Our Year in Reading 2019
The astonishing translation by Emily Wilson Last month I posted about my Ursula LeGuin reading project for 2019; here’s the complete list of everything my husband Dan and I read over the past year. We read just two books in common this year: Lauren ...
My Year of Ursula Le Guin
Some good reading This year, for the first time ever, I read a lot of books by a single author. I decided to try this at the end of 2018, inspired in part by my husband Dan, who often reads multiple books by one person, and also by my friend Christian ...
Our Year in Reading 2018
All I need: green tea, GF donut, riveting book. What a lame blogger I’ve become! This is literally my only post for the year. But I had my reasons, chief of which was a breast cancer diagnosis this spring that proceeded to derail the entire year. I hope ...
Our Year in Reading 2017
Can't lie: I love my Kindle For the eighth consecutive December 31, I’m seeing out the old year by reporting what my husband Dan and I read over the past year. A few comments about this year’s lists: One big change to my reading habits: I started read ...
A Trip Around the World, Part 6
Chateau de Fontainebleau On the morning of Friday, July 7, the Moscow-Paris Express pulled into Gare de l’Est, and the long train journey that had begun in Vladivostok eleven days before was over. Pretty Parisian courtyard. We were on the 6th floo ...
A Trip Around the World, Part 5
Yaroslavsky Station, Moscow Tomorrow morning, if all goes well, my friend Chris and I arrive in Paris, and our long train journey from Vladivostok will be over. We’ve been pretty fortunate on this trip: almost everything has gone well. We’ve stayed ...
A Trip Around the World, Part 4
Writing on train. (Photo by Chris) It’s Sunday, July 2, as I begin this new entry, and my friend Chris and I are back on the Trans-Siberian Railway, having traveled from Vladivostok to Irkutsk and spent a day and a half in the town of Listvyanka on th ...
Around the World in 35 Days, Part 3
Sea of Japan at dawn, seen from ferry window I’ve started composing this installment of my travel report aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, late at night, someplace between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. I hope in a few days to be able to post somethi ...
Around the World in 35 Days, Part 2
Yosano Akiko birthplace, Sakai, Japan By the time you read this, I will likely already be in Russia. But I started drafting this post in Japan, on the shinkansen (bullet train) after leaving Osaka on Thursday, June 22, to wend my way north and west to ...
Around the World in 35 Days, Part 1
Yosano Akiko The subject of my next novel, another historical project about an epic journey, is the Japanese poet and feminist Yosano Akiko (1878-1942). In 1912, at the age of 33, Akiko left her home in Tokyo and traveled by herself to Paris. This ...