...about my mother, my daughter, my younger self and my current self. Bet you can relate.

I recently read at the Tory Burch store in SF and my pal Rick videotaped it. For all the Megs out there, big love.

Couple announcements and a request:

1. I'll be on The Today Show on Thurs Apr 29 if you want to tune in and see if I've gained any weight or grown any new moles since last you saw me live. No idea what time my segment is. (Sorry)

2. If you want to give LIFT to someone for Mother's Day (May 9) and you'd like a signed bookplate to stick in the jacket, I am happy to send you one. Just reply with your address and I'll pop it in the mail.

3. I just finished a beautiful book I wanted to recommend: An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken. Short, intelligent, powerful.

4. If you live in the Bay Area and are free on Thursday, May 6, I'd love to see you at Notes & Words, a cool new event that mixes readings with live music.

Okay, now the request:

I am writing something about Mother's Day and was wondering what, specifically, you'd like to be thanked for. What thing or things do you do that no one seems to notice or appreciate?

Alright, that's it for me today. Sending out good wishes to you all from my hotel in Houston.

This image stopped me short today while I was walking in Chicago. There's something so plainly starved about this girl, and then she's so young, in her underwear, almost like child pornography. Do we really want to go this far? Do I have to walk my kids past this?

Couldn't we insist, en masse, that all models (the term itself admits to their influence) stay within a healthy weight range? Not obese and not maudlin sticks. Couldn't we all demand that stores we patronize lead rather than follow?

I'm headed out of town on Monday to read from the new book, Lift, which is available online now for pre-orders and next Tuesday (3/2) in stores. I'm set for a 20 stop tour (NYC, CT, Boston, NH, Chicago, Detroit, St Louis, Philly, DC, Baltimore, Annapolis, Houston, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix, to name a few). Would love to see you or your friends in the audience. Full tour schedule here.

You can also read a short excerpt of Lift on my site. The book is quite short, a single-sitting read, and is written as a letter to my girls about what it has been to be their mother so far and in particular, three things that happened in the early days of parenting that, to varying degrees, pre-occupy me still. The book means a lot to me; I hope you like it.

Perfection Wasted

And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market --
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories
packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren't the same.

John Updike