Everybody's fine
Movie Frank's wife has passed less than a year ago and he isn't doing as well as he'd like everyone to believe. When his four grown children cancel on a planned weekend visit, he decides to surprise...
View ArticleThe trip
Movie Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are both comedic actors and play fictionalized versions of themselves in this midlife agnst comedy. When Steve's girlfriend leaves him, he is left scrambling to find...
View ArticleTracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman Music There have been others, but Tracy Chapman's self titled album released in 1988 is still my favorite. The song "Baby Can IHold You" was subsequently covered by several musicians...
View ArticleThe guard
Movie Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle team up to fight drug smugglers in another police corruption film set in Ireland. Everyone has a quirk and personal issues that impact the storyline including...
View ArticleThe Ghost Writer
Movie Try to set aside everything you know about Roman Polanski's legal troubles and enjoy this first-rate thriller. Ewan McGregor is perfect as the innocent who accepts a "too good to be true"...
View ArticleFun home : a family tragicomic
Alison Bechdel Book You don't need to be a fan of Bechdel's comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, to appreciate her first graphic novel examining her relationship with her father who committed suicide....
View ArticleFinlater : a novel
Shawn Stewart Ruff Book A coming of age story narrated by Cliffy Douglas and set in 1970s Cincinnati. One of my favorite "first novel by a writer"…truly remarkable writing.
View ArticleStealing Buddha's dinner : a memoir
Bich Minh Nguyen Book I like coming-of-age stories and enjoy them even more when you have clashes of both culture and parental units. Nguyen uses humor to diffuse the pain of growing up Vietnamese in...
View ArticleWhen I was Puerto Rican
Esmeralda Santiago Book You will fall in love with Santiago and cheer for her as she challenges her family and herself to fulfill her dreams.
View ArticleMeant to be
Walter Anderson Book Growing up I always looked forward to reading the PARADE section of the paper every Sunday. When I saw that the editor had written a memoir, I grabbed the book. Anderson...
View ArticleIt all changed in an instant : more six-word memoirs by writers famous & obscure
various Book Smith Magazine asked readers of its online magazine if they could tell the stories of their lives in six words. Like the human condition, they are sad, funny, and truthful. One of my...
View ArticleFlapper : a madcap story of sex, style, celebrity, and the women who made...
Joshua Zeitz Book Sometimes I think goth, punk, and the retro styles now seen are variations on the flapper rebellion of the 1920s. Zeitz manages to bring scholarship to the topic without making the...
View ArticleHavanas in Camelot : personal essays
William Styron Book Initially I picked this book up because I love cigars. Upon reading, I was surprised it was a collection of personal essays, remembrances, of a very well lived life. I wish Stryon...
View ArticleGirl sleuth : Nancy Drew and the women who created her
Melanie Rehak Book If you want to stay blissfully ignorant about Nancy Drew being a real person, put this book down!
View ArticleYarn : remembering the way home
Kyoko Mori Book You don't have to like knitting to understand that Mori is using words like yarn to tell the true story of her life that has unraveled and how she knits it back together again.
View ArticleGrayson
Lynne Cox Book The writer describes her true adventure reuniting the baby whale (Grayson) with his mother in the Pacific ocean. A whale of a story that makes you feel good!
View ArticleChasing monarchs : migrating with the butterflies of passage
Robert Michael Pyle Book How do you tag a butterfly? Pyle travels from Canada to Mexico with varying points in between following the migration of monarch butterflies. I will never look at a...
View ArticleTao of chaos : merging East and West
Katya McCall Walter Book Separately, the I Ching and DNA are fascinating. A book talking about the similarities, however, is fascinating x 100! The author makes a compelling argument whether you...
View ArticleThe lost dinosaurs of Egypt
William E Nothdurft Book What?! Why have we not heard more about this? Pictures and everything! If you think you've read everything there is to read on Egyptology, this will be a surprising read.
View ArticleI love it when you talk retro : hoochie coochie, double whammy, drop a dime,...
Ralph Keyes Book You can tell immediately which generation you belong to as you work through this fun history of verbal artifacts.
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