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Category Archives: Role Models
Why? Because We Love You
There isn’t much I can add to all the lovely tributes to Annette Funicello in the media and all over the internet today. Except to say that when I was growing up, Annette was the girl I wanted to be … Continue reading
Posted in Role Models
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Adriana, My Paesana
I open Adriana Trigiani’s books with trembling hands–not because I can’t wait to read, though that’s true–but because her work is so familiar and terrific and I wish I’d written it myself. Her city settings and Italian-American characters resonate so … Continue reading
Posted in Role Models, What I'm Reading, Writing
4 Comments
Mary Stewart at Midnight
Or any other time, as far as I’m concerned. One of my all-time favorite comfort reads have to be Mary Stewart’s classic romantic suspense novels of the 50s and 60s. (I make one allowance for the 70s for Touch Not … Continue reading
Posted in Comfort Reads, Role Models
2 Comments
Why I (Still) Love Nora Ephron
I wrote this post two years ago in honor of Nora Ephron, and today seems like an appropriate time to re-post it. I will miss her. Nora Ephron is my biggest girl crush. My biggest fantasy lunch date. And my … Continue reading
Posted in Literary Influences, Red Room Re-run, Role Models
7 Comments
A Girl and Her Music, Part I
This week Adele appeared in an interview with Matt Lauer that was interspersed with clips from her recent performance at the Royal Albert Hall. First, let me say that I know I’m far too old to be singing lustily along … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous, Role Models
4 Comments
Wild Things
As my sons are getting older, I’ve had the sad task of putting their childish things away. In my attic there’s a giant bin full of books that are earmarked for the grandchildren I don’t have yet; one of the … Continue reading
Posted in La Famiglia, Role Models
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Sunday Sonnet: Love is Not All
While I love the Bard, he is not the only writer of sonnets. I discovered Edna St. Vincent Millay as a teenager, caught by the rhythm of her words as well as by her recurring themes of tortured love–one that … Continue reading
Posted in Role Models, Sunday Sonnets
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You Tell ‘Em, Alice
March is women’s history month, and to kick things off I’m sharing a great little gem from Alice Duer Miller, a journalist-turned-novelist who used humor to get her point across: ♥ ♥ ♥
Posted in Role Models, Seasonal
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Nancy Drew, I Love You
I stole the title of this post from a poem by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, an Italian-American poet from Paterson who has an uncanny knack of telling my life story in her work. In the poem, the speaker describes Nancy Drew as … Continue reading
Posted in Comfort Reads, Literary Influences, Role Models
8 Comments
What I Learned from Jo March*
Jo March made me want to be a writer. When Jo March escaped to her attic to eat apples and write stories, I did the same. And when she announced to her sisters and her friend Laurie that her greatest … Continue reading
Posted in Comfort Reads, Literary Influences, Red Room Re-run, Role Models
4 Comments