I really became immersed in The Sixties, the last volume of Edmund Wilson’s journals. There was a lot of interesting stuff about our family, conversations with my grandmother, who was his first cousin, and her brother Sandy who was his …

I was looking through my mother’s scrapbooks and correspondence because one of her close friends recently passed away and I was looking for a letter she wrote to my mom when they were little girls.

My mom saved everything — …

For second hand book lovers, the League of Women Voters Book Sale in Amherst is a real mother lode. I picked up some Lindsey Davis mysteries (set in ancient Rome), a couple of Elmore Leonard books, a few Robert B. …

I’ve been having great fun reading The Sixties, the last volume of Edmund Wilson’s journals. They’re more accessible (for me) than many of his other writings, and I’ve learned a lot about many notable literary figures, and even my own …

I’ve always had trouble understanding the works of my grandmother’s cousin, Edmund Wilson, but I have continued to labor away, largely as a point of family pride. Axel’s Castle and To the Finland Station receive high praise from people smarter …

I’ve been reading Black Elk Speaks, transcribed by John G. Neihardt, the autobiography of a Sioux warrior and medicine man, a cousin of Crazy Horse who was present at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Wounded Knee Massacre.…

In my last entry about Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, a novel about the Old West, I made the observation that love and romance make up a big part of the book’s exploration of human nature.

Women were rather scarce …

As I mentioned before, I was laid up for a week or so with gout, something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It’s like having a broken leg only worse, because it hurts even when you hold still. Anyway, …