Annette Gendler's Blog, page 8

My Family’s Favorite, Tried-and-True, Easy Honey Cake Recipe That I Bake Every Year for Rosh Hashana

This is the season of honey cake, one of my favorite things in the world! And so I am happy to find myself in the kitchen today, baking honey cake, while my kids are all at their various airports to make their way home for the holiday of Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), which we celebrate this Sunday.

Honey cake is traditionally eaten to symbolize our hopes for a sweet New Year. I simply love honey cake! It is such a divine treat, for dessert, and then later with butter spread on it and...

How a Book Still Makes Amazing Connections Two Years after Publication, and How my Mom Set an Example for Pursuing your Dreams in your Forties

Wedding picture in my book A book is a connector.

That’s one of the surprising things I learned after Jumping Over Shadows came out in April 2017. But now it’s been two years. The fanfare of book events has died down, and I am focused on getting Book No. 2 ready to launch this fall.

Whenever I’m asked, “So how is your book doing?”

I say, “It’s chugging along nicely.”

Indeed it is. In fact, it is doing more than that.

My book is still making connections.

Last weekend, I received this email:...

Excellent Advice for the Creative Soul from an Unlikely Source: Tomi Lahren

Excellent view of the White House and the Washington Monument as we were flying out of Washington, DC, and I was reading this book…

I am not usually one to buy books at an airport store. But on our recent trip to Washington, DC, where my husband and I dropped our youngest off at college and endured a rather disorganized parent orientation, we had some time before having to go through security before our return flight. So we browsed one of the remarkably well-stocked bookstores at Washington’s...

Why Your Life is Easier with a Plan, and a Little Sneak Peek at Annette Gendler’s Second Book

I used to work in consulting as a project manager, so I should know this:

Life is easier with a plan.

Without a plan, all those tasks you should be remembering start churning in your head. Together they become a bigger cloud and soon enough, you’re stressing out about all the things you should be doing.

That’s exactly what was happening to me yesterday. I have been steadily working on producing my second book.

It will be a guide on how to write family history into compelling stories,

base...

Farewell to a Fridge, Or: Is It Weird to Become Attached to an Appliance?

Farewell old fridge, and thanks for your service!

I have to admit: My heart sank when the delivery guys carried out our old fridge. After serving us faithfully for 24 years, its compressor gave out last month. When we called the GE repairman, he advised us that he could not obtain replacement parts.

“Get a new one,” he said, “twenty-four years is amazing for an appliance.”

Indeed it is. We had felt the dread of having to give it up once before when we shelled out a fair amount of money to hav...

One of the Most Picturesque Chicago Neighborhoods You’ve Probably Never Heard of: The Pullman Historic District

Row Houses on St. Lawrence Ave, Pullman Historic District, Chicago Chicago is like that: In its farther reaches, bland wide streets lined with strip malls or highways with twisting on- and off-ramps ferry a driver through the city.

All the while, a cute neighborhood with pretty homes and lush gardens can lie just a block or two beyond that kind of uninspiring thoroughfare. Such is the case with the Pullman Historic District, to be found a few blocks west of a mundane I-94 interchange on 111t...

How the Experience of Surgery and Tremendous Physical Pain Changes You Forever

This Wednesday was the one-year anniversary of my hip surgery.

Unfortunately, this anniversary makes me sad. Recovering from this surgery sent me through hell and back, and I am not better for it. One-and-a-half hours of surgery, and I shall never be the same again. I went in thinking I will have to endure pain, but ultimately I will be fixed. That was certainly the goal, but it didn’t pan out that way. I still cannot sit without pain.

From what I can tell, the surgery was not botched.

An...

How a Sad Story from the 18th Century Brings to Life Today’s American Locations

View of Sand Beach, Acadia National Park, Maine, May 2019

Before we left on our recent trip to Acadia National Park, an acquaintance recommended I read Evangeline – A Tale of Acadie. When I looked puzzled at that suggestion, she insisted, “Read it! It’s the story of that place.”

Indeed it is.

Epic poems are not exactly typical contemporary reading material.

I ended up listening to the audiobook, the perfect medium for a poem. I was also happy to finally read something else by Henry Wadsworth...

What to Do When a Deadline Looms and You Are at a Loss What to Write About

Get going on the road to writing (Empty road in Nevada, August 2011)

Last Thursday, I was at a loss what to write for Friday’s blog post. Uninspired, I thought, I’ll just share a collection of phrases I found insightful from a craft book I recently read (Roger Rosenblatt’s Unless It Moves the Human Heart).

However, as soon as I went about doing that, it grew into something else.

First, when I copied Rosenblatt’s observation on Hemingway’s prose, I felt I’d better provide examples.

Next thing...

Why Hemingway Repeated Words, Why We Learn from Teachers We Don’t Like, and Other Insights on the Craft of Writing

My writing studio in the attic of the Hemingway Birthplace Home, back when I was writer-in-residence .

While I didn’t particularly enjoy Roger Rosenblatt’s Unless It Moves the Human Heart – The Craft and Art of Writing, he did teach me something about Hemingway’s prose that I always wondered about:

Why does Hemingway use simple words over and over?

Here’s an example from The Snows of Kilimanjaro:

She shot very well this good, this rich bitch, the kindly caretaker and destroyer of his talent....