Lori Duff Writes
Barbara Barth follows up her delightful The Unfaithful Widow with her new book The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later: My Life with Dogs and Every Day Magic. In this biography, she describes the first ten years of widowhood, and how she creates a life for herself in the wake of the death of her husband.…
My friend called me the other day. For purposes of this blog, I shall call her Jennifer, mainly because most women my age are named “Jennifer” and I know a lot of people named Jennifer and therefore you cannot narrow down her identity by this name. So Jennifer called me. Jennifer had had enough. Enough…
When I go out to dinner with my friends, it is because I want to talk to my friends live and in person. I don’t want to thumbtype awkward messages via text or have the voice-to-text app garble what I want to say. I don’t want to be on the phone and misread social cues…
As I write this, we are in what is known in the Jewish Community as the “Days of Awe.” Granted, a lot of the Days of Awe are spent with half of our number saying things like, “Aww, man, do we really have to go to temple again? We just went!” But that’s not the…
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton One of my favorite things is when I find a book that is completely unlike one that I have read in the past, which is a tough thing to find. There are only 26 letters in the alphabet and only so many combinations you can make of them into…
I was on the phone conducting business with someone who was younger than the vast majority of my t-shirts. This pup of a man described another person, who I hadn’t yet met, as ‘old.’ “What does old mean?” I said. “I don’t know,” he replied. “Old. Older.” “But what does that mean? Old is subjective. …
Giddy Up, Girl by Jeanie Brosius King is a story of grit and determination and, ultimately, inspiration. Jeanie is the mistress, so to speak, of the Beautiful Network of Women (B-NOW) Radio Show/Podcast and a life coach and speaker. She hosts women’s retreats geared towards renewal and relaxation. This book is the written version of…
If you’ve ever run into me at the grocery store on the weekends, you’ll know that I’m not a particularly vain person. I don’t mind looking terrible in public if the situation allows. On any given day there’s a 50/50 shot that my nails will be of raggedy lengths or that I might have an…
You Might Forget the Sky Was Ever Blue By Michael Chin is a collection of short stories. None of the characters in these stories seem comfortable in their own skins. They are all seeking to understand their places in the world and their relationships with the people around them. Some of these stories are disturbing,…
A few weeks ago I went to visit my son in his last weekend at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. If you don’t know what BUTI or Tanglewood is, let me explain. Tanglewood is a summer music festival/place located in Lenox, Massachusetts, the heart of the Berkshire Mountains. It is the summer home of the…