So, I have a new (ish) review up at Books & Culture on Florence Williams’ new book, Breasts. I think it’s kind of funny. Here’s a sample. Click through to read the rest at B&C… “The primary biological function of breasts,” wrote humorist Dave Barry, “is to make males stupid.” Well, not exactly, though, in fact, some studies have suggested just that. In Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, environmental journalist Florence Williams takes the reader on a journey that’s... Read more

This is the third summer I’ve been back ‘home’ in Greenport, and because it will probably be my last (for a while; don’t start crying, mom!) I’m determined to enjoy every bit of it. Which, around here, means this: and this: and some of this: Even though I grew up (partly) here–with these beaches just 5, 10, and 15 minutes away–I didn’t always spend a lot of time at the beach, and toward the end of every summer, I’d regret... Read more

While I don’t intend for this blog to become exclusively a mission blog, I do anticipate that as my family and I transition into life as Presbyterian (USA) Mission Agency co-workers (that’s what they call missionaries nowadays, and for good reason: there are more Christians there than here), I will be sharing more about that work. Today, I wanted to share a version of our first-ever mission letter: Dear Friends, Early last month, we went to Pittsburgh to be commissioned... Read more

About a year ago, I decided that I’d had enough of bad news. Not like news-worthy bad news, just bad news like: sorry, you didn’t get the job nice book proposal, but we can’t publish it because you are not famous no, we don’t want to run that article and so on. Minor bad news, news that’s only bad for writers who have this nagging urge to have someone read what they have written. And then, I realized that I... Read more

Chef Thomas Keller created this special version of ratatouille when he consulted with Pixar studios on the film Ratatouille. I shamelessly capitalized on the appeal of the rat-chef, Remy, to get my kids to eat lots of vegetables by cooking ratatouille in a much-simplified version of Keller’s recipe so that it would look like the dish in the film. (Just so we’re clear, I’m not recommending the film for young viewers. My young boy knew about Remy from a library... Read more

On using God as backup for enforcing white middle-class standards of beauty and grooming. Recently I read back through just a bit of Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman by Anne Ortlund–because I vaguely remembered that there was something in there that had once had a grip on my mind–and I only had to suffer through 43 pages until I found it: “..my advice to all is: when you first become conscious in the morning, get decent. I know some people... Read more

“It wasn’t a very spiritual thought–‘we’re all fat.'” That’s what went through Pastor Rick Warren’s mind when he was nearing the end of an 800+ person baptismal service last year. Recently, one of the New York Times‘ blogs had an interesting piece on the ‘Daniel Plan,’ the small-group based health program at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California. The Daniel Plan–named, of course, for the Biblical Daniel who rejected the king’s rich food and drink for a diet of vegetables... Read more

All right, I was a little fired up yesterday. (My mom’s response? “You’re like that critic in Ratatouille. Authors will be afraid of you reading their books.”) Actually, I try hard to be generous in my readings. This may sound corny, but a number of years ago a teacher said that we ought always to “love the author”–as in, “love your neighbor,” and the author is your neighbor–and that has always stuck with me. But sometimes? Sometimes there is just... Read more

{repost from the archives} Perhaps I’ve been immersed in the world of foodies for too long, but I would’ve expected Les & Leslie Parrott to give a few props to the food movement–beyond pointing out that a movement called Slow Food exists (!)–in their new book, The Hour That Matters Most. They could have said more about the qualitative difference of a meal cooked at home as opposed to something brought in from the takeout place. Or talked about WHY... Read more