I write from St Louis, MO. Home of my alma mater, Washington University, for a Founders Day Celebration which includes a nice honor for me as an alum. Am also here for an appearance at Left Bank Books, which is celebrating its 40th birthday — a minor miracle in these days of amazon and walmart sales.

I was briefly and peripherally a member of the collective that started and ran Left Bank in its original location. The details are all a bit fuzzy in my memory, but I do recall the pleasure of getting to read through catalogs and order books. Kid in a candy store.

This is the middle of a ten-day trip to promote the new novel, and so far, everything has been better than great. In Toronto, I got to spend three days with daughter as well as husband at the Reform movement biennial convention, where I also saw people I’ve known for years and years. (Including youth group pals from high school days, two of whom I had not seen in more than 40 years!)

Sitting between Emilia and Jim at Shabbat services last night (beautiful music and the energy of singing and praying with 3,000 people) was a profound joy.

Airplane reading: Gail Collins’s history of the modern women’s movement: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present. Having lived through this,participated in some,I find it riveting. Just finished the part where Nixon vetoed a bi-partisan bill that would have supported childcare. What a difference that could have made for so many of us…