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When I posted about my friend Marty Cesana on Memorial Day, some of you said you’d like to know more about him. We’re all too complex and cool to summarize, of course, and most of what you’ll read about him is that he was a West Pointer and a combat engineer and really good at…

Should I make this post like one of those aggravating internet recipes, where you have to wade through the history of each ingredient before it finally tells you how to make the freaking thing? No. Those drive me nuts, too. So without further blah-blah, here’s who won my extra copy of Doll Parts, the delightfully…

I like a good, quantifiable goal. I’m sure you’ve seen S.M.A.R.T. goals on a briefing slide somewhere, but if you haven’t tripped over that acronym before, you can read about it here. It’s hokey but I like them, and keep my goals and New Years resolutions achievable and quantifiable – write 300 words a day,…

In one of those tricks of time that feels like forever and also no time at all, Playing Army celebrated its first birthday this week. I’m supposed to say, “It’s been a wild ride!” But it hasn’t been, and I am weirdly grateful for that. So here, in no particular order, are some reflections on…

I have often thought that putting together a group exercise class is like telling a story: first, there’s a beginning. There are peaks and valleys and a conclusion you hope feels satisfying. A class literally moves people. It makes them feel things and teaches them something about themselves. Ideally, an exercise class uses its physical…

A bit of a book review, more moodlin’ than maudlin: A conversation went deep at the Little Ripon Bookshop the other night, discussing how family stories are shaped and told (in reference to Kate Grenville’s Restless Dolly Maunder, a not very sympathetic fictionalization of her grandmother’s life that was shortlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize)….