Maria E. Andreu's Blog: Maria E. Andreu on Goodreads, page 92

Life choices

This weekend I got to thinking about the weird ripple effect of life choices. When I was in my 20s and feeling kind of lost, I used to read “how to” self-help books. And I’d take their suggestions – meditate, exercise more, take a small step toward your goal every day – and… nothing. Inertia. […]

The gift of vegetables

My mission was to find Thanksgiving vegetables. But there I stood, holding the kohlrabi, something I’d never willingly consume. I’d put the Swiss chard in the cart, along with the leeks and a gorgeous orange pepper, almost too pretty to eat. But I held the kohlrabi in my hands and wondered… should I get this […]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello, darlings. Here it is, one of my absolute favorite days to be an American… Thanksgiving. I didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving when I was little. As recent immigrants, my parents just didn’t know much about the holiday. We left to go back to Argentina before I could start school here. When I came back, I was […]

“He looked like a demon”

I waited for the announcement about the grand jury’s decision on the shooting of Michael Brown as the minutes dragged on. I didn’t understand -still can’t understand – why they would wait until nightfall to announce a decision that had been made hours before. It seemed emblematic of the many ways in which officials seem […]

Why stand on tippy toes

A recent study showed that men are more helpful to women in high heels. The study, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, measured how people responded to the same woman either wearing flats, 2 inch heels or 3.5 inch heels. It observed how likely people were to agree to fill out a survey […]

Join this group. Please.

Today I saw this text in an article. It was sent by a student in the library at FSU when the gunman burst in. The first thing that happened when I saw it is that my eyes filled up with tears. I know that font. It’s so familiar to me as the font in which […]

NCTE Signing

Hello, dears! Just wanted to to let you know this weekend’s big highlight is my book signing at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference. A convention center full of English teachers?! Color me happy! I loved English so much that my senior year in high school I took TWO advanced courses instead […]

The death of the thing that killed letters

You’ve probably heard (or uttered) a lament about how email killed letters. “We used to send cards,” people will say (probably exaggerating just how much they actually did it, in the same way you remember a bad boyfriend as ‘not that bad.’). Well, if you’re into the idea that karma’s a bitch, then you can […]

Safety

Safety. I was left to ponder it yesterday after a conversation about writing and success. Someone asked when I would feel I had enough of both. I grasped around my mind for the answer. Finally, I grabbed an imprecise word for an amorphous feeling: safety. I’ll feel like I’ve achieved enough writing success when I […]

Cheating

I cheated today. I’m not proud to admit it, but confession is good for the soul, so here goes. It was getting late in the afternoonand I hadn’t written yet. I was at risk of not hitting my NaNo word count for the day. Truth be told, the last few days I’ve been limping along, […]