Remember the party scene in Annie Hall with Jeff Goldblum on the phone? The line, “I forgot my mantra,” told us everything we needed to know: about the party, the person he’s talking to, L.A., the wit of Woody Allen, the Sixties . . . Actually, I haven’t forgotten my mantra. In fact, it sometimes seems it’s the only thing I remember,...

Our book club has a few problems. Agreeing on what to read next is like Democrats and Republicans reaching a (Gasp!) compromise. Some of us (me) want classics, Diana the latest bestsellers (although she did suggest The Great Gatsy last time), and Betsy doesn’t want to do hardcovers. Setting a date to meet is harder than getting a bachelor on one of those...

My alleged book club (we are a hard group to get on the same page) is reading Madame Bovary. Or trying to. Geez Louise, it’s dense! FYI, the name of our little group is the Geez Louise International Book Club, or GLIB. We do have a Louise, and we once had an international member, but she has returned to Italy. Was it something we read? Anyway, the author Gustave...