Pop culture. Personal stories.
A stunning century comes to life.
I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Lisa Haselton on February 20, 2017 about the creation of “100 Years in the Life” for her book reviews blog. You can read it here along with an excerpt from the book (Chapter 8, The 1980s). P[...]
The holiday always falls on a Sunday, and for many it involves a Sunday brunch for Mom. As time marches on, Mom’s story changes, though the day on the calendar stays the same. Mom may be older, she may not be well, she may have passed on. For [...]
I interviewed Mary Ann Natly for Girlhood in America in the summer of 2010, when she was 103 years old. A small spritely woman, she was in the gym more often than she was in my memoir class. When I entered her apartment for the interview, she apolog[...]
For the past fifteen years, I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving at my friends’ rustic cabin in Jenner, on the stunning North Coast. There’s no cell service in Jenner and no electricity at the cabin, but the big room where we saute mushrooms fo[...]
Every decade has its flavor, and in Girlhood in America the flavor of each decade between 1910 and 2010 is deliciously clear. The 1910s open the book, with a short history of the country that includes what life was like for girls under thirteen year[...]
Two thousand years ago, the Celts celebrated Samhain, their New Year, on October 31st. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. It was bel[...]
