Author of the NYT Bestselling Novel… (Weekend Assignment #306)

Author of the NYT Bestselling Novel… (Weekend Assignment #306)

This is Carly‘s first week co-hosting the Weekend Assignment with Karen, and she’s come up with prompt near and dear to book-loving hearts: Weekend Assignment #306: You’re A Famous Author, Whats The Name Of Your Book? Carly says: “Sounds easy, right? Oh, but hold on, there is a catch here folks! The book you are famous for writing must be from a genre that you aren’t known for. As an example, if you really enjoy […]

Sunday Salon: What’s Valentine’s Day got to do with it? (Pretty much nothing, to be honest.)

Sunday Salon: What’s Valentine’s Day got to do with it? (Pretty much nothing, to be honest.)

Booking Through Thursday asked a very good question this week: How can you encourage a non-reading child to read? What about a teen-ager? Would you require books to be read in the hopes that they would enjoy them once they got into them, or offer incentives, or just suggest interesting books? If you do offer incentives and suggestions and that doesn’t work, would you then require a certain amount of reading? At what point do […]

Week-end Review: Travels around the Blogiverse this week

Week-end Review: Travels around the Blogiverse this week

Many thanks to Kathleen of Boarding in My Forties for sharing the One Lovely Blog Award with me! Kathleen and I are relatively new blog acquaintances, but we’ve got a good bit in common – books and blogging, living in California, our age group – and I’m glad to have gotten to know her. If you haven’t met her yourself yet, go visit her blog and correct that oversight soon! I’m breaking the “pass it […]

Book Talk: *American Rust*, by Phillip Meyer (TLC Book Tour)

Book Talk: *American Rust*, by Phillip Meyer (TLC Book Tour)

Disclosure: I received a hardcover copy of this book for review from the publisher, via TLC Book Tours, as part of a tour to promote its publication in paperback (now available in stores). *Purchasing links in this review go through my Amazon Associates account. American Rust: A Novel Philipp Meyer Spiegel & Grau (2009), Hardcover (ISBN 0385527519 / 9780385527514) Fiction, 384 pages Opening Lines: “Isaac’s mother was dead five years but he hadn’t stopped thinking […]

Tuesday Tangents: Pictures from a Food Fight!

Tuesday Tangents: Pictures from a Food Fight!

Are you ever afraid your kids will never want to leave home and be on their own? Are you afraid they won’t be able to leave home and be on their own…or that they’ll leave and have to come back? Back in the late summer of 2007, just a few months after my son had graduated university and obtained his first professional job and his own apartment (3000 miles away), I read a blog post […]

From the archives, NOW IN PRINT: *The “responsible” child (?)*

From the archives, NOW IN PRINT: *The “responsible” child (?)*

I shared the details of this yesterday, but here’s a quick recap: A post that originally appeared here during the first six months of the blog has been published as part of an essay anthology, The Contemporary Reader*(it can be found on page 174 of the book). The anthology is a college-level expository-writing textbook, so it’s not likely most people are going to stumble across it, and the original post appeared at a time (September […]

Sunday Salon: Guess who’s in a book? No, really!

Sunday Salon: Guess who’s in a book? No, really!

BREAKING NEWS: GUESS WHO’S BEEN PUBLISHED – IN AN ACTUAL BOOK?! I haven’t previously shared the details of this with anyone except my husband because I didn’t entirely believe it would happen, but a post of mine from September 2007 has been published in an essay anthology. (I’m trying to sound matter-of-fact about it, but trust me, I’m totally SQUEE-ing on the inside!) Early last year, I received an e-mail “…to inquire about an essay […]

Week-End Review: Travels across the blogiverse this week

Week-End Review: Travels across the blogiverse this week

Four years ago today, Tall Paul proposed to me on Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara. I said yes. Weather permitting, we’re hoping to revisit the scene of the crime this weekend. What do you have planned? I heard there’s a big football game or something on Sunday. Dispatches: Links of the Week Making assumptions about parenting, whether they involve your kids or your pets; making decisions about your kids’ schooling when none of the options […]

Writing about Reading: Answering Amy’s Questions

Writing about Reading: Answering Amy’s Questions

There’s been a bit of discussion about being a “public reader” during the last week or two, and not exactly in the sense of “being seen in public with a book,” which has never bothered me in the slightest. Amy posed some questions about being a public reader, and I thought I’d answer them here. How do you balance your reading? I think this could question could be interpreted many ways, but in this context, […]

Wednesday/Weekend Assignment #303: Stress Relief

Wednesday/Weekend Assignment #303: Stress Relief

Karen‘s topic this week is one that’s probably universally relatable: Weekend Assignment #303: How do you de-stress when you’re feeling frazzled? I don’t have a single, all-purposes stress-relief technique – does anyone? But I do have several things I might try, depending on the context – where I am at the time, and what seems to be triggering the majority of the stress (because if I’m truly frazzled and overwhelmed, it’s probably not just due […]

Tuesday Tangents: “It’s GROUNDHOG DAY!” Edition

Tuesday Tangents: “It’s GROUNDHOG DAY!” Edition

I really can’t manage to stay away from this place very long, can I? But I did need that couple of days off last week. Thanks for not deserting me in the meantime! My “memorial” post about Gypsy went up yesterday (and her photo has become a fixture on the blog sidebar). I tried not to make it too much of a downer, but I wanted to do two things with it. I wanted to […]

There goes my girl: Gypsy, 1997(?) – 2010

There goes my girl: Gypsy, 1997(?) – 2010

It’s still sinking in that after more than eleven years, two states, three cities, and four homes, I don’t have a dog any more. I never knew how Gypsy’s story began. I was never even sure of her exact age. All I ever knew was that by the time I met her, in September of 1998, she had been pregnant at least once, so I assumed she was at least 18 months old. She was […]