Books

I spent much of last year in a reading rut, and I couldn’t understand why. It seems like book recommendations are everywhere; podcasts, Facebook posts, and the viral ‘bookstgrammers’ I like to follow have no shortage of suggestions for me. At first I thought…

I am a mood reader. Sometimes I like a mystery or a thriller. Other times, I crave historical fiction. But during the summer, when I’m heading off on vacation or a weekend getaway, I prefer a quick, fun read – a book that keeps me turning the pages…

I inherited a stack of exquisitely written love letters that my mother had received from her paramour in the South Pacific in WWII. The pages are neat and the care in each swirl of an S or loop of a Y is evidence that love had been injected into every letter…

Arthur C. Brooks’ From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life is a compelling guide for navigating the challenges and transitions of life as we age. Drawing upon a rich tapestry of personal stories, psychological insights…

Full confession: I don’t always read every page of the novel I’m reading. Sometimes I flip to the final chapter. Or I’ll skim through a list of names in a mystery novel to see who’s still alive by page 150. (If my favorite character vanishes, I start slowly backing away – emotionally…

Finding books to read is both planned and serendipitous. Every day I read the Wall Street Journal. They include a book review, usually non-fiction. On the weekend, they have a large book review section with new publications of a wide variety. I’ve learned to respect their choices given…

I like to say that books love us and want us to be happy so, in that spirit, I created “book-desserts” for myself when I was losing 55-pounds in my late-30s and early-40s. Today, I still use book-desserts to maintain the original loss. I’m currently 61, had two babies and a husband who I call…

In these book comments, I open a new mystery series, set in the Inner and Middle Temples in London, by former KC Sally Smith. It’s fun to be “in the beginning.” I read a series combined into one big book, The Complete Patrick Melrose Novels. No one book is too long…

Are you one of those people who, no matter how much you are enjoying it, simply cannot wait to finish the book you are reading when another interesting title catches your eye? Me too. Unfortunately, a busy schedule limits my dedicated reading time…

I can still see my boys, one under each arm, squirming to get a better look at Frog and Toad – for the 87th time. One had peanut butter stuck to his cheek, the other had his toes wedged under my leg like he was strapping in for a rollercoaster. They knew every word by heart…