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The last warm, sun-filled Sunday in September and I was heading to the underground Harris Theater to see Baryshnikov dance. When I mentioned my indoor plans for the afternoon, my neighbor snickered. I worried, too: would the great male dancer embarrass himself? Pas de tout. I’d seen Baryshnikov dance many times, in the mid-to-late 1970s,

In Chicago, we savor every warm sunny day in September. Last gasps of summer happen all over the globe, of course, but in Chicago each day of warmth and sun is one we soak up and store within ourselves. We’re like Lionni’s Frederick, who uses those rays to soothe his fellow mice during the bleak,

I recently finished an exasperating read: an unhappy couple can’t bring themselves to divorce. If they part during the spring, it will color every spring. If they tell her father…if they tell their son…. The book is “Some Prefer Nettles”, by Junichiro Tanizaki, Vintage International, $13.95, translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. I loved it. The

When I describe our place in Quebec, few people can fathom our unplugged life. No television, telephone, cell calls or texts, no computers, newspapers or mail service, no stores nearby, no need to get in a car. Yes, we have a roof, beds, bathrooms, running water, comfy couches, electricity. We’re not camping. Indeed, certain services

The New York Times ran a provocative (well, it provoked me) article the other day on independent, super-expensive college counselors. Fees ran a high as $40,000. It wasn’t the cost that provoked me: it’s the fact that adults turn to a professional for one of parentings’ last and most satisfying adventures. Just when you think

My daughter accuses me of doing nothing at our summer house in Quebec. Ha! I practice yoga after breakfast, kayak late morning and swim fast to the island and back (about a mile) late afternoon. In between: I read. I read small books and big books, fiction and nonfiction, old books and those newly published.

I had three days in New York and did what I always do in a great world city: eat well and see art. First stop: John’s Pizzeria (278 Bleeker St.) Baked in a coal-fired brick oven, it really is the world’s best thin crust. John’s is two small rooms; a line trails down Bleeker Street

My sister had more time than I to tour the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, and stopped into the Cy Twombly show (through Sept. 13.) The next day, she had to go back, and wanted me to see the Twombly show, too. She even persuaded her “love art, dread museums” 10-year-old

The New York Times ran a breezy piece recently about summer reads aimed at women. I turned to it excitedly: I’m a girl, I love to read. Surely there’d be something on the list for me. Nope. What to read during the summer? Do we really seek out “lighter” reads in the warmer months? I

I’m often in awe of museum art; how or when it was created, how it’s presented. It’s a quiet, passive pleasure. Delight, joy: at a museum? That’s rare. Olafur Eliasson is the Danish-Icelandic artist whose installations can be seen and experienced at the Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E. Chicago Ave.) through Sept. 13. Go.

I settled in for a bar lunch the other day at Joe’s, an elegant seafood and steak house off Michigan Avenue with my friend and colleague Barbara. I’d been to Joe’s (60 E. Grand St.) several times, for review or to meet with editors. It’s pricey, but the seafood — especially their signature stone crab

A quiet wing of the Louvre is devoted to Flemish and Dutch painting: landscapes, portraits, still lifes. When I visited recently, my friend Deborah kept referring to lines from a book she’d read — and loved — about a single Dutch painting, “Still Life with Oysters and Lemon,” by Mark Doty, (Beacon Press, $13.) When

A friend who owns restaurants says patrons come back, time after time, for a signature dish. Something no other restaurant makes or prepares in the same way. I’d widen the reasons for returning to a restaurant: portions, presentation, ingredients, certain servers, a special view. Two restaurants in my Old Town neighborhood, opened within the past

Instead of grabbing you by the throat, some books take you gently by the hand. Soothing, comfortable — ok, slow. But you’ll tote that book around like a third child and finish it, and feel sorry when you have. “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” is one of those books. A 2007 prize-winner in France, it

Looking for a place to eat? Look up. In Chicago, many of the city’s best restaurants are tucked inside skyscrapers or set in vertical shopping centers Latest entry? Fred’s (15 E. Oak St.), on the sixth floor of the new Barney’s New York. (What a makeover!) My friend Jennifer and I had lunch at Fred’s

Why write about books? Well, for some of us, books are like lovers. We take them to bed. We cuddle up with them. We press them on our friends. We devour them, savor them — and sometimes throw one against the wall. As my friend Jennifer says, “A book should be lucky to have my