“I think by now we can all agree that the foundation of world travel goes something like "Bring a cardigan.” Sloane Crosley
Review: Look Alive Out There
Review: Story
“The weakest possible excuse to include anything in a story is: 'But it actually happened.' Everything happens; everything imaginable happens.” ~ Robert McKee, Story
July TBR
July is a surprisingly nonfiction-heavy month for us both... with a healthy dose of fantasy, of course.
Review: Giving Up the Ghost
“You come to this place, mid-life. You don’t know how you got here, but suddenly you’re staring fifty in the face. When you turn and look back down the years, you glimpse the ghosts of other lives you might have led; all houses are haunted." - Hilary Mantel
Slow Days, Fast Company
“‘My wife, Shirley, and I have thought it over and we’ve decided to retire from success and try failure for a few years. We feel the variety will enlarge us.’ I know L.A. is the only place on earth where people do that.” -Eve Babitz
Review: After Henry
As Didion writes, “Later it would be recalled that 3,254 other rapes were reported that year, including one the following week involving the near decapitation of a black woman . . . but the point was rhetorical, since crimes are universally understood to be news to the extent that they offer, however erroneously, a story, a lesson, a high concept.”
Review: Without You There is No Us
"There's no freedom," he sighed, "They are watching us constantly. I know they are recording everything we say and keeping files on us, and I feel really bad all the time . . ." from Without You There is No Us.
Review: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
“The dampness and the rain are hastening the destruction of these and many other manuscripts," Haidara told me. "They should be returned to Timbuktu as quickly as possible," The drier air in Timbuktu acted as a kind of safeguard against fungal rot, though the arid climate of his hometown was also deleterious over time, causing unprotected pages to grow brittle and fall apart. " We have begun to see... mold, mildew, and fungus on paper and also on leather bindings.”
The Road to Character
What makes someone a good person? Being a hero? Following passions? These might be qualifications in the eyes of most, but not in the eyes of David Brooks.
Mayflower
Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower covers one of the most significant moments in American history. I was surprised to learn that my mythological idea of the first Thanksgiving and the Plymouth Rock landing weren’t terribly far from the truth.
Lit Lens 