Booknote: Dance & Detectives

  Since I’m traveling, my reading gets a bit neglected, but here are two recent book recommendations I’m happy to share. Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead. Shipstead is the author of Seating Arrangements and this is her second novel. It takes the reader into the somewhat cloistered world of ballet. The main character is Joan, …

On the Road: North Country

We left home several days ago and you might say we’re rambling through our past. By the time October has ended, we will have visited almost every place we’ve lived during our married life and then some. It’s a journey with many stops and numerous opportunities to re-connect with old friends and touch what once …

On the Road: Overdosing on Art

After an absence of several years, we returned to Philadelphia for a friend’s birthday party. We were blessed with mostly overcast skies and comfortable temperatures—perfect for all the walking we planned to do. We did walk a lot one day, but mostly we gorged on art. In two days, we visited three art museums and …

Booknote: Voyages

My most recent reading was an intriguing novel about a ship voyage. This book reminded me of other titles about journeys of various sorts. 18th Century French Expedition Landfalls, a first novel from Naomi J. Williams, is marvelous and inventive.  Williams takes as her subject the doomed expedition of two French frigates, Boussole and Astrolabe, which set …