Jim is observing Labor Day. His recent post on the pros and cons of electronic books, "(i)Touching Jane Austen," has been published (as "To Kindle or Not to Kindle") in in the September 7-13 edition of the History News Network.

Jim writes from an undisclosed secure location a few miles north of New York City: "I've been spending the final days before the school year begins reading cheap fiction on my iTouch, which is a great way to go with disposable prose. I got Joseph Finder's Paranoia as a free download from Amazon.com -- a fast and ultimately intriguing read; I plan to be a paying customer -- and have followed up with Fifty to One, meta-pulp fiction by Charles Ardai commemorating the fiftieth title in the Hard Case crime series (many of which I've read with great pleasure). Love those trashy covers, though they're not visible enough on a screen."

The Maria Chronicles will resume on Wednesday, September 9, in which we will see that Ms. Bradstreet's second day of school will prove to be a bit more taxing on her first. (You can read about her first day immediately below this post.)

Thank God for labor unions, without which there would be no Labor Day.