Radiation Nation, by Natasha Zaretsky: I read books about radiation at the same rate I read books about diseases and epidemics, which is to say as much as availability will allow me. I read about this one in my college alumni magazine. It’s very smart but unnecessarily jargon-y; it reads like a dissertation rather than narrative nonfiction (I suspect it was, in fact, a dissertation). In short, it was a relief when I realized that “52%” on my Kindle actually… Read more »
Posts By: Claire
1000 Books: Part 4
An update on the health and safety of my paperbacks: although my parents claim that I need to look into planes, trains, and automobiles to ship my books to NYC after Christmas, my woman on the inside reports that her mother “is NOT going to drive that car [the car that effectively owns the storage unit, or engendered it, anyway] in the salt and snow in December!” So…a reprieve? One thing (the only thing? Ha) I managed in my purge… Read more »
1000 Books: Part 3
Some of the books that I never actually owned–I may have been allowed to go to the bookstore every time I had to go to the orthodontist, but I still really raided the library hard–are highly VEXING in how non-specific their titles are. I had been trying to remember for literal years two different series, both about groups of friends (duh, and also, don’t bother trying to consult Google) but finding myself stymied, because how can you search if what… Read more »
1000 Books: Part 2
I’ll never lose my love for the great (and not great) middle-grade fiction series of the 80s and early 90s (and probably mid-90s, too; I was the 13-year-old who might read a Babysitters Club book while eating Pop-tarts after school, then finish my day with Toni Morrison), and I encountered many of them while going through my bins of books. To be honest, I kept most of them. I parted with the books for REALLY young chapter-book readers, like Patricia… Read more »
1000 books: Part 1
I went to Cincinnati last week for my mom’s birthday and to say goodbye to their house (the only house I grew up in!) before they move to Florida. Or, as they might say, I came home for my mom’s birthday and to go through the 7 bins of middle grade/YA books that had taken up residence in our friend’s storage unit, plus the two shelves of adult books in my old bedroom/the guest room, and a few other things…… Read more »
Around the Neighborhood(s)
On the Lower East Side the other day I saw a bearded dragon lizard riding on the back of a small dog. Their owner had been carrying the bearded dragon but paused when he saw us looking and asked if we wanted a picture (yes). He told us it was his birthday and that to celebrate he had bought $900 sneakers (the sneakers are in the picture; they are pink and shiny). The dog sort of shook the lizard off… Read more »
Where in the World
So, I tried to make the title of this post “Where in the World USA…” and apparently you can’t format a post title, which seems unnecessarily stingy. My thought process behind the sous rature (sorry, THANKS HEIDEGGER (and if I’m being honest, without google, that would still say thanks Heidigger (now who invented the double–now triple–parenthetical??))) was that I’m always dreaming of other countries to visit (then feeling guilty at the prospect of flying too much; now this paragraph is… Read more »
Bloop bloop bloop
As of last month, I’ve lived in New York City for 12 years (!). I never intended to stay permanently, but more than a decade here has made it tricky for me to imagine living elsewhere. The city never “gets me down,” per se, but while I used to think I would move simply to experience living in a different place, now I would need a compelling reason to leave. That reason may end up being $$, or the school… Read more »
Internet detox
Once, many years ago, I told someone I was going to do a sugar fast, and they thought I meant I was only going to eat sugar. So no, when I say “internet detox,” I do not mean that I’m trying to spend all of my time on the internet. I’ve known for years that, since computers became part of my life (pretty late – age 13 – even if I’m old, it was late for my era) they’ve steadily… Read more »
I saw the sign
If I have a (very) limited time in a city, I favor three things: grocery stores, signage, and cobblestone streets. Amsterdam is no Prague or Lisbon when it comes to magical alleyways, but the signs and the supermarket did not disappoint. A seven-hour layover equates to as much walking + as much eating as possible. Pictures below – click through for more signage:
