By Anastasia Smith
I AM LUCKY ENOUGH to have become good friends here at graduate school with a bonified Jane Austen nerd. (Hello, former English majors!) When I am a mess over school or weepy about love sagas, this friend of mine always listens to my gripes and then pauses thoughtfully, before saying something to the effect of: “It sounds like you need some more Jane in your life.” (Yes, this is her proposed remedy for everything.) Read on.
THE MIDDLE ROAD. That’s where Paige and Marion, our Aries kin, are headed this month according to Sheilaa Hite’s May forecast. It’s a bit of a foreign place for Marion (Find out why.) As for Paige, the middle seems a journey that will likely extend far past this month, so meanwhile she’s enlisted some help to get her there. Read about it here.
By Marion Roach Smith
VERY HIGH STANDARDS. That’s right. Every movie we now see has to meet some pretty high standards for how it treats the sisterhood. For too long we let the industry get away with characters who possess no names or identities other than those related to men. No more. So what’s coming up?
SISTERLESS THOUGH SHE may be, our Anastasia is giving a small sisterly tribute to her mother today. Read on.
By Paige Smith Orloff
NEED A LAST minute gift for a sister or mother this weekend? Look, or should I say, listen, no further: we’ve got a new release from one of music’s great mamas…and her equally mesmerizing sister. Listen in.
By Marion Roach Smith
MAH JONG LESSONS. Just the phrase makes me shiver and smile. A goal of mine for eons, while it took years for the right forces to coalesce, last night they did, and there I was, clacking tiles and jokes with 15 other women, and loving every second. And amid the new language – “bam,” “pung,” “chow” – and the nervousness of being with strangers, I felt a familiar tug, heard that familiar whisper, and experienced that unique settling-in that only one thing can bring. And you know what that is, sisters, right? Read on.
By Sheilaa Hite
MAY FLOWERS–HMMMMM! If you find yourself seeking the answers to your soul’s own “eternal questions” these days—that’s a good place to be. We’ll find the peace we need and the information we’re seeking if we can remember that we are natural forces, too. And like the wild gardens nature plants—we’re seeded with all kinds of possibilities. By pursuing the answers, we’re acknowledging the importance of our connection to all of life. Those already planted seeds of awareness have germinated and are beginning to sprout into comprehension. Life’s wild and beautiful garden is flowering—let’s give it a chance to surprise, enrich and delight us. The sign-by-sign forecasts follow: [click to continue…]
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WE’RE NOT TOO proud to admit that we, too, popped out of bed this morning at the crack of stupid to check out the wedding. You know, THE WEDDING. And we weren’t disappointed: from top to tails, the entire event, from the critical standpoints of fashion and romance, did not disappoint. Sister Paige has rounded up her favorite sites for coverage of the aristocratic hurrah, and Anna’s got her take on the fab Middleton sissies.
WITH THE BIG DAY of royal nuptual bliss upon us all, we thought it only appropriate here on TSP to give a nod to our favorite soon to be royal pair…yes that would be sisters Pippa and Kate! [click to continue…]
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OUR OWN ANASTASIA is remembering a favorite sister flick over at Claiming Sisterhood. Check out her Steel Magnolias nostalgia fest, and then be sure to dive into all our sis-flix-picks over in the ‘Pedia. We’ve got movie night covered, in sisterly style.
SISTERHOODS ARE PRECIOUS, though every once in a while one reveals itself to you, and makes you stop in your flats (or heels), and take stock of the genuine value of the connection.
Maybe this happens to you all the time. Not to Marion, which is why a recent chance encounter is one she has to share
APRIL, FAMOUSLY THE cruelest month, at least according to poet T.S. Eliot and those writing big checks to the IRS today, is also the most poetical. Today marks the midpoint of National Poetry Month, and here on TSP, we loves us some poems. Distract yourself from taxation–we’ve got sisterly sonnets (and free verse, and haiku, and sestinas…) [click to continue…]
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BEVERLY CLEARY, AUTHOR of arguably the best exasperating little sister book ever written, turns 95 today. What better time to remember Ramona, and, thanks to the New York Times, learn about a surprising correspondence between Cleary and equally beloved kids’ writer, Judy Blume? Read on.
IN THE GALLERIES: Claudine Hellmuth collages.
First time here? Here's the idea: TSP is a network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood. A sisterhood of sister blogs, you could say. Whatever sister means to you, from identical twin to sister-in-law (or in-friendship or in-feminism), we’ll make room to listen in about it or express it on TSP. Like the slogan up top says, “Don’t you have something to say to your sister?” We've got galleries of art and literature by and about sisters, and a Sisterpedia of sisterly trivia...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The quick study: Learn more about TSP, and how to find your way around. And oh—a giant, sisterly welcome.
As the suffix of its name suggests, TSP's Sisterpedia
is the reference section, one we’re hoping you’ll help us grow to maturity by adding your knowledge in the comments. Turn us on to new facts and figures, whether for the branch of our ‘library’ called Sistory (history from a sister point of view, from the Muses of ancient Greece to 60s Girl Groups and beyond) or the one called Sibling Science (what makes sisters tick, genetically and behaviorally). Or just click around and have a good read. See you there. 
No surprise, really, that sisterhood, often life’s longest relationship and always one of its most important, has been the Muse for so much creative self-expression by women, and also by men.
TSP’s Galleries were created to show off that outpouring of art and craft, poetry and prose. Come see a show or two—no ticket required, no lines to get in—and suggest others whose work we ought to showcase.
