What Susannah Said

I suppose that we shouldn't mind what our friends say about us, but . . .

I sent the link to my book review to several friends, all of whom responded with oohs and ahhhs, whether they'd read the thing or not. But, my almost-oldest friend, Susannah, came back with, "Nice review. I'd buy the book. What a horrible picture of you. Can you get them to change it?"

I'd thought that the review was pretty good, and, considering my age, that the photo wasn't bad. I'm always startled by photographs of myself because they never look like anyone I know. But, I'd thought that this one, taken by my husband against a white wall in our living room, in the pure, clean Hawaiian light pouring through our dining room skylight, was as close to OK as I'm going to get.

I wrote to Susannh, "You haven't seen me in a while. I've aged. So have you, I'll bet. This is what I look like now. If we want something better for the book review head shot, then, we're going to have to get a different model."

She didn't answer.

Maybe next time I'll send a head shot of the cat looking skeptical.

This is the head shot to go with my first review for the Internet Review of Books, Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody, Organizing Without Organization." Should be up by June 15, 2008.