’t know whether it was because The Hunger Games doesn’t appear on my to-read list, or maybe because it is YA, or maybe because I am worried my more literary friends will simultaneously turnContinueContinue reading “Book Nine: The Darkness Around Us Is Deep”
The Hunger Games
Why is it that books about vampires, werewolves, and children killing children are so stinkin’ popular these days?Most of the time I am a nonfiction/poetry snob, I admit it, mostly because my job requires it. Occasionally, I miss reading for fun, though, and I have several friends who eat up fiction, both YA and adult. ContinueContinue reading “The Hunger Games”
Sarah Marie Wells 