I am digging in and hunkering down. Armed with a new lease on life, as they say, I’m pulling my blanket over my head and staying inside its delicate warmth. Yes, I am able to drive again. One year and two months after the incident, I can get around the local terrain fairly well on four wheels. And I’m not...
I am pleased to announce the publication of a document I worked on for the U.S. Department of Education called Forum Guide to Exit Codes. I worked on it seemingly forever. Months and months. Much of the document was edited by yours truly; but I was only a bit player in the process of creating this document. It was a...
I’m thrilled to announce that you can now read two sonnets from my (unpublished) poetry collection, Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets! What I’m trying to say is, I’m officially a published poet!!!! A big THANK YOU to Beltway Poetry Quarterly for accepting my poems for publication. I am deeply honored and very excited. I hope...
I would like to nominate the following sentence for the award of Best First Sentence of a Work of Fiction That I’ve Read in the Last Year. Brace yourself. This is a great first sentence: “Joey felt that his romance with Daisy might ruin his life, but that didn’t stop him.” Wow—it feels so good to write about something other...
What works in healing anxiety? Mine and others’? This is the topic I promised to write about in my recent blog post Managing My Anxiety During a Time of Mass Anxiety. What Cures Anxiety for Me Is Generating the Feeling That Someone Cares About Me Feeling that someone gives a shit about me is really important to my health and...
I’ve been battling my old anxiety demons continuously since my concussion setback. That was seven weeks ago. The concussion symptoms themselves were sorta kinda back to okay within two weeks, though some of the symptoms persisted a few weeks longer. But the anxiety and panic ballooned and ballooned until they once again started afflicting me with physical symptoms that prevented...
The inquisitive one went on two dates with someone! The someone was cute and intelligent! And, most charmingly of all, broke! A few days later, the inquisitive one called up the date. “Hey Inquit!” said the date. “You called at a good time. I just finished sending out a few job applications.” “You were sending out job applications at 4am?!”...
Happy Valentine’s Day!! Today is the day when we get closer to our loved ones, share our most special bonds, and rejoice in love, romance, and companionship! So snuggle up to your . . . What’s that? You don’t have a special someone to snuggle up to? Well then, snuggle up to your heritage. Or your friends. Or your family....
Poetry Night Recap Here’s a photo from my poetry performance two evenings ago. My sister-in-law Anne Tartaglia did an amazing job of capturing some of the most dramatic moments. Check out all the photos on my new Events page! And if you missed this week’s performance, no worries—I’ll be performing again soon. Check the Events page for future updates. FAQ...
Tonight’s the Night!!!! This evening, I’ll be performing poetry from my collection of love sonnets. Come out and see my live performance! Bring your own poems or songs or jokes to share at the open mic! Who Me. You. All our friends. Plus cool people we haven’t met . . . yet. What Poetry at the Port! Poetry, music, and...
Poetry of Love, Performed Live Curious about my love poetry? Since my book of sonnets is unpublished, the only way you have access to it is at my live performances! I’m excited to share that I’ve been invited to be a featured poet at an event one week from today. Come out and watch me perform poems from my sonnet...
Performance Art, Life as Performance I want to tell you about one of the most unique and powerful books I have ever read. Paradoxically, its uniqueness and power arise not from something exotic, but from what’s literally everywhere, all around us. A lot of books lift you out of your ordinary, blah life and drop you into a fantastical or...
Load more posts
Search this blog
Posts by category
- Book Previews (175)
- Guest Posts (1)
- Incidental Musings (77)
- News & Events (36)
- Tales (54)
Books previewed
Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo
Enlightenment by Trial and Error Jay Michaelson
Death in Her Hands Ottessa Moshfegh
The Cooking Gene Michael W. Twitty
The First Bad Man Miranda July
Upheaval Jared Diamond
A Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe
Creatures Crissy Van Meter
Indelicacy Amina Cain
Say What You Mean Oren Jay Sofer
Habits of a Happy Brain Loretta Graziano Breuning
Bad Behavior, This Is Pleasure Mary Gaitskill
The Brother Gardeners Andrea Wulf
Severance Ling Ma
How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose
Why I Write George Orwell
The Woman Destroyed Simone de Beauvoir
Educated Tara Westover
The Gift Hafiz
The Collected Schizophrenias Esmé Weijun Wang
Your Duck Is My Duck Deborah Eisenberg
Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari
Milkman Anna Burns
Under the Banner of Heaven Jon Krakauer
Waiting for Bojangles Olivier Bourdeaut
A Mind Unraveled Kurt Eichenwald
Eugénie Grandet Honoré de Balzac
The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald
Digital Minimalism Cal Newport
The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt
Dare to Lead Brené Brown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Almost Everything Anne Lamott
Born to Run Christopher McDougall, Bruce Springsteen
The Ladies’ Paradise Émile Zola
The World Beyond Your Head Matthew B. Crawford
All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld
Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston
Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
JavaScript & jQuery Jon Duckett
Home Fire Kamila Shamsie
The Weather Detective Peter Wohlleben
Play It As It Lays Joan Didion
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson
Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata
Perfect Me Heather Widdows
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace Patty Yumi Cottrell
Why Buddhism Is True Robert Wright
What Is Real? Adam Becker
Kudos Rachel Cusk
The Days of Abandonment Elena Ferrante
F*cked Corinne Fisher & Krystyna Hutchinson
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Alan Lightman
Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf
Enlightenment by Trial and Error Jay Michaelson
Death in Her Hands Ottessa Moshfegh
The Cooking Gene Michael W. Twitty
The First Bad Man Miranda July
Upheaval Jared Diamond
A Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe
Creatures Crissy Van Meter
Indelicacy Amina Cain
Say What You Mean Oren Jay Sofer
Habits of a Happy Brain Loretta Graziano Breuning
Bad Behavior, This Is Pleasure Mary Gaitskill
The Brother Gardeners Andrea Wulf
Severance Ling Ma
How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose
Why I Write George Orwell
The Woman Destroyed Simone de Beauvoir
Educated Tara Westover
The Gift Hafiz
The Collected Schizophrenias Esmé Weijun Wang
Your Duck Is My Duck Deborah Eisenberg
Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari
Milkman Anna Burns
Under the Banner of Heaven Jon Krakauer
Waiting for Bojangles Olivier Bourdeaut
A Mind Unraveled Kurt Eichenwald
Eugénie Grandet Honoré de Balzac
The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald
Digital Minimalism Cal Newport
The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt
Dare to Lead Brené Brown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Almost Everything Anne Lamott
Born to Run Christopher McDougall, Bruce Springsteen
The Ladies’ Paradise Émile Zola
The World Beyond Your Head Matthew B. Crawford
All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld
Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston
Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
JavaScript & jQuery Jon Duckett
Home Fire Kamila Shamsie
The Weather Detective Peter Wohlleben
Play It As It Lays Joan Didion
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson
Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata
Perfect Me Heather Widdows
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace Patty Yumi Cottrell
Why Buddhism Is True Robert Wright
What Is Real? Adam Becker
Kudos Rachel Cusk
The Days of Abandonment Elena Ferrante
F*cked Corinne Fisher & Krystyna Hutchinson
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Alan Lightman
Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf
Get the newsletter
This blog is about seeking wisdom through books and elsewhere. Subscribe to engage with some of the greatest books and ideas of the present and past.
Most frequent tags
anxiety
art
articles
blogs
books
bookstores
brains
children
comedy
communication
concussions
coronavirus
dating
doctors
drugs
family
fear
food
friends
health
history
Internet
love
mental health
money
music
novels
phones
poetry
politics
psychology
publishing
reading
running
science
self
sociality
society
the inquisitive one
truth
wisdom
women
work
writers
writing
Posts by month
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018