What makes this family special? Anne Tyler provides this list: They thought their uncanny ability to keep their dogs alive for eons set them apart, as did their fierce disapproval of any adults who wear jeans, and their air of good-natured patience “that was not entirely deserved.” They also have … Read More
Month: June 2015
“The first key fact is that attention is limited.”
“However carved up or pared down we get, we keep on making the best of it…”
An extra punch — which distinguishes the extraordinary poetry of Kay Ryan — hits us in the title poem in this collection, “The Best of It.” At first, it seems that she’s telling us to make do, but then the poem gets darker, and then we realize that she’s … Read More
“We are just going to take this bird by bird.”
From the scores of books on writing that I’ve used over the last twenty years, the one piece of advice that floats to the top most frequently comes from this book. Author Anne Lamott tells the story about the time her brother, at age ten, was overwhelmed by an assignment … Read More