May was a whirlwind of a month!

We had an out of town guest the first weekend in May. This was director Bobby Johnson who is collaborating with my wife Laura Thoma on her new play, Letter To My Soul. This is a new work that will premiere on August 10, 2025 at the GreenStage Guilford Live Arts Festival in Guilford, Connecticut. Laura received their Artists’ Award Grant this year.

Play synopsis:

A lonely queer artist, untethered from history and searching for purpose, connects with the lingering spirit of a forgotten sapphic writer, still corded to the world, seeking one last chance to protect the stories she once dared to tell. Bound by a longing for connection, moon magick, and a shared companion, the two women navigate the space between past and present—anchoring in each other, they discover the parts of themselves needed to step into their next transformation.

Usually I know about Laura’s projects from their beginnings. It is fascinating to see how a play develops both on the page and then in collaboration with other theater makers. For this comissioned play, Laura asked if I wanted to know about it as the play progressed or if I would like to experience it for the first time seeing it on stage. I chose to wait to see it on stage. Although I know one tiny aspect of the play because I did some research for Laura, it has been weird not to be in the know. I cannot wait to see the performance in August!

Road Trip!

Later in the month, I drove from Connecticut to Illinois to visit my mom. My sister and brother-in-law also came up from Alabama and my nephew and his girl friend came from Indianapolis. We had six people and four dogs in the house! Amazingly, everyone got along. Dogs and people.

During a road trip, I love to incorporate a stop that involves a library, author home, or bookstore. On the way to Illinois, I stopped in Van Wert, Ohio to visit The Brumback Library. My friend Linda, who lives in Ohio, was able to meet me in Van Wert for lunch. It was a short but very sweet visit. I’ll share photos of the library soon. Below is a photo of me and Linda at the back of the Brumback Library.

On the drive back to Connecticut from Illinois, I planned to spend the night in Pittsburgh. Visiting The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has been on my bucket list for decades. I was hoping to visit with Laura’s cousin Alicia, too. Unfortunately, that did not work out, but I did make it to the Carnegie. It did not disappoint. I’ll share photos of this historic library in the coming weeks, but here’s one of me out front of the Carnegie with their resident dinosaur.

Book Cougars

Our monthly Reading Salon discussion with Patreon supporters focused on Big Books (books 400+ pages). Sue Jackson’s annual Big Book Summer Reading Challenge kicked off on Memorial Day weekend and we wanted to get pumped up for it with recommendations from trusted readers. I’ll share my pile of hopefuls on Monday.

Emily and I interviewed three authors this month:

• Elisa Altman joined us on the podcast (Episode 234) to talk about her new memoir, Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create. Elisa shared her creative process, space, and the tools she uses for writing. She is passionate about supporting new writers so if that’s you or even if you’ve been writing for years, you might want to check out her new book.
• Deanna Raybourn, whose latest novel is Kills Well with Others, joined us over on BookTube. This new novel is a sequel to Killers of a Certain Age. We bonded over our mutual love for Rebecca Romney’s excellent, genre-defying book, Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend.
• Kate Woodsworth also visited with us over on BookTube to talk about her debut novel, Little Great Island, and cli-fi, and her Be the Butterfly initiative.

Emily and I had the pleasure of meeting one of our listeners who was in town. Deanna from Virginia and her husband were exploring New England and reached out to see if we could meet up. We love meeting fellow book lovers. It was such a treat to meet her. And she brought us treats! Books, tote bags, and delicious cookies. We had a great talk at a local coffee shop that went by way too fast.

Friends

Although this next event happened on April 31st, I felt like it helped to usher in May on a high note. I got to spend the day with my Book Cougars bestie Emily Fine and her Aunt Ellen in NYC. In the afternoon we visited The Morgan Library and Museum to see the Belle de Costa Greene exhibit, which was fantastic. I’ll share some photos (primarily of her gorgeous card catalog) later this month.

That evening we attended Selected Shorts: Classics with a Twist at Symphony Center, which was a blast. Meg Wolitzer hosted and the actors/creatives who performed included one of my favorites, Jim Parsons. He read a story called “Jacked” by Michael Cunningham, a funny take on Jack and the Bean Stalk. Michael Cunningham happened to be sitting right in front of us! He’s very tall and was friendly when I said hello.

Laura and I went to see our friend Julie Fitzpatrick perform, The Belle of Amherst at the Guilford Free Library. I didn’t know anything about this show and was so impressed by Julie’s performance. It’s a two hour show and she has such poise and confidence. The play is about Emily Dickinson and was written by William Luce. It could use a little biographical update, but I enjoyed Julie’s performance very much. The role was originated by Julie Harris in 1976. She won a Grammy for the recording.

I had a lovely brunch at Wesleyan R.J. Julia Bookstore in Middletown, CT with my librarian & classics /Cather loving friend Rachel. Unfortunately, the cafe inside the bookstore, Story and Soil Coffee, was set to close just a few days later. According to a local article, their contract was terminated a year early by Wesleyan University with no explanation.

It’s always a good month when I get to spend time with the first friend I made in Connecticut, John Valeri. John had me over for dinner and I brought donuts and coffee. Many books were discussed and lack of reading time vs the number of books we want to read was lamented. If you don’t know John’s work, check out his website. There you will find his writing, reviews, and YouTube channel, Central Booking.

Virtual Book Chats

I also spent some time with virtual friends. I had a conversation about Edith Wharton’s Old New York with Shawn, James, and Dorian for Shawn Breathes Books YouTube channel. The video will be available sometime in the near-ish future and I’ll try to remember to come back and post a link. This was the third book by Wharton that we’ve discussed together. The first was Summer and the second A Son at the Front. This coming fall we will discuss Wharton’s Ghost Stories. We didn’t plan on creating an Edith Wharton book club, but it looks like that’s what we have done.

Another wonderful book discussion I had the pleasure of attending was Colleen’s virtual group discussion of Willa Cather’s One of Ours, an old favorite. Colleen has gathered a group that is reading all twelve of Cather’s novels this year, one per month, kind of like the Willa Cather Novel Reading Challenge I hosted in 2012.

For the most part, Colleen has us reading the novels in publication order, with the exception of The Professor’s House, which we are reading for June. This change was inspired by our upcoming attendance at the 70th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference in Red Cloud, Nebraska in early June. The Professor’s House was published in 1925 so both the Spring Conference and the 19th International Willa Cather Seminar in Milwaukee in late June will feature this novel to celebrate its centennial. Readers are welcome to drop in for any or all of the remaining Cather conversations. Let me know if you’d like to join us.

What I Read

I managed to read some books this month. Several of these were audiobooks I listened to on my road trip. One of these days, I might get back to actually writing about the books I read, but, alas, not this month. I enjoyed all of the below:

• When I Was Straight by Julie Marie Wade (poetry)
• The Good House by Tananarive Due (horror)
• One of Ours by Willa Cather (WWI era fiction)
• A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan (history, true crime)
• The Great Gatsby at 100 by Sheila Liming (literary studies, Audible only)
• The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (writing advice)
• Sill Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro (writing advice)
• These Too Where Here: Louise Homer and Willa Cather by Elizabeth Moorhead (biography)

Well, haven’t I been more chatty than usual in this post? I suppose I am feeling the excitement of summer just around the corner. I hope you had a good month filled with great books.