Blog posts tagged "books"

a pile of open books
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Dec. 11, 2023 - 3:04 pm
There is something ridiculously satisfying and pleasant about logging books and other media I've consumed — at least for me. Anythink blogger Luke has written on this topic in the past, and while this became a happy pastime for me before I read his fascinating blog post, I was originally inspired...
A worn chapter book on the ground covered in fall leaves.
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Aug. 16, 2021 - 2:42 pm
The first book I read by the great Ann Patchett was “Bel Canto,” and I remember the experience so vividly. I was newly married and had just moved to St. Louis. I didn’t know a single person there and was spending my days feeling nervous and alone while he was away at class.  After weeks of staying...
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Jan. 08, 2021 - 3:25 pm
I have never successfully completed a reading challenge. For years, I have fine-tooth combed the many challenges offered by various blogs and celebrities. I choose one that sparks my interest and set out in a grand attempt to fulfill the listed requirements. My gusto rarely lasts past March and I...
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Mar. 20, 2020 - 4:56 pm
When I listened to the audio of Jenny Slate's essay collection, Little Weirds, a couple of months ago, I had no idea it would be so emotionally prescient. I've been a fan of Slate's singularly quirky humor for years, but her brilliant, beautiful and bizarre voice resonated with me in ways I couldn'...
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Jan. 11, 2020 - 1:57 pm
Like fellow blogger Nicole Falcone, one of my favorite movies of 2019 is Rian Johnson’s murder mystery Knives Out. Clever, funny, pointed, and just plain fun, Knives Out gave me an adrenaline rush of pure cinematic satisfaction that still hasn’t worn off as of this writing. But this isn’t a blog...
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Aug. 13, 2019 - 10:12 pm
As a child Reginald Dwight was shy and lonely, but possessed of an astonishing natural gift for the piano. Flash forward to Aug. 25, 1970, when the then 23-year-old would give a mind-blowing performance at the Troubadour, catapulting him into stardom. That fellow, the world now knows as Elton John...
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Jan. 03, 2019 - 7:01 pm
Right now at Anythink Wright Farms we have a display called “To Great Endings and New Beginnings.” At one table are books and films with memorable last lines, while the other table features, you guessed it, items with memorable opening lines. I’ve been fascinated with great last lines for years; I...
mother snuggles up to her baby in bed
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Dec. 21, 2018 - 1:57 pm
When someone becomes a new parent, they are often overwhelmed with advice from family, friends and strangers in grocery store check-out lanes. Since giving birth three years ago, my own parenting style has faced many questions and earnest concerns. My grandmother still does not understand why my...
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Nov. 29, 2018 - 11:53 am
A year ago, I lost my father. I don’t mean he was misplaced or that he’s wandering about in a hedge maze or anything – he died. It wasn’t a surprise, he’d been sick for a while. But it was terribly sad. Obviously. In the year since, my family and I have grieved his loss and celebrated his life in a...
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Nov. 26, 2018 - 6:43 pm
Director Stanley Donen's Charade, the Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn globetrotting thriller, is often called “the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made.” Leon Garfield’s Smith may very well be the best Dickens novel that Dickens never wrote. Featuring a protagonist who has more than a little...

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