What can a book hope to accomplish? Can it do it?
Against my better judgment, I spent eight unpaid years writing a book about an architect already dead whose houses were visionary, unusual, the results of the combination of the dreams of clients and the structural imagination of a genius architect. I don’t regret doing it, and here’s why! [Read more…] about What can a book hope to accomplish?
In 2007, my novel, THE PALE SURFACE OF THINGS, was published. The story was set on Crete, in and around Chania and the mountains behind it, and it required me to spend a joyous few weeks cris-crossing the mountains checking out the locations I wanted to use. The trip was to confirm information I gathered from 8 years of book-research. There is a lot written on Crete’s history up to and including the present time. I used it all, and loved doing it. [Read more…] about Returning to Crete
Sometimes a book says what you can’t find words for.
Recently I read a review somewhere that led me to BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The author merges two opposite backgrounds: she is a professor of ecological botany with a phd and full scientific study, and she is a member of a First Nations tribe, __________, and grew up exposed to the traditional view of nature as host, and the ways to honor that host. Merging these two often opposed approaches to nature has made her a complex observer and a fascinating storyteller. [Read more…] about Braiding Sweetgrass: A Review
