Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Stuff gets done here

recent posts

Category: reading

  • Reading slow and deep

    I took Betsy James’ new memoir with me on a road trip to the Canadian Rockies and found it a fine antidote to hours of driving. The world rushing by at 70 mph, the shift from rolling canola fields to jagged upthrust peaks, the rumbling trains, the smoke from fires — my mind getting edgy…

  • My curious mother

    It’s hard to guess which of us was more surprised. In our most recent book group, Irene Palmer asked me if I had read “House Made of Dawn” by N. Scott Momaday. Happens I had, thanks to a literature professor committed to diversity in the literary canon she taught. But hold on there, Irene. How…

  • The mystery of a good book

    I’ve read or listened to more than a dozen books this year, but I only fell into one. You might know this feeling. You start reading a book and somewhere in the first 20 pages or so you become immersed in the story. When you open the book the world around you drifts into fog.…