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I collaborated with a classmate on a book trailer for my Canadian Youth Literature Class. Here it is.

Essex County Book Trailer from Nora Sawyer on Vimeo.

So, I’m up in Vancouver at my grandma’s, and even though I’m happy to be here, there are some definite lags in the conversation — Grandma’s in her own world a lot of the time, and I’m often at a loss to draw her out.
I usually turn to old photo albums. I worry that I’m [...]

Last night, I was downstairs playing Quiddler with grandma and Emily. The game is a lot like scrabble, and each player gets 5 cards with letters on them and has to try and make a word.
When grandma’s turn came, she stared at her cards for a while. Finally, she said, “I think when we were [...]

With the exception of all manner of fuzzy, feathered, or fishy critters, there’s very little I won’t eat. I love food, all manner of tastes and textures. But there are certain foods that, though I enjoy them in certain dishes, completely gross me out on their own. Here they are:
1. Hard boiled eggs: Tasty on [...]

I went grocery shopping with my grandmother and her caregiver today. As we were unloading bags from the car, I was struck with this sudden memory, a full on flashback of the time Brian and I visited grandma back in 2003, when we first moved to the West Coast.
I guess grandma must have been about [...]

Hello! I’m afraid I’ve been neglecting things over here, along with everything else that’s not a paper on database systems or intellectual freedom. But the semester’s almost done, which makes this a great time to explore the hotses and notses of the week a la Loobylu.
Hot!
1. Backyard Astronomy: Or in our case, Duboce Park astronomy. [...]

I found my cellphone (it was in my bathrobe pocket).

I stayed up til a little past seven this morning, working on the final paper for one of my classes. I got up three hours later, and I swear all I must’ve done while I was sleeping was dream my way through the paper and wander some dreamscape paper cut-out of my house, because all [...]

Here it is again, the hotses and notses for the week, inspired, as always, by Loobylu:
Hot:
Library school: Like, sizzly hot. Like water sputtering across a hot pan hot. Like, too much work to even think about hot. Plus it’s time to select courses for next semester. How much can I realistically put on my plate? [...]

More from the Social and Cultural History database:
Letter from Lydia Maria Child to Anne Lynch Botta, 1839

Providence, R. I., 1839.
Dear Miss Lynch: I thank you for your kind invitation to visit you, with Mr. Furness. If I ever went anywhere, I certainly should have come. But for ten years past I have made no visits [...]