Postcard Rex: Glowrushes

Fall reading

Hi, all.

I never miss fall quite so much as when October rolls around in California. Pumpkins pile up outside grocery stores, gently putrefying in a heat wave; the wafting scents of cinnamon brooms and Day-Glo orange, pumpkin-spice-branded products burst out of Trader Joe’s into the overbright sunshine, stupefying the senses with their confusing contrasts. I crave crisp mornings with just a hint of a chill; misty gray skies; the subtle shifts in temperature that require several weights of scarves to be available at all times. (My current office is often freezing, so I do get some approximation of this last part.) California weather has its own nuances and wonders, but for me, nothing compares to the transient joys of the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” surrounded by fiery foliage that I appreciate all the more for knowing how fast it will disappear again.

Glowrushes, Roberto Piumini (trans. Leah Janeczko)

I would describe this as a fairly autumnal book, in the sense that it’s a radiant elegy to the seasons of life in the story of a painter who is commissioned to decorate the rooms of a sick prince in an ancient, imagined Türkiye. The imaginative way he goes about this task both made me wish for an illustrated version and brought me to tears. Glowrushes is a children’s tale, written and translated from Italian with an innocent and heartbreaking simplicity, but absolutely worth picking up as an adult to remind you of the beautiful ways humans can create joy and comfort for one another.

If you like it

For another moving and thoughtful take on mortality and meaning in life, try neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi’s memoir When Breath Becomes Air.

If you don’t

If you’d rather laugh than cry, Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea’s Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent made me cackle on numerous occasions with a refreshingly personal and unpretentious approach to the beauty and adaptability of his plays. I highly recommend it as an audiobook.

Things I’ve written lately:

More house museums (the series is winding down!) and a profile of contemporary Salt Lake City, because I think many people don’t get to see how it is rapidly growing past old perceptions while still retaining its singularity.

This is still the place: Salt Lake City, Financial Times

House museum series: Dr. Johnson’s House, Financial Times

House museum series: poet Robinson Jeffers’ Tor House, Financial Times

House museum series: Edward Hopper, Financial Times

House museum series: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Hillwood Estate, Financial Times

House museum series: Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Financial Times

Beyond cute: a brief history of cupids, cherubs, and putti in art, ArtUK

Historic understandings of climate change, Smithsonian Magazine

Collecting focus: historic books, Sotheby’s

Also: I have co-founded a literary magazine, Chlorophyll, with the wonderful food and culture writer Apoorva Sripathi. Follow us here or here - first issue coming soon!