Hello Readers, Just Kids From the Bronx, one of our March Picks, is a beautifully nostalgic collection of stories about the perception of one’s childhood. Arlene Alda met with sixty-five Bronx natives (herself included) and asked them to talk about their childhood and how life in the Bronx propelled them from childhood into adulthood. Here are…
“I’d felt as if life was like a play, and I’d come in at the interval. The rest of the audience knew what was going on, while I was the only one who was mystified by the dialogue. As I got older I worked out that that’s what everyone thought. We were all watching the…
Happy spring, fellow readers! As beautiful as the snow was and as much as I enjoyed wearing thick socks and over-sized sweaters, I am looking forward to the warmer weather that April is sure to bring. Here are three books coming out this month that we’re looking forward to reading: Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent…
“Love has to be stronger than hate, or there is no future for us.” – p. 410 Hello Readers, I have always found historical fiction to be a “hit-or-miss” kind of genre. Some authors are able to capture the essence of a time period or an event the reader is familiar with and go on…
“We’re young for such a small fraction of our lives, and yet our youth seems to stretch on forever. Then we’re old for years and years, but time flies by fastest then.” (p. 161) Hello fellow readers! I finally got my hands on a copy of A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler from…
Hello Friends! On Wednesday evening, I sat in the Nederlander Theatre and laughed my way through the quirky new musical Honeymoon in Vegas, adapted from the 1992 film starring James Caan, Nicholas Cage, and Sarah Jessica Parker. The show opened with Jack Singer (Rob McClure) singing about the love of his life, Betsey Nolan (Brynn O’Malley),…
Hi Friends, Hannah More is a name we cannot afford to forget. Her work as an abolitionist, a feminist, a poet, a playwright, a novelist, and reformer in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although invaluable, is largely forgotten. In Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More – Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist, Karen Swallow…
Hello fellow readers! I hope this bitter cold has kept you indoors with your books, a cozy blanket, and hot beverage. Here are three books coming out this month that we’re looking forward to reading! The March Bookshelf: Just Kids from the Bronx: Telling It the Way It Was: An Oral History by Arlene Alda…
“Hope is like a path in the countryside. Originally, there was nothing – but as people walk this way again and again, a path appears.” – Lu Xun Hello Friends, On Thursday evening, I had the opportunity to hear Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn discuss their newest book, A Path Appears, at ABC Carpet…
Hi Friends, When Gone Girl, a psychological thriller written by Gillian Flynn, was published in 2012, I saw copies of it everywhere and kept meaning to read it. This past October, a movie adaptation of the book was released starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike and my interest in the story was rekindled. The movie was…