March 22, Saturday night -- Reading Louann Brizendine, M.D.

At a laundromat on Valencia Street

Reading The Female Brain, by Louann Brizendine, M.D.. The female brain operates with 100 times more estrogen than the male brain, which makes it specifically wired, like the phone cord on the cover, to seek out connections. The teenage girl feels an inner, physiological need to talk on the phone, relate with people, talk out experiences.

Her favorite book of all time--a book of short stories called Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros. She read it for the first time nine years ago. Her older sister had read it before and was excited to see her reading it. One of the stories is about how we're like onions. We have layers of ages in ourselves, and, when you feel like running to your mother, you are the 3-year-old layer, and then you might be the 11-year old layer later on.

What has she read recently? Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in the original Spanish, her first language (usually, though, she reads in English).

If she were to write her own book, it'd be fiction, set in both San Francisco and in El Salvador, and there'd have to be a beach scene--she loves the beaches in El Salvador, where her family is from.

What did she read when she was young? She doesn't really remember, but she does remember people reciting poetry to her, both things they made up, and famous poets.

Do you have any fond memories of being recited to?

I was recalling, this afternoon, during my radio interview with River Jordan, the time I was recited poetry to in Nashville, while doing my DogearedUSA blog. It was a love poem, comparing love to your favorite shirt....something I could totally relate to.