Sign outside of Lumber Mill Antique MallIt’s raining off and on today in Madison and is so gloomy now outside that the street lights outside the Catholic church next door have come on. But thankfully, still unseasonably warm in the high 50s. What … [Read more...]
Sunday Salon: Julia and Avis
February 19, 2011 By 9 Comments
I didn’t read Julie and Julia, I just saw the movie, so I can’t really say how As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto compares. When I saw the movie, I kind of wished it had been just Julia, without the Julie, but now I wish it … [Read more...]
Book Review: O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
February 19, 2011 By 4 Comments
You gotta love a book with an exclamation point! You have to! Really! One of my good friends lent me this book when she discovered that I’ve never read any Willa Cather, despite being a placist, which appears to truly be a word that my friend … [Read more...]
Quotable: Julia Child and Avis DeVoto
February 18, 2011 By 1 Comment
This is hop from Bookish Ruth, Quotable. Grab a book you're reading or an old favorite and share a quote from it. I'm reading As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. There are so many quotable lines in here, and eventually … [Read more...]
What book would you take into the trenches?
February 17, 2011 By 11 Comments
This week's literary blog hop from The Blue Bookcase is from Mel U at the Reading Life whose question is inspired by The Harp of Burma (on my to-read list). Mel U asks, "If you were going off to war (or some other similarly horrific situation) and … [Read more...]
Dueling books: This is your brain on bluegrass
February 16, 2011 By 2 Comments
As I’ve mentioned before on here, I’ve recently taken up the fiddle. Fiddling is great because it takes a whole set of skills that are completely different from what I do for a living as a professor, but because I am also an academic, I find I need … [Read more...]
Mailbox Monday: My bookstore bounty
February 14, 2011 By 8 Comments
I've seen Mailbox Monday as I've been tooling about the book blogosphere, but don't usually have a bounty of books to list. This week, however, my husband mistakenly asked me if I'd like to visit our local bookstore, Village Lights, with him. I … [Read more...]
Madison Monday: Madison is for lovers
February 14, 2011 By 2 Comments
Sun setting in MadisonThe National Trust for Historic Preservation just released their list of most romantic main streets and Madison made the cut. Of course, I've always felt Madison is quite a romantic little spot, but here's what the folks at the … [Read more...]
Valentine’s Day reflections: Difficult is the loving, and also difficult is the not loving
February 13, 2011 By 3 Comments
In college, I took ancient Greek for my required language because I was in love with the professor and a boy. So while other folks were learning practical languages like Spanish and French, I was translating Sappho fragments. The fist bit of ancient … [Read more...]
Sunday Salon: So Cold the River
February 12, 2011 By 4 Comments
The dome at West Baden ResortSo Cold the River is a mystery/thriller set in French Lick and West Baden, Indiana. There are tornadoes and stinky sulphurous Pluto mineral water and vaguely supernatural goings-on. The main character is a failed … [Read more...]
