Tag Archives: reading

2019 Reading Recap: Behaving Badly

Posted on February 1, 2020 by

There are so many reasons to read; distraction is one, edification another. And then there is the sheer joy of schadenfreude. Strictly defined as pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune, in reading it is this and more. Because … Continue reading →

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Owl be reading.

Posted on November 23, 2019 by

Anomalous as it may seem, winter is upon us in Southern California (hey, we’ve got lows in the 40’s this week!). Because the owls are back, and that means, definitively, winter. We’ve heard a pair hooting softly back and forth … Continue reading →

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Ten fewer stars in the sky: the best of the best.

Posted on March 9, 2019 by

Well, finally, here we are. Still wheezing and a bit flu-befuddled but back on the home coast and able to lift our heads off the pillow. That’s a start! And at the very least, the scenery is a bit more … Continue reading →

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2018 Reading Re-cap: The Best of the Rest, Part I

Posted on February 16, 2019 by

“Acquiring even simple pieces of information physically alters the structure of our neurons”   writes John Medina in Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (264 pages, paperback, published 2009) Maybe this is why I … Continue reading →

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He Said, She Said: Memoirs and Biographies, Part II

Posted on February 9, 2019 by

Alas, I will never travel to most of the nooks and crannies of the world I’d like to see, but sometimes I’m tempted to buy one of those travel maps and put pins in it for the places I’ve gone … Continue reading →

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He Said, she Said: Memoirs and Biographies, Part I

Posted on February 2, 2019 by

“Hell is other people” said Sartre. Maybe so. But reading about them is an absolutely delicious pastime. I got up close and personal with some extraordinary folks via an even dozen biographies and memoirs in 2018. Here’s half of them: … Continue reading →

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A different kind of travel: the 2018 book list.

Posted on January 12, 2019 by

Let’s put a bookmark in the river cruise for a bit – time to do the annual reading retrospective. To make it just a bit less jarring, we’ll start with four books from the 2018 reading list that echoed places we … Continue reading →

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Reading Recap: At Tens and Elevenses

Posted on February 17, 2018 by

I was going to entitle this the Top Ten, but I must have been at tens and elevenses that day. Because it turns out that it is actually ten plus one that crowd the tippy-top of my list. One so … Continue reading →

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Reading Recap: My Lucky 13

Posted on February 10, 2018 by

Oh, I am a jaded reader. Even time-honored classics don’t make my top ten these days. But after the way I savaged some people’s favorite books and then summarily dismissed others, this should surprise no one. I’m a slow reader and time … Continue reading →

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Reading Recap: Some of the Most Interesting People I Met Last Year.

Posted on January 27, 2018 by

I traveled seven centuries to make some new acquaintances in my 2017 reading. A dozen biographies, memoirs and historical portraits illuminated my tiny canon of knowledge of history, art, politics and literature. Some of these books were a bit like … Continue reading →

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