Summer is over.
I won’t miss the sun’s bright gaze,
teasing me to play.
Autumn approaches,
filled with all of my joys: fog,
colors, warmth, and home.
Author: Sheila Loesch
Book: The Choice
I hadn’t touched nonfiction for months, but The Choice: Embrace the Possible (2017, Scribner) was a brilliant reintroduction. Author Dr. Edith Eger shares her profound story of surviving internment at Auschwitz as a young woman and her resulting life-long journey to heal from that trauma.
Book: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
Some of the best books I’ve read I can actually barely remember. I can more readily recall how they made me feel.
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna (2019, Ecco Press), a debut novel by Juliet Grimes, fits in that category. Easily the best book I’ve read so far this year, it has stayed on my mind since I read it in March. It was the kind of novel that left me sad when I reached the last page, because I had no more of the story to enjoy.
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The Romance of Paper Cups
I think there’s romance in many small, simple pleasures in life. Like warm towels right out of the dryer, fresh notebooks, the sun shining on a potted plant, and fresh cups of coffee.
Coffee is the one I’m focusing on today, because I have an embarrassing habit… I keep the paper cups I collect from coffee shop visits, bring them home, rinse and reuse them.
A Great Podcast That Reconsiders the Past
I have been listening to the You’re Wrong About… podcast incessantly for weeks. I gave it a chance after learning about it from Leslie Stephens (a writer for the Cupcakes & Cashmere blog) earlier this summer, and have since downloaded almost every episode.
Co-hosts Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall dropped their first episodes in May 2018. They are incredibly smart and engaging hosts who guide listeners through a reinvestigation of people or social events from the past with a current perspective. Ultimately, they aim to uncover what media got “wrong.” Topics have included the obesity epidemic, Roe v. Wade, shaken baby syndrome, Anna Nicole Smith, and sexting.
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Haiku 10
Chirping birds mock me
this sleepless morning. Don’t they
ever tire of it?
The Three Types of Fiction Books
When talking about books at work last week, I realized that there are three types of fiction: books that focus primarily on character development, books that are driven by the plot, and books that balance both cast and storyline.
It might seem obvious to others, but I think back to all the books I abandoned a third of the way through because I was not enjoying them, and it’s likely because I didn’t know 1) which of these three categories of fiction works I prefer and 2) which category the books I had picked up fit into.
Sheila Loesch 