A few weeks ago, I wrote a post detailing some of my favorite articles from my weekend newspaper reading. I had fun writing the post and readers seemed to enjoy reading it so I thought I would write another edition of “The Weekend Papers.”

Here goes…

Me, My Shelfie, and I (WSJ) by Dale Hrabi explores the latest Instagram fad; the ‘shelfie’. Hrabi writes, “The latest twist on the selfie is a photo of your artfully arranged stuff.” Now I have to admit that I have admired many ‘shelfies’ on Instagram and am definitely drawn to certain types of arrangements. I must admit though that I can never see myself purposely arranging my stuff and taking  a picture of it. I definitely fall in to the category of people described in the article who stumble upon an arrangement and photograph it. As I looked back in my Instagram feed just now, I did find quite a few arrangements involving books, my laptop and coffee. I guess that seems about right.

I loved reading Karin Gillespie’s piece A Master’s in Chick Lit (NYT) about her experience in an MFA program. She was a published author before going back to school and reading about her experience was fascinating. Turns out that getting ‘serious’ is not really all it is cracked up to be. This piece is a part of a series at the NYT called Draft  which focuses on the craft of writing. I look forwarding to going back and reading more of their pieces.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I represent the girls in my writing.  Caroline, understandably, would like me to write less about her which panics me a bit seeing as I write about my life and she is a big part of it. Therefore, I was fascinated by this weekend’s Bookends piece (NYC) in which Francine Prose and Leslie Jamison answered the question, “What you make of mining actual relationships for literary material?” It seems they might agree with Caroline…

Laurence Steinberg’s Friends Can Be Dangerous (NYT) reinforces my worst fears about the approaching teenage years. The piece summarizes results of studies looking in to the effect of groups on risky decision making. Turns out that even mice binge drink in groups but are far more responsible when they are alone.

As a person who loves to talk to strangers and embarrasses my family regularly by doing so, I was thrilled to read Hello, Stranger (NYT) by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton. According to their research, talking with strangers, makes us happier. They report for example that “commuters who talked to a stranger reported having a more positive experience that those who had sat in solitude.” Sorry family! It seems that it makes sense for me to keep talking to all those people!