by paige on August 1, 2010
A FEW YEARS back, my family made its own venture into the wilderness, moving from the urban sprawl of Los Angeles to the expansive green hills of the Hudson Valley. It’s paradise, yet the climate where we live can be wretched and unforgiving, the land hilly and full of stones. We marvel aloud at the tenacity and sheer strength of this area’s early settlers, the people who cleared all the trees, built the stone walls that still stand. We are awed by what they accomplished, and quite certain we, with our reliance on power tools, the internet, and central heating, would not have a prayer of replicating their achievements. [click to continue…]
by paige on March 18, 2010
IF YOU’VE SPENT much time here, you already know how we TSP sisters feel about the power of memoir, and Mary Gordon’s layered remembrance of her mother is an outstanding example of the genre. [click to continue…]
by paige on June 10, 2009
HOW’S THIS FOR A PLOT? Two couples meet, fall in love–each with the other’s partner–dissolve their existing marriages, switch partners, and marry again. Wild enough. But now imagine that within these two fragile families are four young girls, two each, all close in age. Two of them, named Jenny and Jane, even share the same birthday, one year apart. The four girls are all now sisters, of a sort. What sort of sad, strange family is this? [click to continue…]
IN THE WINTER, it’s all about the nightstand: That’s where my teetering, tottering pile of reading material and wishful thinking resides most of the year. (Where I live, winter IS five months long, and that pile is tall.) But now, as the sun finally shines more hours than not, and the end of school approaches, and with that transition, the prospect of lazy afternoons spent–dare I dream?– reading, begins to tantalize. [click to continue…]
A S THE SISTERLESS SISTER HERE ON TSP, I’m always on the lookout for tales of non-traditional sisterhood: women who may not share biology, but find kinship all the same. Muriel Barbery’s funny and haunting novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a phenomenon in its native France, offers just such a relationship–not to mention a terrific, challenging read. [click to continue…]
I CAN’T POSSIBLY BE objective about Not Becoming My Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way, the latest book by Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl. I am privileged to call the author my friend, and equally privileged to have known her through the process of conceiving and writing this slender but deeply affecting and ultimately provocative book. Now that I’ve ‘fessed up to my bias, I must encourage you to run, not walk, to your nearest independent bookstore to buy this book, and, if you’re so inclined, the audio version as well. [click to continue…]
by paige on April 21, 2009
DON’T YOU LOVE it when your treasured sister-friend tells you “You have to read this!” and you do, and it’s a can’t-put-it-down experience? My most recent sister-must-read is Isabel Gillies’ Happens Every Day. The book is billed as a divorce memoir, and it is, but it’s also clear-eyed, funny and hopeful. And yes–I couldn’t put it down. [click to continue…]
A FEW YEARS back, my family made its own venture into the wilderness, moving from the urban sprawl of Los Angeles to the expansive green hills of the Hudson Valley. It’s paradise, yet the climate where we live can be wretched and unforgiving, the land hilly and full of stones. We marvel aloud at the tenacity and sheer strength of this area’s early settlers, the people who cleared all the trees, built the stone walls that still stand. We are awed by what they accomplished, and quite certain we, with our reliance on power tools, the internet, and central heating, would not have a prayer of replicating their achievements. [click to continue…]
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