Archives - Weekly Update

After a week of talking about fall books at BookExpo America (BEA), I am really happy to know that I did not miss summer, my favorite time of year! I am loving the idea of a three-day weekend after a week that was a fabulous blur of books, authors and bookish conversation. I made tons of notes of books I want to read and share with you in the months to come. The show has about 25,000 attendees, and it’s a great opportunity to see colleagues and chat about the business, as much as it is to see what’s new. I had dinner with some friends last night, and as we all had been to different events at the show, it was fun to compare notes. I will catch up with the staff on Tuesday to do the same thing.

My favorite flowers are peonies, and 'tis the season for them to be in bloom. We have a number of peony plants in the garden at the house. They were here when we moved in over 20 years ago, and they get more lush and beautiful every year. Actually, if I am honest, they are beautiful for a few days before a hard rain falls and the petals fall like raindrops onto the ground. Thus the other night I was zipping around the yard with clippers harvesting the blossoms like I was being paid by the flower. I came in the house and channeled Martha, taping vases in criss-cross patterns so I could arrange them. I am pretty proud of the way these arrangements look, and I have placed them around the house so the scent is everywhere. I feel like the outside has come indoors; it’s quite lovely.

I like dress-down days when I can wear jeans to the office; for some reason, I feel I can work better when I am not “dressed up.” There was a day a couple of years ago when I went downstairs to the Gap store in our building in the middle of the day and bought myself a pair of jeans after I got back from a business lunch. This week there were a lot of dress-up nights, which meant I was doing a lot of quick changes. Always amusing.

I read my horoscope once in a while and rarely take it seriously, but the one thing I do track in astrology is when Mercury is retrograde. It happens three times a year, and we are in one of those periods right now. Thus my life has been spinning out of control in small and big ways for a couple of weeks now. Longtime readers will know what I mean by this; all others, click here. Luckily, things should settle in by Tuesday when it returns to its rightful state.