I‘m just about to leave after a week in San Miguel de Allende at the San Miguel Writers Conference and Festival. Tommy Orange was just one of the authors I saw and/or met. Madeleine Thien‘s opening keynote was highlight. Delia Owen closed and was charming. Could go on. Goodbye San Miguel.

Sometimes I post about the bookmark I am using. I keep all sorts of appropriately sized ephemera to use as bookmarks. This one is a Christmas list from when my child was little: « Anna toy, Disney Princess shoes, cat family toys. » I don‘t know how old, but I‘m going to guess four or five—she learned to read and write quite early (for some reason). I think the cat family refers to Calico Critters/Sylvanian Families.

I have mixed feelings, but it still has to be a pick. It‘s such an achievement, and often riveting, unputdownable. Despite this, it took me years to read. I started it not long after it came out in paperback, and it‘s so intense, I just didn‘t feel like I could read much at a time. After putting it aside for a few years, I just picked it back up and read the second half (I often consider books still in progress years after I paused).

“The photo had been taken at the opening of JB's fifth, long-delayed show, “Frog and Toad,“ which had been exclusively images of the two of them, but very blurred, and much more abstract than JB's previous work. (They hadn't quite known what to think of the series title, though JB had claimed it was affectionate. “Arnold Lobel?“ he had screeched at them when they asked him about it. “Hello?!“...)“

This book was right up my alley. An original, intimate, challenging, and timely interrogation of the child refugee crisis. It‘s highly literary and intertextual, so might not appeal to all. But I adored it — it just floored me.