Jean Craighead George

In other news, if the death of Maurice Sendak was not enough, this week Jean Craighead George died:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/books/jean-craighead-george-childrens-author-dies-at-92.html?_r=1

You've probably read some of her books, among them, My Side of the Mountain a classic wilderness novel and Julie of the Wolves.

Nuns in the West

Finally, this op-ed about Nuns on the Frontier opened a whole new world of imagination for me. Not exactly Death Comes for the Archbishop, nor Two Mules for Sister Sara (which, despite its many failings, has a very sexy arrow removal scene. Go Clint!) But a sincere wish that Timothy Egan was writing better pieces on his West beat... His writing since Worst Hard Time have been somewhat disappointing. This article by Western scholar Anne M. Butler (whose work I've hit before) is more like it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/opinion/nuns-on-the-frontier.html