Category: Uncategorized
Cecilia Read-Along: Summer Reading for People Who Don’t Like “Summer Reading”
What do you look for in a summer read?
- Almost 1000 pages?
- Obscure 18th century author?
- Difficult to find in print?
You are in the right place, friend. It’s the #SummerofCecilia and over the next ten weeks or so, we’re going to polish off this old-school English classic: Cecilia by Frances Burney.
Who?
Frances Burney was a totally important author who wrote four novels and a ton of letters and diaries, was wildly successful in her day, and then was ignored by critics for decades, but she’s back, baby. Thanks to feminist scholars and critics, including BookTube’s own RonLit, and the ladies of Hidden Histories podcast, she and her pre-Austen contemporaries are back in the public conscious.
Virginia Woolf also called her the mother of English fiction. NBD.
Why Cecilia?
I’ve been advised by several smart people to start with Evelina, a shorter and more accessible work, but damn it, sometimes you feel like reading a thousand page novel that wasn’t written by some bro-ish literary darling *cough City on Fire cough*
And the premise is fascinating! Cecilia is an heiress, but there’s a catch: any man she marries must take her name if he is to get access to her cash. Pretty out there for 1782.
Oh yeah, and a quote from Cecilia inspired the title of another book you might have heard of…
The whole of this unfortunate business,” said Dr. Lyster, “has been the result of pride and prejudice. … If to pride and prejudice you owe your miseries, so wonderfully is good and evil balanced, that to pride and prejudice you will also owe their termination.
What do I have to do?
Cecilia is made up of ten “books”, each of which is just under one hundred pages. I figure we read a book a week for the next ten weeks, which will take us through the summer, and then some.
If you’ve done my previous read-alongs, you know I’m pretty low key. This is an approximate schedule, and I’ll aim to post on Mondays, but you can read and post whenever you like, or just comment on my posts, or just snapchat with me, whatever. I might do a little Booktube too. You can bookmark this post and I’ll link it all up:
- July 1: Start reading
- July 4: Intro post
- July 11: Book I
- July 18: Book II
- July 25: Book III
- August 1: Book IV
- August 8: Book V
- August 15: Book VI
- August 22: Book VII
- August 29: Book VIII
- September 5: Book IX
- September 12: Book X
Usually this is where I bribe you
The nice thing about reading-along (read-alonging?) Dead White Dude classics is that there are ready-made prizes galore at Out of Print Tees. Burney swag? Not so much. So let me think on that a little. But suffice to say, anyone who even tries to participate in this is a summer-reading rock star in my books.
This is the best I could find
Okay, where do I start
Now that you’re super excited about reading Cecilia, I have some bad news: it is not easy to get a physical copy of this book. My local library has nothing at all for Burney but an old biography, and it’s not on the shelves in any of the Chapters in town. I have the Oxford World Classics edition, which I got from The Book Depository, but not without a lengthy email exchange with customer service and almost two months of waiting. So I suggest you either order online (from somewhere reliable) or grab the ebook. I got a Harper Collins edition on my Kobo for 99 cents, and it works fine so far.
#SquadGoals: Here’s who’s signed up so far. Leave me a comment and join us!
If order of when they joined, this is #SummerofCecilia squad. If you’re in this list and want me to link to something else (or not) let me know
- My mom, who also goes by Mary and has the best tweets.
- Rainey
- CJ of ebookclassics who I will see in person during the read-along. I think we should go hat shopping in Cecilia’s honour.
- Emma of The Paperback Princess
- Kristine
- My sister Cait who is back at it again with her third read-along
- Vikzwrites of Weird Marginalia
- xkurwamacz
- Rick of Read the North (formerly Book-a-Week Project, and Canon Fodder, and Another Book Blog, and the original Book-a-Week Project… what’d I miss?)
- Lindy of Lindy Reads, best book club leader ever
- Sarah-Jane of Mercurial Vicissitudes
- Melanie Kerr, author of Follies Past and Mary Green
- Netta Johnston of Stonehouse Publishing, our resident Cecilia expert, meaning she’s actually read it before
Conspicuous Consumption #2: Podcasts
A feature in which I tell you about my book-related media consumption in a conspicuous manner.
I’ve been driving for about seven years now, and I’ve wasted so much time listening to the radio.
It took me more than five years to realize I could borrow audio books from the library. That was great and all, but I’m trying to cut back on reading this year, so rather than go back to terrible radio commercials, I finally figured out podcasts.
If you are thinking “what is there to figure out?” please remember I am old and that those audio books I listened to were on CD. Anyway, here’s what I needed:
- Android app: Pocket Casts
- Speaker (Not affiliate, just a tip so you don’t have to go through two duds like I did)
- Some good podcasts. See below.
The must listens
Overdue: I love this concept: each week, one of the hosts reads a book that “you should have read by now” and explains it to the other. These guys are funny and take the books just seriously enough, which is to say, not terribly. I enjoy the episodes about books I’ve read more than those about books I haven’t, but, you can definitely still enjoy an episode without reading the book. That’s kind of the point.
Try this episode: Peter Pan
Writereads: Yes, I am a frequent guest host, but hear me out! CanLit is woefully under served in the literary podcast world, and Writeread’s monthly themes ensure there’s something for everybody. Writereads is a book club, so you really should read the book before listening to the podcast, but when I haven’t, I just listen to the first portion in which Kirt and Tania talk about their current reads and CanLit happenings.
Try this episode: The ones with me, but also a classic Tania-and-Kirt one like this one, about an L.M. Montgomery book that features filthy language (…the episode, not the book.)
Can’t Lit: Besides having the best name, Can’t Lit fills in a very specific niche by interviewing Canadian writers with a heavy focus on poets. No stuffy pretentiousness here, the interviews are offbeat and funny. No need to do the reading, though you’ll probably want to read all the author’s stuff afterward.
Try this episode: Michael Christie
Backlisted: British writers John Mitchinson and Andy Miller (also an excellent Twitter-er at @i_am_mill_i_am) resurrect a forgotten backlist title every two weeks and it doesn’t matter if you’ve never read it, or heard of the author, or even intend to read it, the discussion is fascinating. I do hope to read one of the backlisted titles one day, and might start with this one:
Try this episode: Good Morning Midnight
Hidden Histories: This six-episode series is over, but it’s worth going back and listening. The topic at hand is “the great forgetting” of British female authors prior to Austen. I’d heard of Frances Burney and Mary Wollstonecraft, but I learned about Aphra Behn and Hester Thrale and many more. And the episodes are blessedly short.
Try this episode: Bluestocking culture: how did women become writers?
Honourable Mentions
- Reading Envy: A recent episode features “book speed dating,” in which the host reads the first 50 pages of a bunch of books and decides which ones to continue and which to get rid of. Brilliant!
- Lit Up: Interviews with totally important authors, like Nell Zink.
- No Resemblance: This podcast hasn’t even put out an episode yet, but check out the intro: writers submit short stories, which will be read by the host. This one’s local and I’m excited to see what kind of stuff comes in.
So, do you like stuff? Specifically podcasts? Tell me which ones!
Stonehouse Publishing launches five novels, also talks Buzzfeed, Burney, and Bookstagram
The opening of a new publishing house in Edmonton would be a momentous affair no matter what. Add in a literary and historical fiction focus, an intriguing debut run of five novels by Alberta authors, and the most opulent book party I’ve been to apart from the one I attended with Gwyneth Paltrow, and Stonehouse Publishing‘s launch looks like the literary event of the year thus far.
The Books
Stonehouse Publishing wants to publish “the best in Canadian fiction, but not necessarily ‘Canadiana’.” So, not this stuff (though someone really should write a novel about a troupe of French Canadian clowns.) They also plan to reissue forgotten classics, kicking off with Evelina by Fanny Burney next year. As of May 1st, you can get your hands on five books: Three historical novels, set in WWI-era Canada, Regency England, and revolutionary France; a thriller set in contemporary Ukraine (Course Correction,) and a murder mystery set in rural Alberta (Edge of Wild.) I took the three historicals home:
- Mary Green by Melanie Kerr: I reviewed Kerr’s first book, Follies Past, a few years back and was pleasantly surprised by the Pride and Prejudice prequel, which stands on it’s own easily while still capturing the style of Jane Austen. I’m very excited to meet Mary Green, who is not an Austen character, but does exist in Regency England and is a neglected orphan who (presumably) must rely on her wits to cope in London society.
- League of the Star by N.R. Cruse: Hearing the first few pages, in which a sheltered teenage girl sees a man for the first time on a ship, while escaping the French revolution, got me hooked.
- Kalyna by Pam Clark: I’ve read plenty of WWI-era CanLit but never from the perspective of Ukrainian immigrants. Time to fill in a few gaps.
The Party
The majority of book parties in Edmonton take place in the basement of Audreys Books and feature coffee and cookies. To be clear, I’m not knocking that! This was just on a different level. Hosted in the beautiful Boyle Street Community League, there was a DJ, a photo booth with historical costumes, a snack bar loaded with tea and scones, and a cash bar. Authors met readers in elaborately decorated booths, and readings took place in a comfy armchair in the middle of it all.
I saw and was seen, particularly by Matthew Stepanic of Glass Buffalo and Claire Kelly of NeWest Press. I also met author Melanie Kerr in person for the first time, after corresponding by email on and off for years. She is a delight, and her blog, though not updated so often these days, has some gold in the archives, including this post, if you’re a “begs the question” stickler like me.
It all went off beautifully. The only oddity was that author N.R. Cruse, who was apparently in the crowd, never sat at her booth, signed any books, or read a passage from her novel (her editor read for her.) Cruse is known to be reclusive and claims to be a direct descendant of Daniel Dafoe. I think of her as Alberta’s answer to Elena Ferrente.
Q&A with publisher Netta Johnson
Editor Julie Yerex and Publisher Netta Johnson were much too busy to chat the night of, so I asked some questions by email.
Reading in Bed: I recently read an article about how historical fiction is seen as less prestigious than contemporary literary fiction. This has always confused me. When I see a book classified as “historical fiction” and it’s clearly got tons of literary merit (e.g. Wolf Hall) I wonder why the setting makes it a whole different genre. Do you think historical fiction is seen as less prestigious than contemporary, and did this influence how you chose your focus for Stonehouse, your first run of books, how you market them, and so on?
Netta Johnson: I thought this question was very interesting, and it serves to highlight how much things change, and yet stay the same. Lately, I have been reading the whole set of novels by Dumas. I had tried to read the Three Musketeers many years ago, but somehow couldn’t get properly interested. Without knowing it, I started to read the 3rd in the series, The Vicomte to Bragelonne and was pretty captivated by the portrayal of the Musketeers at age 50; the characters were so much more interesting in their middle-age. Reading the introductions to these books, I was struck to discover that these challenging and intricate novels (my words) were considered rather fluffy and insubstantial at the time of their publication, and often dismissed as ‘romances’. Perhaps popularity is the heart of the problem, and then and now, it is hard for reviewers to take books seriously when they are popular? Or maybe it is hard to separate the literary historical fiction from the genre historical fiction sold in grocery stories?
RIB: I’m super excited about your plans to publish forgotten classics. Can you tell me how you came to choose Evelina by Fanny Burney for your first book? (By the way, I’m going to host a Fanny Burney readalong this year. I’m thinking Cecilia. I’ve never read her but I’m noticing she’s trending a bit. I first heard about her on RonLit’s YouTube channel.)
NJ: I found Fanny Burney about 18 years ago, via Jane Austen. I began reading Evelina with the expectation that it would be dry and educational, and soon found myself laughing through much of the book. Cecilia is twice the size, and much more serious. It has a very personal appeal to me, so I am never sure if that will translate to others. Julie and I sometimes joke that she is Kanye and I am Jay-Z (thank you, Buzzfeed quizzes!), and in terms of 18th century heroines/books, she is Evelina and I am Cecilia. Evelina is so much more approachable, lighthearted, and when it was first released (anonymously), it spread like wildfire. Cecilia is a longer, darker novel, and it had some pretty famous intellectual admirers (Dr. Johnson, Edmund Burke, Hester Thrale, Napoleon). In Cecilia, FB takes a pretty sharp look at a number of social issues/problems of that time. Cecilia introduces you to misers, superficial friends, gamblers, social climbers, struggling tradesmen (and the poor in general), while showing the social problems with dueling (unavoidable, but the main two consequences were either death or jail, whether you won or lost), and the aimlessness of the aristocratic class. As an underage woman and an heiress, Cecilia is at the mercy of various different people, and as she waits the last few months till she comes of age and inherits her money, she is prey to every kind of snare. There is even a public suicide! Another amazing thing about this book is that we don’t even meet the hero for 120 odd pages. For any time, it is rather unconventional.
RIB: As publishers, are you in tune with all the bookish new media out there: blogs, Booktube, Bookstagram, and so on? Any favourites? How about Snapchat?
NJ: We have to look some of these up! Right now, we think we have a handle on Facebook, Twitter and just staring with Instagram. I didn’t even know the other ones existed!
Note: they’re humble, but their hashtag game was on point: if you missed the big launch, check out #Stoholaunch on Twitter and Instagram.
Spring break at Edmonton Public Library: a guide for working parents
I love that our library will use any school break as an excuse to put on a bunch of free programs for kids – or, more than they usually do, because they always have free programs for kids. Spring break is next week, and those in the Edmonton area should go to the website or check out the program guide, and read on for my picks.
I have a contentious relationship with kiddie events and programs. Working parents of younger-than-school-age children probably know where I’m going with this: the vast majority of programs for preschool age kids, with the notable exception of swimming lessons, are offered on weekday mornings or afternoons. That means you don’t get to do mommy-and-me yoga, and your child doesn’t get as many opportunities to learn with you outside the house.
Kim Bates, a Digital Literacy Librarian at Edmonton Public Library, has heard the same complaint from parents. “We have had customers request more evening and weekend programming and as a result we have been scheduling more of our programs at those times with the working parents in mind.”
May I just say thank you? Here are a few spring break highlights that’ll work for you if you work nine to five (or 8:15-4:45, in my case.)
One Book, One Break, Many Adventures! Lumberjanes Vol. 1
I loved last year’s One Book One Edmonton project so much that I wrote about it twice. One Book One Break is a child-friendly take on the concept: make a book available to everyone in Edmonton, and give them chances to talk about it and win prizes.
There’s been so much buzz about comic book Lumberjanes on book blogs and Booktube that I wasn’t sure if it was for kids. Kim says Lumberjanes appeals to a “wide demographic” but cautions that “some preschoolers have found the creatures in the book a bit scary.” My four year old cannot abide Goosebumps reruns, so I’m going to take Kim’s advice and check it out myself before I share it with him. It sounds like it’ll be perfect for my six year old.
Everyone in Edmonton can download a copy of Lumberjanes on Hoopla, and the library is ordering extra physical copies. Each day during Spring Break, libraries will have a new activity sheet that doubles as an entry to prizes which include an iPad Mini 4 and an autographed edition of Lumberjanes to the Max Edition Volume 1. Details at epl.ca/onebookonebreak.
Working parent friendly dates: this one’s on your own time, and many branches are open till 9pm weeknights, so there’s plenty of time to get your entries in.
Minecraft Madness
Minecraft at the library is nothing new, but given the popularity (bordering on obsession in my house), three branches will set aside a Minecraft-dedicated computer for the whole week of Spring Break. I asked Kim if kids get as crazy as mine do when they’re playing Minecraft at the library, and she said that while there generally aren’t fights over the computers, “kids do often like to talk to each other as they play so I do expect plenty of strategizing and cheering!” My kids could use this good example. Oh, the horror of being a one-iPad household!
Working parent friendly dates: Drop in during opening hours at Stanley A. Milner, Woodcroft or Sprucewood branches.
Lego at the Library
Awesome. (via hollywoodreporter.com)
Lego without risk of stepping on a rogue brick at 6:00 am? Sign me up. For kids 6-12.
Working parent friendly dates:
- Saturday March 26, 2:00 pm at Capilano
- Saturday April 2, 3:00 pm at Meadows
- Saturday April 2, 3:00 pm at Woodcroft
Minion Movie Marathon
The downtown library is showing all three Minion movies (does anyone even call them Despicable Me?) over Spring Break. Yeah, you might own them at home, but sometimes a change of venue works wonders. All ages.
Working parent friendly dates: Saturday April 2, 2:00 pm (The Minion Movie) at Stanley A. Milner
Puppet Adventures
Great for younger kids, as long as they can sit still for more than a minute at a time. Look, we’ve all been that parent dragging their kids out of a library program, there’s no shame. All ages.
Working parent friendly dates:
- Saturday April 2, 2:00 pm at Calder
- Saturday April 2, 2:00 pm and Sunday April 3, 2:00 pm at Castle Downs
- Sunday April 3, 2:00 pm at Clareview
- Saturday March 26, 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm at Lois Hole
- Saturday March 26, 2:00 pm at Stanley A. Milner
- Saturday April 2, 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm at Whitemud Crossing
Bonus (and shameless self-promotion; I work for the city and helped develop this): If you’re looking for more kids’ programming in Edmonton, check out myrecguide.ca and create a custom guide to City of Edmonton registered programs – swimming lessons, daycamps, arts, yoga, kickboxing, and much more. You only see the ages, interests, and locations that work for you. And, there are more and more options for us working parents on evening and weekends. We’re working on it!
This post was inspired by, but not paid for by, Edmonton Public Library. I mean… they’re a library. What did you expect? They do lend me free books though.
That time Nell Zink slid into my DMs
Since I began drafting this post, @NellZink on Twitter is no more. These DMs, screen-shots taken just before they went poof, are even more precious now. For those not in the know, Nell Zink wrote breakout novel The Wallcreeper (2014), National Book Award longlisted Mislaid (2015), and has a new novel, Nicotine, due out this fall.
I’ve had a couple of exciting Twitter moments. The first was figuring out how Twitter actually works in 2010. In 2011, I coined a hashtag that’s still in use. In 2012, a celebrity replied to me for the first time (J to the Roc). Since then, I’ve chatted with many authors, of course. But none of these moments compare to receiving an unexpected DM from Nell Zink.
@NellZink’s profile pic. Who needs a blue check mark when you’ve got a blue bird on your head?
@NellZink doesn’t have the blue check mark, but her profile is pretty on-brand: Goethe quoted in her bio, sparkly-blue-bird-fascinator in her profile pic, and the best part, her background pic, in which she gazes adoringly at a statue of Charles Dickens, side by side with Little Nell.
I don’t have a handle on her Twitter M.O. She deletes many of her tweets and pretty much all of her @ replies, only follows a handful of German accounts, and she likes, but never retweets, praise for her novels. But she’s out there, searching. If you tweet about her or Jonathan Franzen, as I am wont to do, you might just hear from her. I caught her eye with a silly tweet about JFranz sex scenes.
I won’t reveal the content of the DMs we exchanged, not because there was anything racy or controversial, but because that would be rude. I will reveal that it was I who stopped replying, and I feel awful about it, but the pressure was getting to me. Each morning of that magical week in August, I had to think of something intelligent to say to Nell Zink. I couldn’t hack it. Forgive me.
Okay, one thing: she taught me the phrase “O tempora, o mores!” which is a fancy way to say “kids these days.” This was in reference to Fifty Shades of Grey. Also, she read my review of The Wallcreeper and said it was “cute.”
When I worked up the nerve to get back in touch, Nell was kind enough to answer a few questions in honour of Franzen in February. She asked me to stress that this interview was conducted in Twitter DMs, as she is known for disliking email interviews and would like to keep it that way.
@LauraTFrey: You and Mr. Franzen are champions of each other’s work, but do you influence each other? Do you think you influenced Purity, and did he influence Nicotine?
@NellZink: He’s the hero of NICOTINE (in code), but I don’t think I influenced PURITY because he doesn’t pay that much attention.
@LauraTFrey: Will he blurb Nicotine? I’d love to see your blurb on one of his books…
@NellZink: He didn’t blurb any of my books; he blurbed me as a writer (as a way of getting around his refusal to write blurbs). MISLAID didn’t have blurbs – it had quotes from rave reviews of THE WALLCREEPER. Which is different and better.
@LauraTFrey: You said in your n+1 review of Purity that you hate most novels. Do you mean modern novels? Do you keep trying/reading or have you given up?
@NellZink: I’m picky, but I find good things to read fairly often. The odds that any given galley will float my boat are apparently so poor that I’ve started telling editors not to bother. Either that or people have a strange idea of what I might like.
Farewell, @NellZink, and thanks for sliding into my DMs
A correction
You know that feeling when you decide to reread a book after many years? You know how you look forward to a comforting, familiar read, perhaps with new insights this time round, but mostly, you want to revel in a familiar story? You know how you start the reread and think, I barely remember the beginning, it’s like reading it for the first time! You know the creeping realization that you have not actually read this book? That you owned it, gave it a rating on Goodreads, referenced it in one of your first blog posts, and mentioned it on social media as recently as this week, but you did not actually read the thing?
Bookish confession coming up:
Continue reading
Your input is required.
When I sit down to blog, (say, because my friends cancelled on me for girl’s night, but I’d be damned if I was giving up a get-out-of-doing-bedtime-free card, so I went to Starbucks alone,) how do I choose what to devote my limited time to? I don’t do many challenges or memes, and I don’t accept review books with deadlines (see: time, limited) so it’s all up to me.
Or you.
I’m going to share my in-progress posts (coming up with a title totally counts as progress) and my to-review list, and you tell me what I should work on next.
I ask people to participate in surveys for a living, and this subject line and plea is the best I can come up with. All I’m saying is: Let me know what you’d like to see next on Reading in Bed. And remember, your opinion is important to us.
The best way to end any survey is to solicit open-ended comments; that is, if you enjoy poor grammar, off-topic rants, and people writing “nothing” instead of just literally writing nothing. Just kidding, I know you guys won’t do that. But do tell me what you’d like to see more or less of here. Thanks for your time.
Book-loving hedonists and alienated intellectuals: why readers need to settle down about reading
READING FACT: Reading a book will transform you into Keira Knightly, traipsing the pristine English countryside.
I love book culture. I love book blogs (obviously?) and book festivals, and readings, and #FridayReads and #amreading. I do not love the way we book people talk about ourselves, though. The memes, infographics, think pieces, quotes and such that grind my gears fall into two categories:
- Readers are different
- Readers are better people
I’ve been thinking about these ideas lately, with help from a couple authors I’ve been lucky enough to see in person. Continue reading
Books I grabbed at #BEA15
I plan to write about a couple BEA-related things, but if I know you guys, you just want to see the BOOKS.
Day 1: Buzzed
Day one was all about Blogger Con, so I wasn’t on the show floor at all. I did make it to the Editor’s Buzz Panel, though, and elbowed my way to the table full of galleys:
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg (Knopf) aka The Two Million Dollar Book. Nuff said?
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (Scout) aka the next Gone Girl? I read this one on the way home but I haven’t read GG, so I can’t tell you if the comparison is apt.
Home is Burning by Dan Marshall (Flat Iron Books) aka A Heartbreaking Work of Holy Shit It Already Has a Movie Deal. Dave Eggers meets The Royal Tannenbaums, maybe.
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press) aka The Dark Horse – dark cover, dark subject matter, and for me, the one I was least interested in – but I grabbed it, because it’s BEA.
Day 2: Line up, line up, as if you have a choice
Day two was spent on the show floor and therefore in line-ups big and small.
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (Harper Perennial): One hour line up full of excited young’uns and bewildered olds.
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks (Viking): Half hour line up full of middle aged moms. My people!
Purity by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux): Tickets, multiple line-ups, general confusion. And he wasn’t even signing!
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth (Graywolf Press): No line up here, but probably the strangest of the books I took home. Like Home is Burning and City on Fire, the film rights are already sold – to Mark Rylance aka Cromwell in Wolf Hall! Check him out reading from the book here, and you’ll see what I mean.
Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey (Aresenal Pulp) and The Scamp by Jennifer Pashley (Tin House): Snagged there from an indie publisher’s party that CJ and I were intensely uncomfortable at. Lost Boi was on my TBR, and The Scamp appears to be Ablutions with a young female protagonist, so, score!
Also, some kids books and stuff
Day 3: Flailing
Do I have enough books? Should I run around the show floor aimlessly and grab a few more? Yes, let’s do that.
Pillow by Andrew Battershill (Coach House Books) because I’m a sucker for damaged male protaganists, and for chocolate.
Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford (St. Martin’s Press) because it’s a “Bonfire of the Vanities for the 21st Century” and BofV blew my mind as a teenager.
And that’s it! No extra suitcase needed. Stay tuned for more on the Franztravaganza, the blogger’s con, and where to get pizza in Hell’s Kitchen and not get judged for coming back three hours later.
But it looks like I’m working
I spend my days in the garden watching the plants grow. I pretend to be working but really I am just sitting in the sun. My mind becomes so empty that I forget the whole day has passed until the light fades and I start to get cold.
– Suzanne Desrochers, Bride of New France
With apologies to Slaughterhouse 90201.
Reading in Bed 