Tracing Paradise: Two Years in Harmony with John Milton

2009 July 2
by charlotte gordon

This is my new favorite book. I met the author (Dawn Potter) at The Frost Place in New Hampshire. It’s wise, funny, gorgeous, and utterly compelling. I especially loved her description of winter in Maine and her insights into marriage, domestic life, goats, kids, and John Milton. I haven’t read a book like this before. Maybe Dakota by Kathleen Norris. But Tracing Paradise is far quirkier, more brilliant.

Misreading Neda

2009 July 2
by charlotte gordon

Check out my new op ed on the Bible, Neda, and Iran.

Half Jew

2009 June 21
by charlotte gordon

We are so common now, we outnumber regular jews. Madeline Albright, Lenny Kravitz, Paul Newman Sara Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lisa Bonet, Kevin Kline, Courtney Love, Sean Penn, Harrison Ford are just a few famous hybrids. According to two books, A Daughter’s Search for Her Family’s Buried Past and The Half Jewish Book, American half Jews face some common challenges and share some character traits. But in my experience each family has its own distinctive take on these complexities. Some struggle. Some don’t.

The Double Blessing: Obama, the Bible, and Outreach to Muslims

2009 June 4
by charlotte gordon

My  new op ed The Double Blessing.  It’s on a site called religion dispatches.

My writing clothes

2009 May 11
by charlotte gordon

are weird– maternity jeans (my son’s eleven), a speckly Harvard sweatshirt, tennis socks with pom poms, circa 1988. My best friend writes in his pjs. We have to wear whatever keeps us in the house, whatever keeps us anti-social. We are shut ins. The original shut ins, like the elderly or criminals on house arrest. Ten days to do proofs for WOMAN WHO NAMED GOD. Nothing can tug or pull or be uncomfortable. Who cares if I spill? Besides, if I look too nice, I’ll drive to the store. Any store. Today, my partner or boyfriend or whatever it is you call people you live with when you are middle aged, asked me if I thought I should change my socks. Or, perhaps brush my hair.

THE OUTFIT

WRITING OUTFIT

carolyn cooke’s new story

2009 May 7
by charlotte gordon

I could read anything carolyn writes. The story’s called, “Aesthetic Discipline.”

weird writing habits

2009 April 28
by charlotte gordon

eating strange things, at strange times in strange ways. Not scotch. not wine — nothing so cool — rather, lifesavers, strawberries, figs, chocolate, coffee, licorice. And none of us are fat. I have to hand WOMAN WHO NAMED GOD over to the copyeditors tomorrow. I am going to drive it in to town, can’t stand the thought of the post office taking it for me, and yesterday my son said that when he walked on the floor of my study his feet crinkled on all the hard candy wrappers. I reach a point where I subsist on gummy worms. My best friend — a writer — swears by twizzlers. There’s a great link to writers’ eating habits in the Times online

Trying on bathing suits

2009 April 12
by charlotte gordon

in the harsh light of a department store fitting room: that’s what copy-editing is like. It’s hard to imagine that WOMAN will appear in public in just three months. Right now it’s a messy stack on my desk, covered with pencil marks. Here’s the pre-order link, that is, if you believe I am going to finish it.

Anna Solomon’s Essay

2009 April 11
by charlotte gordon

is so great! Here is the link. It is about what it’s like to have a new baby and be a smart, writing woman. Lonely, hard, and wonderful, too.

Netanyahu’s back. Scary Times

2009 March 31
by charlotte gordon

 in Israel. Likud is back. See great article here. James Hider sums it up:

“Netanyahu’s government will enshrine the neo-con values of Bush just as America swings back to the left under Barack Obama.”