I admit it. Sometimes good books give me writer envy.
Why can’t I write award-winning literature like this?
But not these titles. These books are sublime and exquisite and inventive and thought-provoking and make me grateful to be a reader. No room for envy. Just awe. As my husband says, “Chapeau.”
Read MoreStuff to read: a novel, inspiration for climate hopefuls, an essay and a trip down memory lane.
Lately I can’t stop thinking about Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind, Rachel Sarah’s Girl Warriors, and Naomi Williams’ braided essay about braids and braided essays. Plus, I wrote something. About the Nutcracker. Again.
Read MoreHere are a few of the titles that got me through 2020. Thank you to Oakland Public Library for curbside pickup, East Bay Booksellers for creative (and safe!) ways to buy books over the last ten months, the ChaBoBo (aka "The Book Box"), recommendations from friends, Hut Landon's newsletter, and the old stand-by favorites on my shelves.
Read MoreThis book was pitched to me as a novel about Marcus, a black attorney in big law in San Francisco, who has anger-management issues around race. So at the end of May, when I had my own anger-management issues around race but didn't know how to give voice to them, Knucklehead called out from the bookshelf.
Read MoreIt's a good time to make fun to the things are that are un-make-funable. On June 24 at 7pm, I'll be in conversation with warm and funny author Mary Ladd to discuss her book The Wig Diaries, an irreverent book about cancer.
Read MoreThe first step was to run the stems under water and cut the requisite inch from each one before laying them in straight rows on a dishcloth. Each week I’d stare at the assortment of odd shapes and clashing colors: the runt of a bird of paradise, a speckled bloom that looked like a crumpled tissue.
Read MoreIf you told me a month ago that I'd be scrambling to buy a gallon of off-brand hand sanitizer, I'd have told you that you've been reading the wrong tea leaves. And yet, here we are. Day 4 of Shelter in Place.
Read MoreWhat? The line items appraised property in an ancestor’s will are actually people?
This excellent and thought-provoking anthology brings together first-person accounts from people reckoning with their direct connection to slavery.
Something I wrote. Something to listen to. Something to read.
Read MoreIn a way, this the love story you've read before: a guy with trouble accessing his emotions learns from those closest to him.
But, oh, mis amores, it is so much more than just that. This book is an integrated dance with everything that is a 21st century relationship.
