Archives for Reading and Writing

I have never seen the movie “Life Is Beautiful.” I haven’t seen it because when it came out, everybody, and I do mean everybody, told me I had to see it, that it was too good to miss. Maybe it is. All these years later, I’m still not inclined to find out. The critical collective… Continue reading »

Except for taking the occasional cheap shot on Twitter, I’ve kept clear of the op-ed juggernaut created by Anne-Marie Slaughter’s piece in the Atlantic on “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” (Some headline writer deserves a good slapdown for that one.) I haven’t even read all of Slaughter’s argument yet, and I’m not sure… Continue reading »

For someone who grew up in Washington, D.C., I am not very well read in the literature of the city–the political literature, that is. I haven’t read many of the political novels set here. That has been partly a deliberate choice, a desire to concentrate more on the extra-political creative possibilities of this town. A… Continue reading »

I’ve got a new short story out. It’s called “Mercury Rising,” and you can find it in Amazing Graces (Paycock Press, 2012), a collection edited by Richard Peabody. (Read a Washington Post profile of him.) Here’s the excerpt I read at Politics and Prose on Sunday, when we launched the book: “Call the fire department!”… Continue reading »

It’s no secret that I’m not a very good member of my book club. I tend to read the book late if I read it at all. I go for the company (smart, friendly) and the wine (why not?). The latest book I didn’t read is A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, which got raves… Continue reading »