Maybe you let your subscription to Audible lapse? Or you’re all out of downloads for the month? (TBH this happens to me a lot.) May I suggest: this audio recording of me valiantly reading aloud my story Women of Science Have All the Answers, and I say “valiantly” because I’d....
Here’s the thing: I’m a good hiker. I like to hike! But I do not like danger. I do not like danger at all. I do not even like the slightest perception of danger. Maybe this is because I often hike alone? Maybe this is also because I am a....
Last weekend, I spent 72 hours in Joshua Tree — not enough, obviously, but a good taste of a beautiful place. These are the five things I loved best, including a video tour that I made myself and is basically broadcast quality. 1. Joshua Tree National Park: Sunset Obviously: This....
A week after the Bataclan massacre, I flew home to New York for Thanksgiving on an OpenSkies flight. Each of those details matters: That it was only a week. That it was the day before Thanksgiving. That I was flying to New York — which, as a New Yorker, I....
Short answer: Paris is as good as you think it is. Second short answer: Because there is nowhere better to learn to understand beauty. The long answer is longer. When I first came to Paris, I had a writing job that was a dream in that it paid a living....
Un dimanche soir, Maubert Isabeau se disposait à se coucher, lorsqu’il entendit un coup violent dans la devanture grillée et vitrée de sa boutique. Il arriva à temps pour voir un bras passé à travers un trou fait d’un coup de poing. Le bras saisit un pain et l’emporta. …....
My first real apartment in Paris was a one-bedroom sublet above boulevard Beaumarchais. This was exciting because I had never lived in a one-bedroom before, even if the kitchen was so small you had to walk through it sideways. Also, I stole my neighbor’s vacuum cleaner for three hours before....
Jane Birkin: a master of French style even if she was born in London. I don’t even love her vibe so much. What I love about Jane Birkin as an example of the genre is that there’s not much to see here on some levels: These aren’t prom queen good....
In terms of localized natural disasters, I prefer a blizzard, ideally one that requires early departures from work on Thursday afternoons and necessitates a day off on Friday. At least while the snow still falls, and as long as you don’t have to work/drive/do anything during it, a blizzard in....
Every Sunday I’m in Paris, even if I’m only there for a couple days, I try to go to Franglish, the non-sexual language-instruction speed-dating-style event I have mentioned here previously, in which you’re paired off with a French speaker and take turns speaking in the two languages. I love Franglish....
