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Boston Globe
4 days ago
- General
- Boston Globe
The world outside is a lot to take in right now. The ones inside books are much better.
Actually, thanks to my wiseguy wife, I will be doing something more than goofing off on vacation. I'll be reading. Books. One day, earlier this year, out of the blue, she declared with somber seriousness that we had fallen into a malign rut: We'd wake up, put on some coffee, empty the dishwasher, then click on the TV. We would watch the morning news, and it's all weather disasters, airline near-misses, and Trump being Trump, pictures of kids dying in Gaza, civilians bombed in Ukraine. Advertisement It is, without a doubt, a lousy way to start the day, worse than reading those same stories in the newspaper, because the televised images are so visceral. We'd finish our coffee, get up off the couch, sigh heavily and think, 'Well, this day is going to be terrible.' So my wife's idea was to introduce a new morning routine, in which we get up, put on coffee, empty the dishwasher, grab a cup of coffee, climb back into bed, prop up the pillows, and then open and read actual books. Ideally, they're novels, but they can be whatever strikes our fancy, as long as they're books. We have to read for at least an hour. Audio books don't count. When she suggested this, it occurred to me that I hadn't read a novel or a good nonfiction book for a long time. Instead, I was reading newspapers, magazines, newsletters, Substack. Instead of watching reality TV, I was reading reality. Advertisement Here's the deal: If Dan Shaughnessy can run a mile every day, I can read a book for an hour every day. It has been liberating and exhilarating. It's like doing 10,000 steps, but for your brain. Since the new routine began, everything I've read is worth being on a summer reading list. 'I See You've Called in Dead,' a laugh-out-loud novel by John Kenney about an obituary writer who gets fired for posting his own obit when he was still very much alive; 'Women And Children First,' a brilliant debut novel by Alina Grabowski, who grew up in Massachusetts, that depicts a tragedy from the perspective of women in a fictional North Shore town with the voice of someone who actually grew up in such a place. Jacqueline Sullivan Wyco's 'Fear Knocked: It Was Alzheimer's,' a memoir about her Boston firefighter dad's journey through that terrible disease, and the financial exploitation that often destroys the finances of families trying to navigate it, hit close to home. Best book on Alzheimer's since Charlie Pierce's 'Hard to Forget' was published, gulp, 25 years ago. I didn't think I'd like Graydon Carter's memoir, 'When The Going Was Good,' given his editorship of Vanity Fair seemed so obsessed with shallow celebrity, despite also publishing the brilliant journalism of, among others, Marie Brenner, Christopher Hitchens, David Halberstam, Maureen Orth, and Dominick Dunne. But never judge a book by its cover. It's a great read. Carter, with an assist from ghostwriter James Fox, gives a rousing tour of the golden age of magazines, not just Vanity Fair, but Time and Life and some hilarious takes on Spy magazine, which Carter edited with Kurt Andersen. The takedowns of Big Apple big egos pulled off by Spy more than make up for all the celebrity name-dropping. Besides, Carter grew up in Canada playing hockey as a kid. How can you not like a hockey guy? Advertisement Years ago, I read a couple of Zadie Smith's books. The new routine gave me the excuse to read one I missed when it was first published 13 years ago: 'NW.' She captures as only she can a Northwest London near where I lived with my family in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And while I will goof off on vacation, I will also read books, or more precisely re-read books — including classics from as far back as high school — that were so good I want to read them again: 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' by Harper Lee, 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' by Mark Twain, 'Native Son,' by Richard Wright, 'Catch-22,' by Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison's 'Beloved.' I will not try and fail to get through 'Ulysses' for a fourth time, but I will make it up to Mr. Joyce by re-reading 'Dubliners' for probably the fifth time. All of this life-affirming, new, old routine, thanks to my wife, who doesn't get nearly enough credit for putting up with me all these years. She could write a book about it. Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
ABC News
10-08-2025
- ABC News
Gabrielle Morrissey accused of misappropriating funds from domestic violence charity she led
The former CEO of a Sydney domestic violence charity has reached a confidential settlement after she agreed to pay back $150,000 in lieu of funds she had been accused of appropriating. Gabrielle Morrissey was CEO of Sydney charity Women and Children First, which supports women experiencing domestic violence, from November 2022 to June 2024. The ABC has seen a document in which Women and Children First accuse Dr Morrissey of defrauding the charity, and alleging the money was paid out for what appeared to be her personal benefit. The charity's board chair Julie Ryan said in a statement that Dr Morrissey resigned from her position on June 15 last year. "In June 2024, Women and Children First made a complaint to NSW Police in relation to Dr Morrissey. NSW Police commenced an investigation into the complaint," she said. "Without any admission of liability, Women and Children First and Dr Morrissey have reached a confidential settlement in relation to the matters subject of the complaint. "Women and Children First and Dr Morrissey now regard the matter as resolved from a civil perspective." The confidential settlement include Dr Morrissey agreeing to pay $150,000 to Women and Children First, in return for being released from civil liability by the charity in relation to the complaint it made to police. The settlement terms also included the charity agreeing to send a letter to NSW Police saying that it was content for the fraud investigation to be terminated. Dr Morrissey told the ABC she had no comment to make on the confidential settlement. If you have any information about a story, contact Amy Greenbank. Women and Children First received $2.2 million from governments in 2023-24, according to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Dr Morrissey is now the CEO of Women's Resilience Centre, a Sydney charity that runs online programs to help Australian women recover from domestic violence. Women's Resilience Centre did not respond to the ABC's request for comment. Dr Morrissey's biography on the Harper Collins Australia website states she has been a sexologist since 1990 and has worked in sex therapy, education and research in Australia, Britain and the US. She has published her books including Spicy Sex — 52 Sumptuous and Saucy Sex Recipes for Red-hot Loving Every Week of the Year, and Urge: Hot Secrets for Great Sex. Dr Morrissey received her Masters in Human Sexuality Education from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD in Human Sexuality/Health Science from Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, according to her profile on Australian speakers' bureau Celebrity Speakers.
