August 8th & Siri Hustvedt

If you tuned in earlier this evening, you'll be glad to know my computer glitches have been fixed.

Sunday, August 8th, my first day of freedom, was lovely. A long, long morning hike in beautiful weather with one of my best friends, then an afternoon spent at my desk gathering my thoughts for the fall semester.

I read half of The Good Psychologist by Noam Shpancer (scroll down to a previous post), and I'm finding it not only thought-provoking, but provocative as well on many levels. I'm looking forward to describing it in more detail and to interviewing Shpancer by e-mail during the coming week.


I'm overwhelmed by the vast number of books I'm longing to read, now that reading is finally physically and mentally possible. I'm interested in Siri Hustvedt's memoir, The Shaking Woman, published in March 2010, which describes her struggle to deal with an incapacitating anxiety disorder. She's an acclaimed novelist (The Sorrows of an American and What I Loved), and her husband is my favorite author, Paul Auster.

Wouldn't you love to see the Auster/Hustvedt house/condo/loft? They live in Brooklyn, and what I imagine is a five-story townhouse, full of rooms packed floor to ceiling with books. I imagine lots of nooks and crannies, each with a table perfect for writing. If you google "Auster Hustvedt home," a wonderful Telegram article from 2003 turns up and a revealing New York Times article, but the papers won't let me link to them here.