Although I’ve been a book lover as long as I can remember, I have never been consumed by the desire to visit authors’ homes, to walk their haunts, to explore their settings. I’ve always been satisfied to inhabit the imaginary …

When my son was small we called him Nicholas. It was a big name for a small boy, but it was the name we’d chosen and we hoped it would suit him. When he was about two, though, we started …

Sometimes my friends and I joke that we need clones — one for work and one for home, perhaps? Wouldn’t it be great, some days, to have someone else to help raise the kids — someone who wouldn’t be bored …

In our 21 years of marriage, we’ve had Christmas celebrations in at least eight different houses, with groups as small as the two of us and as large as the thirteen who are gathered this year in my parents’ warm …

Not long ago, Nick announced that he would never run for president because he didn’t want to be killed. I don’t know where he got that — we’ve certainly not talked a lot about assassination at home, nor has he …

It’s back to school time around here. Four of my friends have packed sons or daughters off to college for the first time and are learning how to reconfigure patterns set over the last eighteen years of parenthood. As my …