The first time I looked for a job, Help Wanted was divided into three sections: Men, Women, and General. If memory serves me (I doubt it) men’s jobs were the professional ones, women’s were the handmaiden ones, and general included dishwashers and drivers. Trust me, the career paths were separate and not equal. I remembered … Read more
  Motivations behind some choices seem so impenetrable that even squinting close enough to crash into the subject you won’t find a mental foothold. That’s how I felt about Bernie Madoff and everything connected to his Ponzi scheme. How did he do it? Did his family really not know? How did he fool so many … Read more
All of us voracious readers have favorite books—book we re-read, books that encouraged us, inspired us, challenged us, and soothed us. Not always the same (the book and the character) there are those members of the cast who never leave us. I wonder, is there a difference between most memorable books, and the individual characters … Read more
Recently I listened to Joe Queenan—author of a book about his love of books and reading—on NPR (the soundtrack of my life) eager for the pleasure of hearing someone who reads as voraciously (okay, more) as I do, and loves books as intensely (not possible that it could be more) and who, like me, is obsessed … Read more
The perfect first line. How we chase it, scrambling phrases and our brains, seeking magic words to pop open our stories like magic keys.( Sometimes I want to create an entire book because a great beginning sentence pops into my head.) Tougher, can be that last line; Tougher because it’s culminating an entire world. … Read more