My Blog
The Care & Feeding of Book Groups
A staggering statistic has been battered about lately. Something like 28% of American adults did not read a single book last year. Not in print, not on Kindle, not even plugged into an audio book on a long commute. Who are these people? I do not know them. Books...
Out of Reach: The Risk of Parenting
My oldest went sky diving a few weeks ago. She took off with a group of friends and jumped out of a perfectly good plane while, 2 hours away, her dad and I checked our phones nervously for news of a safe landing. This is par for the parenting game. About three...
Annoying
It's the kiss of death: the eye roll accompanied by a muttered "she's so annoying." If you're around teenagers at all, you probably hear it often. Everything, it seems, is annoying. Their hair, teachers, friends, homework, schedule, chores, siblings. It's an...
College Move-In Day
We are two years in to having a kid at college. This weekend marks our 4th move into or out of a dorm. Sometimes we get lucky and have an elevator. Occasionally we've had to lug carpet, mini fridge, and endless bags of clothes up and down stairs. In August. In...
The Art of Porching
Wide was the divide between the northern and southern halves of my family, but one thing the southern side had going for them was porches. In the South, before there was central air and climate control and before 432 channels were on every TV, there were porches....
Jacket Judging
As the fourth of five siblings, most of my childhood books had already been well-loved by the time they came to me. Covers, if they remained at all, were worn and tattered, often with some words rubbed off altogether. My parents' shelves were lined with classics,...