Wrapping up Shakespeare Reading Month
Dear Helen, Dear John, I realized early on that I was unlikely to finish most of what I started reading for Shakespeare Reading Month in time- even with the deadline extension- there were just too many...
View ArticleWhat I’ve Learned from Rilke, Extended Illness, and My Ice Skating Endeavor
Not being able to be awake for more than a few minutes at a time is by no means my favorite way to live, but it definitely seems to be one of the best ways for me to learn. Perhaps this is why I’ve...
View ArticleFor Cassandra
Dear Helen, Dear John, I’ve been asked by Cassandra to write 11 fun facts about myself and to answer 11 questions. Cassandra happens to be one of my favorite people and someone I admire a lot, so here...
View ArticlePlanting the Trees of Kenya
Dear Helen, Dear John, I am a huge believer in the power of an individual to make a difference. That is one of the reasons that I really enjoyed Planting the Trees of Kenya by Claire A. Nivola about...
View ArticleLittle Dorrit
Dear Helen, Dear John, It takes a great deal of time to read a 800+ page novel in paragraphs here and there over time, but it can be done. I think in this case reading slowly actually helped me...
View ArticleThe Scarlet Pimpernel and… Hungary???
Dear Helen, Dear John, What does a dashing Brit who originated the hero-with-an-alter-ego genre (think Zorro and Superman) have to do with Hungary? More than you would suppose. For starters, Baroness...
View ArticleMy Favorite Things: Part Three
Dear Helen, Dear John, It’s October 1st and day three of my week of celebrating some of my favorite things. October was a special month for my family growing up because it usually meant the first...
View ArticleM is for the Magic of Maps
“I was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1935. The Warsaw blitz occurred in 1939, when I was four years old. I remember streets caving in, buildings burning or crumbling to dust, and a bomb falling into the...
View ArticleQ is for a Quote, a Quip, a Queen, a Question, Quests, and Quotidian
Dear Helen, Dear John, It’s been very difficult for me to write without Bob. This past week especially I had a vast range of questions and sprawling thoughts that only he could answer and appreciate. I...
View ArticleIllness, German, and Persistence
I’m still working on German, albeit like everything else in my life e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y. This is from necessity not choice. I’ve been really sick (as in freaking the nurse out with my vitals...
View ArticleFinishing War and Peace
I had originally believed that finishing War and Peace would be this exultant, celebratory moment in my life. It was a tremendous amount of work to get through the beast after all. Instead, when that...
View ArticleThe Greater Journey by David McCullough
Dear Helen, Dear John, I read The Greater Journey Americans in Paris by David McCullough to complement my reading of Henry James’s The American for the January Library Challenge. It also qualifies as...
View ArticleWrapping up Shakespeare Reading Month
Dear Helen, Dear John, I realized early on that I was unlikely to finish most of what I started reading for Shakespeare Reading Month in time- even with the deadline extension- there were just too many...
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