I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now. So many of my friends and family uttered this phrase to me sometime throughout the day on December 8, 2020. How does it feel? The question poured in, over and over again. It’s a question I, myself, wanted to know for years. How does it feel to […]
Ursula Le Guin, who passed away two years ago, was a writer known for her science and speculative fiction. With a career spanning nearly sixty years, she produced more than twenty novels and one hundred short stories. During her career, she received eight Hugos, six Nebulas, and became the second woman honored as a Grand […]
When I was twenty-one and living in Madrid, the forty-one-year-old dentist I was ‘dating’ (the details of which I will not describe here because they are all in The Book of Moods and it would be better if my mother read them along with the rest of the world), once tried to show me a […]
[EXCERPT FROM ‘THE BOOK OF MOODS’] A few years ago a woman named Gina sent me a message on LinkedIn. I just love Words of Women, she wrote. I’m a lawyer at a big law firm and think I could help you if you ever wanted to expand into other things with the brand. […]
The other day, a memory popped into my mind. I was twelve and in the car on the way to tennis camp. Always a shy kid, when I arrived, my throat dropped into my chest when I noted all the kids huddled outside the courts. It was not so much the presence of the kids […]
If you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you a story about my friend Grace. Five years ago Grace moved from Connecticut to New York hoping to restart her life. High school had been rough for her. She had a back brace from scoliosis and social anxiety. On top of her genetic bad luck, her […]
A few days ago something strange happened. I guess it all started when Tom and Jane came to visit. The couple, whom Jay and I have known for a few years, were our first visitors to Philly. Two days before their arrival we’d bought fresh flowers, organic groceries, new guest towels. We were, all clichés […]
I am writing this in bed right now. Two hours ago I got back from a beach holiday. My first vacation in over a year. And while I expected to come home relaxed and refreshed, I find myself unable to sit still, relax, calm down. I can’t focus, read, meditate, because, well, I’m too excited. […]
If you want a thing–truly want it, want it so badly that you need it as you need air to breathe, then unless you die, you will have it. Why not? It has you. There is no escape. What a cruel and terrible thing escape would be if escape were possible. – Parable of the […]
Writers & Lovers follows Casey–a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist–in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and, particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving “Brotherhood of the Arts,” two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed–or untoyed with–by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley.
Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
Here is the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery, uncontainable Lila. Both are now adults; life’s great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women’s friendship has remained the gravitational center of their lives.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s red lip. The image alone carries power and symbolizes the strength of femininity. And what an interesting concept: strength in femininity. When I read it, I can’t help but consider it an ironic juxtaposition. Women can be strong, yes, but the notions of society don’t associate that as feminine. A strong woman is […]
As humans, we adapt to situations and often present ourselves differently depending on the setting. We take pride in this. Our ability to speak professionally, make conversation with adults, make friends easily and often. We wear many masks and that is part of life. However, we often have many moments throughout our day and lives […]
Belonging. Belong. A simple verb and feeling that can consciously and unconsciously steer the direction we take, the choices we make and ultimately how we feel. For such a common word, it really does encapsulate volumes of our experience and needs. It’s most often felt when it’s missing, it’s the absence of belonging that hurts […]
