“As a culture, we’ve collectively bought into this lie that work has to be miserable.” – p. 5 Remember when you were in elementary school and older relatives asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? Some of you may have said a teacher, a lawyer, a veterinarian, or a basketball player….
“Happiness is not a destination: Being happy takes constant weeding, a tending of emotions and circumstances as they arise. There’s no happily ever after, or any one person or place that can bring happiness. It takes work to be calm in the midst of turmoil. But releasing the need to control it – well, that’s…
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…
“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…
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…
Hello Beautiful People, Our fourth selection in The 12 Days of Books is a previous Close Reads Cafe pick, The Hollow Ground. Here’s a bit about the book, from Natalie herself: While I was a young child my grandfather lived in the Pocono area of Pennsylvania and through him, I became familiar with the nearby…
Dear Bookworms, I’ve been hearing a lot recently about the author Rainbow Rowell. She has written several books that have made quite a splash among the readers that I know. So I set out to discover why. I began with Eleanor & Park, (the book club book for the month of May here at The…
Hello Beautiful People, Eric William Morris is a man of many talents. On the big screen he’s been in 21 Shots (2006), Trust, Greed, Bullets & Bourbon (2013), and he’s been in the television series, Golden Boy and Blue Bloods. Eric’s Broadway credits include Mamma Mia! and Coram Boy, and his Off-Broadway and regional credits…