book report adventure

On Monday I had the day off but my sweetie didn't and my volunteer job needed extra help, so I had the good fortune to get to spend the morning with an amazing kid who had the day off, too. His mom works at the paper and once they settled in he was sent down to help us out with sales. After the initial vendor rush things slowed way down and he went to get the book he was working on. It blew me away to see this boy just sit down and start churning out text. He'd mentioned to me that he was working on a book about Boston mobsters in the 1950s and when he left for lunch he said I could look at what he'd been writing. Imagine my delight when I looked down to see this:


Now that's my kind of story!

Here are some other books that have been delighting me lately:

The Double Comfort Safari Club - I love listening to Lisette Lecat read Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books. Mma Precious Ramotswe is such good company. These gentle, funny books set in Botswana are a sure-fire way to shake me out of the blues and restore my faith in humanity. Thanks for turning me on to these fabulous audio books, Mom!

The Master and Margarita - I may not actually be smart enough for this book and it had the usual Russian novel challenge of a million names with variations and they all start sounding alike and I can't tell who is who:) However, I didn't let that stop me from thoroughly enjoying it! I wasn't too sure when I was about 1/3 of the way through it and I still hadn't run into the Master or Margarita, but I will say that it all comes together pretty perfectly. Thanks for the awesome birthday present, David!

It Chooses You - By some amazing twist of fate, I received the notice that this popular book by Miranda July was finally on the hold shelf for me at the library within days of receiving her film The Future from Netflix. These projects are very much related to each other and when I found the film brilliant but disturbing, I was really grateful to the book for helping humanize it for me. I highly recommend experiencing these two together. If I were to do it over, I'd read the book first and then watch the movie.

An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny - Right before dinner a few weeks ago I read a description of this book on Jesse Kornbluth's fabulous Head Butler blog and surprised my sweet husband by bursting into tears at the table. So you know I had to track down a copy. The print copies had a ton of holds at the library, but the audio book was available, so that's what I got. I'm thinking it may be less popular because of the voice of the woman who reads it (since that's been my challenge), but I'm not letting that slow me down. This book cracks my heart open in that way that I love, and who can resist this pair? Really.

hadley adventure

(Photo of dear Albert Hadley from Elle Decor, Feb/Mar 2000; Fernando Bengoechea photographer)

It was such an honor to work on the Albert Hadley exhibit. I wanted to share some images with you, my dear friends and family who've been on this journey with me. Thank you all for your kind support!

fantastic adventure

Holy moly! Am I so grateful to my lovely friend, Scott, for letting me know about this beautiful short film. Such a treat for book lovers everywhere!

style adventure

These women just completely delight and inspire me! I'm no clothes horse - yes, that's putting it mildly for those of you who know me well - I fall into the minimalist, clothes as uniform category. But the freedom that comes through here is palpable. Soak it up!

images adventure

“Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.”
~Robert Louis Stevenson

Many thanks to Gretchen Rubin for posting this fabulous quotation on The Happiness Project today. Such a great mental image that I just have to share it here, along with some visual images from the world around me that caught my eye lately...

fun adventure

It hasn't all been struggle and freak-outs in my life lately, although it might seem like it:) One thing I really enjoyed a lot in the past couple of weeks was listening to Rob Lowe read his amazing memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends.



If you enjoyed listening to Tina Fey reading Bossypants, this probably should be next on your list.

experiment adventure

My challenge last week was that I had a three-day weekend in the midst of pre-exhibit stress. I'm definitely learning that obsessing over projects like this isn't helpful at all. This exhibit is really showing me the power of giving it space. The roadblocks I keep running into almost miraculously dissolve if I walk away and come back later. Delightful and inventive solutions have been arriving on their own timetable. Still, last weekend's approach of sort of trying to forget that the project even existed meant that on Monday evening the reality came crashing down in a psychically devastating way. Let's just say that putting one's head in the sand can be the:



So this weekend I decided to invite this project home with me on my own terms. Writing the introduction for an exhibit takes time and space and quiet, hard to find in my workplace. And I really didn't want a repeat of the trauma of the end of last weekend. I wanted to see how I could bring some joy to this process. I blocked out a chunk of time to work on the intro yesterday afternoon and reminded myself of how my process works. Lots and lots of drafts, some snacking, some spacing out, some paging through books, writing down lots of quotations, much imagining, and at the end a decent first draft to give some space and read with fresh eyes on Monday. I think the ingredient that was most needed, both for myself and the project was: