home

“I don’t know if you can put bookshelves in the kitchen.”

By Susan September 28, 2023

“I don’t know if you can put bookshelves in the kitchen.”

–Lisa Scottoline

Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.
-Rainer Maria Rilke

A man’s bookcase will tell you everything you’ll ever need to know about him. –Walter Mosley, novelist

Between a bookcase and a grocery cart, she pretty much knew who you were. –Louise Penny, author

Tony built these bookshelves for me!

Tony built these bookshelves for me!

I don’t know if you can put bookshelves in the kitchen or if it is against federal law, but the great thing about a middle-aged woman is that she makes her own rules.
–Lisa Scottoline, author

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall. –Roald Dahl

Let your bookcases and your shelves be your gardens and your pleasure-grounds. Pluck the fruit that grows therein, gather the roses, the spices, and the myrrh.
–10^th c physician Judah ben Saul Tibbon

“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party,
a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.” – Charles Baudelaire

Last updated on August 20, 2024

In 2006, researching for my last literature paper at Oxford, I stumbled onto the late 17th-century court of Queen Mary of Modena, consort to James II. I was intrigued because she had so many female writers in her court—rare for the 17th century. Before heading back to the states, I met with my professor, Peter McCullough, to discuss a book idea stemming from that research. Peter had stunned me with his compliment of my paper—“One of the most beautiful Bread Loaf papers I’ve read . . . The work of an artist by an artist.” He was encouraging about my book idea and later agreed to be one of my Beta readers. Rain Dodging follows my quest for a sense of Mary’s spaces, to breathe the same air, to imagine their lives, visiting palaces and manor houses in England and Scotland and exploring their sublime back roads. Rain Dodging is a kaleidoscope of memoir and mystery, a collage of images and events. As I travel through Britain, I take you on a journey through my life and into a 17th-century royal court. You'll watch the connections unfold, from tales of a troubled childhood to wild days of college and young adulthood, the music scenes in Los Angeles & Nashville, and to my growth as mother, teacher, writer, lover, and solo traveler.