Diversions: Other Lives on Screen & Page

RECENT READING EVOCATIVE MEMOIR The Farmer’s Son:  Calving Season on a Family Farm by John Connell I had read good reviews of this work and since we were originally going to Ireland this month, I was doubly attracted to it.  Connell’s account of the months from January to June working on his father’s farm in County Longford delivering …

Still at Home: More Reading & Viewing

RECENT READING: SCHIZOPHRENIA Hidden Valley Road:  Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker I have always been interested in what makes people tick.  In college, that motivated me to take both the introductory psychology course and also an advanced course in abnormal psych.  This was the late 1960’s when so-called “refrigerator mothers” were responsible for causing …

Tidy Tidbits: Staying Home

COVID-19 & STAYING HOME Other than one trip to the supermarket, we have not left our island neighborhood for the past week.  We are fortunate to be having gorgeous weather (sunny and warm) and have walked our boulevard each morning and then gone to the pool in the late afternoon—always mindful of keeping an appropriate distance …

Tidy Tidbits: Food for Mind & Body

RECENT READING Gripping Nonfiction American Fire:  Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse The Eastern Shore of Virginia is a forgotten land of lost hopes and limited opportunity.  The small towns in Accomack County are off the beaten path and poverty and struggle are the norm for many.  What brings people together and is the …