Our book club got its formal start with the mocha and one of the most casual questions two people can ask each other: "What are you reading?" It's something of a quaint question these days." Crossing To Safety, p. 9

When I was finished with the Bolano, we swapped. Mom was fascinated with The Savage Detectives, even if its digressions occasionally maddened her. I think what she liked the most was that it's a book obsessed with writers by a writer who was clearly in love with writing." Seventy Verses on Emptiness, p. 30

On this particular day, there was a woman in line right in front of us. She was in her thirties, smartly but not expensively dressed, wearing dark glasses. When she took them off, you could see she'd been weeping. She was shaking her head. Mom talked to her in a soft voice. Not unusual--Mom talked to everyone and...