Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Summer Pleasures . . .

I picked up The Atlantic magazine's Special Fiction Issue 2008 last night. Wendell Berry has a short story -- Stand by Me -- that I loved! I've had a hard time getting into Berry's books, but I'll have to give them another try after reading this story about Jarrat, his two sons, and the parameters of grief and loss. It sounds depressing, but really, it's a great story!
It's fun to read through these fiction issues – the New Yorker has a summer fiction issue I l look forward to each summer – because I love the short story form. It's hard to convey a whole story in shorter form, and I respect writers who are good at it.
Ann Patchett has an essay – My Life in Sales – in The Atlantic's fiction issue, and I'm looking forward to reading it next.

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I picked up our CSA order last night, and once again I am amazed at how beautiful fruits and vegetables are. The table was heaped with neat piles of produce – beets, kohlrabi, swiss chard, basil – a wonderful tangle of color, fragrance, and texture. It's not hard to understand how artists are drawn to still life – the things they paint are still, but so alive!
There was also a table of sunflowers large as dinner plates, and lovely bouquets of snapdragons. I didn't bring any home this time as we have flowers of our own in the garden, but what pleasure it was just to look!

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