Isabel Allende: ‘Forever a foreigner’

Isabel Allende sat down with David Frost and gave an intimate, occasionally sad and frequently humorous insight into her life.
I feel a connection with Isabel in a fundamental way – we are both exiles from our original worlds, both with upright and honorable grandfathers who speak to us from beyond their graves, both writing in the same way — taking dictation from ornery characters.
She is a wise woman: e.g.
Question: “How would you know that if women took over the world it would be any better?”
Answer: “Well.. we’ve already tried the other thing…”
I wish I’d had a chance to meet her.I would think we would have lots to talk about.
The Frost Interview
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“Friendship takes work”
I ran into some old friends, the kind who carry shovels in the trunk,” Dick Harper says in an essay on friendship, referring to the old line about good friends help you move; great friends help you move the body.
I’m not sure we’d really use shovels anymore,” he muses, “digging a hole that size by hand is hard work when there are backhoes around — but there’s no question that I’d trailer in the hoe if any of them called.”
Glasses, teacups and moving bodies
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‘Books On Bikes’ Helps Seattle Librarians Pedal To The Masses
The program aims to keep the library nimble and relevant by sending librarians and their bicycles to popular community events around Seattle.
A woman who saw the bike library at a market said it is “like a carbon-neutral library on wheels — doesn’t get better than that.”
Biking librarians
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For The Love of Romance
Barbara Vey will be hosting the first Publishers Weekly romance webcast.  For The Love of Romance will be an hour long chat on September 17th at 1 p.m. EST and include editors from Harlequin, Sourcebooks and Kensington.
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Gloria Steinem to Receive Medal of Freedom
Activist and writer Gloria Steinem is one of 16 people to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is presented to “individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Steinem co-founded Ms. magazine and helped launch a wide variety of groups and publications dedicated to women’s and civil rights.
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