Tales of Two Cities

Istanbul: Memoirs and the City by Orhan Pamuk and Venice: A New history by Thomas F. Madden – tales of two cities. Pamuk, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, blends history, black-and-white photographs of his family and the city, art and literature...

Book Launch

Turning into the parking lot at the corner of Crozet Avenue and Three Notched Road, I looked for an empty spot. It was Sunday late afternoon, but there were no available spaces. I noticed two young women leaving the local pizza place and carrying a takeout box. Smells...

All Saints Sunday

Yesterday, All Saints Sunday, we walked into the crowded sanctuary at Bethany Lutheran Church in Waynesboro, Virginia. The screen above the pulpit displayed a slideshow of names: church members from the past 200 years who had gone before us: infants, some with only...

Callings

Magazines had piled up: three weeks of New Yorkers, The Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, The New York Review of Books, Writer’s Chronicle, Smithsonian, Creative Nonfiction, Poets & Writers, and a few education periodicals. I also had several unread e-books...

The Best Yes

As Keith and I walked to the church parking lot after Bible Study last Sunday, I heard a ding and checked my cell phone. “On our way to Gettysburg then Shenandoah Valley. Will txt when one hour away. Beautiful day!” I texted my long-time friend who I hadn’t seen in...