LeliaApr 24 minMegan Marshall and the Art of BiographyAs a biographer Megan Marshall plays very close to the vest. She doles out her subject in single words or phrases, holds stories out of...
LeliaJan 83 minImagining 'Vague Days' Clearer through Writing*I’m experiencing a concatenation of ideas about writing, self-understanding and self-actualization. Joan Didion started it. After her...
LeliaJan 24 minMy Best-of Book List for 2021I like year-end best-of lists. Reading others’ lists is a fun way to learn about things I’ve missed. And thinking about my own best-of...
LeliaDec 24, 20212 minAlter Ego as Creative Muse To my delight, I fell down a Maxine Hong Kingston rabbit hole and discovered this gem from an interview in The Guardian. Describing a...
LeliaDec 21, 20213 minEdith Wharton + Principles of CreativityReading Edith Wharton, the biography by Hermione Lee, I’m becoming aware of why I never liked to read Edth Wharton’s novels, which are...
LeliaDec 8, 20213 minMemoir and the MoonI used to pay a lot of attention to the first lines in books. I had a notebook where I wrote them down and classified them according to...
LeliaDec 1, 20212 minFalling in Love with Penelope FitzgeraldPenelope Fitzgerald always wanted her children to be well-educated, to study foreign languages, to be employable. In her biography of...
LeliaNov 3, 20213 minEdith Wharton's Gardening Life“I am intrigued by writers who garden and by gardeners who write. The pen and the trowel are not interchangeable, but seem often linked.”...