Do you ever think to yourself, I love where I live and I love where I work? I just got back to my office on this sunny, Fall day in Cambridge. Where else could you be buying onions and hot peppers at the farmers market on the Harvard campus in front of the Science Center and fall into a conversation with one of the farmers and another customer about Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire? Afterwards I strolled back to my office through the orange and yellow leaves on this sunny, Fall day to my office.

I don’t talk directly about politics often. It’s not often that I read something that makes me want to mention it. I read this Katha Pollit article from The Nation and couldn’t help but yell ‘Sing it sister!’ in my mind (so as not to disturb my boss who sits a few feet away). My favorite part:

“Many of those who correctly anticipated catastrophe did so not by exercising judgment but by indulging in ideology,” Ignatieff writes. “They opposed the invasion because they believed the President was only after the oil or because they believed America is always and in every situation wrong.”

Excuse me while I set myself on fire. I remember the run-up to the invasion very well, and “It’s all about oil” and “America is always wrong” were hardly the major arguments on the table. Since Ignatieff must know this–surely he listened to Mark Danner and Robert Scheer when he teamed with Hitchens to debate them at UCLA–his calumny is not only self-serving, it’s disingenuous.

I read this article in the NYT this morning and wondered what time warp I had entered. The entire article is about how women like to eat steak. It’s such a condescending, poorly written article, it made me want to stamp my feet, but my high heels prevented me:

But others, especially those who are thin, say ordering a salad displays an unappealing mousiness.

“It seems wimpy, insipid, childish,” said Michelle Heller, 34, a copy editor at TV Guide. “I don’t want to be considered vapid and uninteresting.”

Honey, you work at TV Guide and were quoted in this article. You are vapid and uninteresting.

Then take a look at my vacation photos:

Here are all of the pictures I took while in Bolivia. Doesn’t Bolivia look great? We had so much fun. I even read 4 books! I’ve got to catch up on some emails and work before I can mention them.

I’m going to quit apologizing for the silence here. Life gets really busy sometimes and there’s not much you can do. often feel like a slacker because I don’t post something everyday, but I rationalize it by saying that one well-thought-out post is worth more than many hastily written ones. I think this is true.

I’m also in somewhat of a reading slump. I’m still reading a lot, but none of the books have been really great. I read Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him by Danielle Ganek the other day. A fast read, but not meaty enough for me. Now I’m almost through with Jennifer Belle’s Little Stalker, which I picked up for the cool cover. The jacket description makes the book sound light: A thirty-something Manhattan writer in search of a man, blah blah blah, but it’s actually quite a bit more interesting. The protagonist seems truly disturbed. I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out yet, but I’m enjoying it at least.

I still feel like I’m missing something though, a book that I’m truly excited about. A book where if I’m reading it, Mr. Bookdwarf has to wave his hand in front of my face to get my attention. A book that will make me miss my subway stop in the morning on the way to the store. I’m in the middle of buying for the Fall season and there are a ton of good books coming. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen such strong lists from so many publishers. I bought Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, Picador, Holt, and some others yesterday. Now I’ve got a copy of Denis Johnson’s new book Tree of Smoke—it’s huge. I haven’t read Jesus’ Son. Am I missing out? Do I need to read this before embarking on his forthcoming book?

I have the antidote to a very rainy and chilly Tuesday—-Free cone day at Ben & Jerry’s. It’s today only from 12 to 8. Conveniently for me, there is one just a few blocks away.

Normally I don’t dance around my office at the end of the week, but this week has seemed quite long. Perhaps it’s the New England weather. We can never have a normal Spring. No, we have to have warm, then cold, then wet, then Nor’easters. It can be maddening. I got my bike out a few weeks ago (when it actually got almost to 60) and it’s just sitting forlorn in front of my apartment. Anyway, it’s the end of the week and I’ve been sitting here working listening to the various poets read on FSG’s cool Poetry blog. It’s making me want to read poetry, which I never do.

Yes, another redesign. I wanted something a bit more bookish. What do you think? How does the blue work?

I’m working on a review of Danielle Trussoni’s memoir Falling Through the Earth, which I will post on Monday. It’s quite a work and I can see why it got so much praise.

For now, I’m off to go for a run along the Charles, taking advantage of the sun. We New Englanders know that Nature only opens her arms to us every once in a while, so you’ve got to take advantage.

Guess who will be chiming in to the live Oscar blog on Sunday?

(Yes, me is the right answer)