A lopsided pottery house sits on a high shelf in Anne Tyler’s writing room. The handicraft belonged to the novelist’s mother, who made it in her retirement home as her mind was starting to fade. Ms.

Anyone who has developed an affinity for sewing or embroidery knows exactly how quickly piles upon piles of empty thread spools can accumulate in your crafting room. To complicate the matter further, ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

Lili Nedved walks along a row of desks observing her students, who are hunched over their A-line skirt projects in silent concentration. The only sounds filtering through the airy space are the steady ...

Anne Tyler loves the everyday. With her 20th novel (20th!!!!), A Spool of Blue Thread, Tyler continues to sew together stories about the mundane and turn them into something approaching the magical.

The characters in "A Spool of Blue Thread" look like the same Baltimore family members we've socialized with for 50 years in Anne Tyler's fiction. In fact, everything about her new novel — from its ...

– Old wooden thread spool (at least 1 in wide) – Drill – Large drill bit – Smaller drill bit – Utility knife or other sharp knife – Pencil – Table vice or clamp (optional) – Earbuds Clamp spool in a ...

After the success of David Simon’s The Wire, Baltimore became associated — for many television fans at least — with derelict high rises, African American teenagers who seemed perpetually doomed to a ...