Hey, folks — I’ll be on local public TV again, with a few book recommendations for good summer reading during a pandemic. They asked me for five books, and I gave them:
– Tender at the Bone (Ruth Reichl)
– The Lesson (Cadwell Turnbull)
– Give a Girl a Knife (Amy Thielen)
– A Game of Fox and Squirrels (Jenn Reese)
– Salt Fat Acid Heat (Samin Nosrat)
Sadly, they then put them in an order (not up to us), and we, per usual, ran way out of time, so I only got to talk about the first two. But I do recommend them all!
(I miss having the profssional WTTW make-up person; I did my best, though. Is that scoop-neck top showing too much skin for TV? I think it slipped down a bit while I was talking…
And every time I see my face, I’m reminded that my mom always said my forehead was too big, and I should get bangs… (I have no patience for maintaining bangs))
I’m going to be doing a lot of video recording in my office, I think — need to think about what I want on that back wall. The wall calendar is useful, but uninspiring. I think I may want to move it elsewhere, and have a big, glorious painting there.
I was on a Zoom call with Alex Gurevich yesterday, and he had what I think was one of his wife Christa Grenawalt‘s paintings in the background, and it looked so good. I mean, it looked good enough that it was maybe a little distracting because I just wanted to look at the painting, not at him, so that might be counterproductive. 
. Hm.
Oh, also wanted to note that it was great meeting D.L. Mullen, who has apparently just celebrated a year running Semicolon Bookstore in West Town. Must check it out! Locals, support your local bookstore!