Shop Around The Corner

If you are ever in the Lexington area (which now is the perfect time because the ponies are running at Keeneland ) people may tell you to check out Joseph-Beth Booksellers, the large independently owned bookstore/cafe. And, it is great. But the real jewel for bibliophiles is the lesser-known Morris Bookshop on Southland Drive. Just like a good writer, the owner has made thoughtful choices about what to feature and the children's section is my favorite in the world. It's hard to get out of there without spending money.


On today's visit, I picked up the Pollan and Leibovitz books photographed here. The other book, a memoir called A Homemade Life, was a gift from my dear friend Jen. I am really enjoying all three.

The author of A Homemade Life is a year younger than me which makes me want to get in gear and write that book I've always thought I would have written by now. I can't summarize it any better than the book flap which says that she, "recounts a life with the kitchen at its center. From her mother's pound cake, a staple of summer picnics during her childhood in Oklahoma, to the eggs she cooked for her father during the weeks before his death, food and memories are intimately intertwined."
Lovely and savory, it even includes recipes.

A Place of My Own, by Michael Pollan {of Omnivore's Dilemma fame} is about his quest to build a room of his own where he can go to create. The cover image is the work space he built. I can't wait to dive in. I am most interested in his discussion of how a space makes us feel differently about ourselves and our possibilities.

The Annie Leibovitz book At Work is so great. I love reading how she troubleshoots technical problems, like shooting against those pesky windows in the oval office or working with fans, just as much as I love the details she shares about what she was feeling when taking iconic images. I've been reading {her partner and literary giant} Susan Sontag's journal that I checked out from the library too and it's nice to look at them together, such different artists. I have a lot of trouble relating to anything Sontag says, but Leibovitz I can hear.

This is my favorite quote in At Work so far from the chapter titled "Being There":

"As much as I love pictures that have been set up, and as important as those pictures are to me, I'd rather photograph something that occurs on its own. The tension between those two kinds of photographs is at the heart of what I do. It's not a conflict, but sometimes it's useful to remember that things are happening right in front of you. You just need your mind and your eye."

It's hard not to gulp down this book, but I'm trying to slow down and sip one chapter at a time, to let it settle in and think about each story.

Morris Bookshop had all of the delighful Charley Harper ABC/123 books and games today and I wanted to take them all home. They don't look the same online or on television as they do in person. They really are beautiful and interesting on the printed page.

I settled instead on two children's books by M. Sasek, This is Paris and This is New York, which I really bought for me under the guise of getting them for my girl. There's an entire series featuring different cities.





Every page is like that moment with the curtain goes up after intermission and the stage has morphed into a new scene. There are stories within stories.


From This is Paris:
"You find these bookstalls on the embankment of the Seine. You can buy old maps and pictures here as well as second-hand books."

I love this page. Perhaps I'll make cropped note cards from it.

I think this drawing was done via time-travel and that is me standing there on my first date with my husband, looking for the collected poems of W.H. Auden. Most definitely.


Also from This is Paris: "This is the Jardin du Luxembourg. Jardin means Gardens. Here you can hire your own toy sailing boat."


From This is New York. The page reads: "Harlem is uptown. The police close many streets in New York so that children can play there."


From This is New York: "People walk uptown or downtown - dresses travel uptown or downtown and buses too."


From This is New York about skyscrapers. "New Yorkers adore to watch them grow." A page much more powerful now than it was when this book was published.

I hope your weekend is filled with things that inspire you.
Happy Easter. Happy Passover. Happy Spring.