Ever since I was a kid I’ve been accustomed to reading anything when I eat alone or have time to kill. Cereal boxes were one of my favorite reading materials growing up. So when I sit down in an airplane, I grab that airline magazine and the catalog of ever so expensive useless items and go cover to cover. Recently I had a travel experience that was horrendous, and included time in a foreign airport, a night in a hotel alone (in a foreign country), and many extra hours on a plane before we even took off for the nine hour flight. I had already finished the book I brought for the flight over to Europe, and thought I’d buy something at the airport. On my way out the door at my son’s apartment in Madrid I grabbed a book that someone had left behind, just in case. Thank goodness for that book! [Read more…]

Many of the popular movies of the day are adapted from well known books and also some not so well known novels.  Two of this years Oscar nominees for Best Picture and the eventual winner were from novels.  Atonement was written by Ian McEwan and No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy are novels and are also available in audio books.

Listed here are other novels that have become box office hits and are available as audio books: [Read more…]

Learning new ideas about gardening might be an enjoyable way to spend these long cold days.  It could be fun to get excited about this spring’s plantings and new designs for our gardens. Here are a few suggestions:

New Illustrated Guide to Gardening by Reader’s Digest Editors
The most definitive practical gardening book on the market now completely revised and updated covers every aspect of growing healthy flowers, trees, shrubs, fruits, vegetables, and herbs. No other gardening book is needed.

[Read more…]

Welcome to the month of LOVE!

Unless your living under a rock, you know how important Valentine’s Day is now. In fact, I saw Valentine decorations out in the store on Christmas Eve.

But what if you think “Love is humbug” as does the character Ben in David Levithan’s new book Marly’s Ghost? David has written a clever contemporary remix of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Ben’s girlfriend Marly has just died of cancer. Ben is trying to “get over” his angry and grief. This process is made even harder because it is the month of love, and everywhere Ben looks or goes the focus seem to be on love. But Ben feels his life is over and he becomes more withdrawn and bitter with each passing day, even contemplating suicide. Like Scrooge, Ben receives a visit of three spirits and Marly’s ghost to remember the past, then to look at the sorrow and anguish he feels in the present, and finally to what the future will be if Ben continues along this path.

This book was filled with magic and love as well as heartbreak. All of us have lost people we have loved. How we deal with that loss is what makes each one of us unique. I found this to be a cautionary tale about what happens when/if we let bitterness and grief overtake us.

In the end Ben tell us that he has learned to” love well “and may that be truly said of all of us. This is also my wish, not only for Valentine’s Day, but for all our lives and relationships. 

Title: Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Author: Carrie Vaughn

About the Book: Kitty’s radio show is as popular as ever and she has a boyfriend who actually seems to understand her. Can she finally settle down to a normal life? Not if this is just the calm before the storm. [Read more…]