Category Archives: Uncategorized

Words Are All We Have: A Very Brief Disquisition on Librarians, Technology, Access, Feminism, and The Truths of Things

Posted on March 9, 2023 by girasoleazzurra

Oxford University, England, & California Librarians November 6, 1997 Some wise person has said — I may have said it myself — that words are all we have. I have made my living with words, one way or another, for … Continue reading →

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For Nana, written for my grandmother’s memorial, May 2003

Posted on August 18, 2022 by girasoleazzurra

Written for my grandmother’s memorial, in May 2003 What makes us human is that we know we will die. What makes us human is that we know we will live forever, in our families, in our children, in the memories … Continue reading →

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The Red Studio: Art was a language, and you could learn it

Posted on July 7, 2022 by girasoleazzurra

When I was in seventh and eighth grade, at St Frances of Rome school in the early 1960s, once a week a teacher came to visit who wasn’t a nun. She had a rich Spanish accent and an exotic history … Continue reading →

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farewell, beloved scent

Posted on March 28, 2022 by girasoleazzurra

Comme des Garçons was (and is) a perfume that introduced in 1994, a year when I was the editor-in-chief of a small professional magazine, a shopper of some repute, and at what turned out to be the height of my … Continue reading →

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Ten things you need to know about online classes, with a little help from the yellow submarine

Posted on August 19, 2021 by girasoleazzurra

(by GraceAnne A. DeCandido, for my graduate classes at Rutgers 8/2009) 1.The Long and Winding Road: Taking a class online is more work than an in-person class. You have to read more and faster, interact with your classmates more, log … Continue reading →

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Zucchini blossoms/Pumpkin flowers

Posted on August 8, 2020 by girasoleazzurra

Zucchini blossoms / pumpkin flowers, first published in 2015 or so. When I was a child, these were an extraordinary summer treat, almost magical, because no one I knew except our relatives ever made them. I made them today, and … Continue reading →

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Music from many places

Posted on February 16, 2019 by girasoleazzurra

All you need is LOVE written June 2007 One of the reasons I chose Las Vegas for my sixtieth birthday celebration was for the Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show. I was at Shea Stadium for the Beatles. Hearing “Hey … Continue reading →

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Reading, How to

Posted on April 24, 2018 by girasoleazzurra

After food, and sex, and occasionally, sleep, the deepest and most sustaining pleasure of my life has been reading, reading stories. For the past few years, since chemotherapy and radiation treatment for Stage 3 endometrial cancer, I have read very … Continue reading →

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Hair story the last, probably

Posted on July 19, 2017 by girasoleazzurra

Since I was 14 years old, I had long hair, often nearly to my waist. I loved it. I was vain about it. It was lush and wavy and deep chestnut brown. I thought it was my best feature. In … Continue reading →

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a joy from Twitter

Posted on April 14, 2017 by girasoleazzurra

“One of the great joys of being a librarian is that it is one of the last refuges of the renaissance person…” #NLW17 @GirasoleAzzurra pic.twitter.com/fVZ0kaOc6V — ProQuest (@ProQuest) April 14, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

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