• Photo stories,  Ray Bradbury

    Summer magic, new sneakers

    “He felt sorry for boys who lived in California, where they wore tennis shoes all year and never knew what it was to get winter off your feet, peel off the iron leather shoes all full of snow and rain and run barefoot for a day and then lace on the first new tennis shoes of the season, which was better than barefoot. The magic was always in the new pair of shoes.” ~Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine   Photo by Cindy La Ferle

  • Books change lives,  Columns & essays,  Events & news

    A toast to Ray Bradbury

    “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” — Ray Bradbury “Yes, summer was rituals, each with its natural time and place,” Ray Bradbury reminds us in Dandelion Wine, his semi-autobiographical novel celebrating childhood in the summer of 1928. I was introduced to this magical book in middle school, back when I was old enough to appreciate its literary charm but still young enough to indulge in the simple pleasures of catching fireflies and playing flashlight tag on the lawn. Since then, I’ve made a ritual of re-reading Dandelion Wine every summer. The book is so special to me, in fact, that it has a place of…