Christina Capecchi

The sense of place and pull to the wild that inspired Nick Ripatrozone’s new book are tucked in his very name. The rip-roaring surname is the name of a mountain town in central Italy, which the 40-year-old writer has visited.

Dr. Seuss’ fourth book was published in 1940 and met with critical acclaim. It features an elephant whose large ears and long trunk provided the ideal infrastructure for the artist’s distinct lumps and humps.

I’ve never had to write an obituary. I realize how fortunate that makes me. As a professional writer, I’ve imagined what it would be like to write one. Perhaps that’s morbid, but it’s a curiosity of mine.

When Violet Jessop set out to be a maritime stewardess, she wasn’t driven by some starry-eyed desire to see the world. She was moved by necessity.

My grandma’s favorite question is one we now discourage her from uttering. “Can you come in?”  The impulse to swing open her door and her arms, honed over nine decades and stitched into her Irish-Catholic DNA, is not easily thwarted. Yet we have attempted to do so this year.