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1 week ago | 
nytimes.com | Elisabeth Egan
You don't need to be on the sand to enjoy these novels. You just need a certain willingness to be swiftly transported. Credit... The first time my husband joined my family for a beach vacation, he brought eggplant parmigiana and an anthropologist's curiosity about the Jersey Shore. I don't know what he was expecting - boardwalks? a brush with Bruce Springsteen? - but, after a day or two, he asked: "So we're just going to read? The whole time?"We were.
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2 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Elisabeth Egan
Amy Larocca’s book “How to Be Well” dives deep into the global obsession with so-called health, and the companies that have profited from creating it.
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3 weeks ago | 
flipboard.com | Elisabeth Egan
12 hours agoWhen a divorce seems like the only way forward, it’s often the result of a slow relational erosion. Communication gets clipped, small frustrations compound and, somewhere along the line, both partners begin prioritizing everything but the relationship. It’s often a combination of grief and a …
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3 weeks ago | 
seattletimes.com | Elisabeth Egan
MENDHAM, N.J. — On a Sunday night during Lent, a circle of Episcopal nuns sat in their lamp-lit library, chatting, knitting and gazing upon an unlikely altar: an orthopedic dog bed cradling their venerable mutt, Jennie, who was recovering from ACL surgery. Vespers was over. So was supper, featuring spring rolls, liverwurst and potato chips. It was almost time for the Great Silence, a nightly 12-hour hush that amplifies sounds of wind and wildlife around the convent on a hill in Mendham, New Jersey.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Elisabeth Egan
As Tomie dePaola's classic approaches a milestone birthday, Big Anthony is long overdue for a bit of sympathy. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. When I heard that "Strega Nona" is turning 50, I did what any self-respecting book lover would do: I heated up a bowl of pasta and paid the signora a visit.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Elisabeth Egan
Suleika Jaouad's new book provides a master class in personal writing. Here's why it's a worthwhile habit - for everyone, not just English majors. "I don't know how I would have managed knowing that I'll never be cured if I didn't have this sacred container where I get to be my most unedited, unvarnished self," Suleika Jaouad said. Credit... Sasha Phyars-Burgess for The New York Times Suleika Jaouad's new book provides a master class in personal writing.
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2 months ago | 
flipboard.com | Elisabeth Egan
2 days agoAmanda Seyfried is revealing which classic blonde bombshell partly inspired her performance in Mean Girls. “It was sort of like, channeling a little bit of Some Like It Hot, Marilyn Monroe,” the Long Bright River star, 39, told GQ in a video, posted Thursday, March 20, looking back on some of her most …
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2 months ago | 
nytimes.com | Elisabeth Egan
Suddenly Liz Moore blazed, comet-like, onto small screens and best-seller lists. But her writing career has been a slow burn. No matter how you slice it, Liz Moore has arrived. This month, an adaptation of her blockbuster novel "Long Bright River" started streaming on Peacock.
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2 months ago | 
flipboard.com | Elisabeth Egan
A weak Pope Francis is wielding power and rewriting the narrative of how popes exercise authorityVATICAN CITY (AP) — During his first foreign trip in 2013, Pope Francis made headlines when he carried his own black leather briefcase as he boarded the Alitalia charter bound for Brazil, since popes never carry bags and until the 1970s were themselves carried on thrones. Asked what was in the bag, …
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2 months ago | 
nytimes.com | Elisabeth Egan
Phil Hanley stood in a womb-like studio, psyching himself up to record the final section of his memoir. Peppermint tea, check. Hands in meditation position, check. Sheaf of highlighted, color coded pages printed in extra large type, check. But when Hanley leaned into the microphone to read from "Spellbound," his candid account of growing up dyslexic, he sounded more like an anxious student than the seasoned comedian he is.
