I knew Nora Ephron’s work without knowing that I knew it. She wrote, and sometimes also directed, some classic movies, such as When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. None were favorites, but I liked most of her movies. When I was shopping for some reading material for a long trip, I was excited when I stumbled upon one of her books, “I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman.” I wanted to get a feel for her writing and her voice — independent of what came across on the Silver Screen, which can be clouded by acting choices. Buy this book in paper or electronic format* Though the book is not new (it was published in 2006), it was a national bestseller when it was published, and it continues to hold up as a popular book because of the author’s legacy and because of the broad appeal it has for women. I guess, too, I was feeling a bit reflective about aging when I picked it up. Though I am almost half Ephron’s age when the book was published, I am still starting to see the stamp of time and…

This Star Wars novel follow Han, Leia, and their kids along with Chewie, Lando, Luke and our two favorite droids as they all end up in the middle of a rebellion

Earlier this week I reviewed Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder. I found that even though Sylvia Plath had a short life she led an interesting one. I tried to come out with 10 positive facts about Plath’s life instead of her much discussed depression. Books by Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath published her first poem in the Boston Herald in 1941. Sylvia was 9 and the poem was titled “Poem”. At age 12 Sylvia’s IQ was recorded at 160. Also at 12 the local newspaper, The Townsman, published more of her work and was writing a poem a day. After WWII (around 1947) Sylvia started a five-year pan pal correspondence with a German teenager named Hans-Joachim Neupert. Even though Sylvia was accepted to Wellesley College for free, she chose to go to Smith College and worked her way through school. Sylvia worked in manual labor which later became fodder for her poem “Bitter Strawberries”. In May, 1953 Plath was accepted, along with 19 other girls to work in New York City as a guest editor at Mademoiselle Magazine. Unlike the morbid way we remember Plath, she was a fun loving girl who was…

About: My Ántonia by Willa Cather was written in 1918 and is considered the last in the “Prairie Trilogy” following O Pioneers! (review) And The Song of the Lark. This book is considered one of the greatest novels written by an American. 176 pages Publisher: Dover Publications Language: English ISBN-10: 0486282406 My rat­ing for My Ántonia — 4 Buy this book in paper or FREE in elec­tronic format More Books by Willa Cather Thoughts: My Ántonia by Willa Cather is a story within a story. The narrator is a friend of Jim who is stuck in a loveless marriage. Jim is consumed by a fantasy girl, Ántonia, who he remembers from childhood. The characters in the book well written, realistic but form a strange group, Ms. Cather does an amazing job writing a book from the perspective of a young man. To be honest, if I knew that this would be the case I probably won’t have read the book to begin with. I’m always weary of stories written from a perspective which the author can never perceive. Even though a man tells the story, this is not how a man would tell a story. The narrative might be in the voice of a man, but it is a woman writing as…

Article first published as Book Review: Pain, Parties, Work by Elizabeth Winder on Blogcritics. About: Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder is a non-fiction book about time mentioned in the title. The book paints a portrait of Ms. Plath during a stressful, eventful and personal emotional summer of her life. The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book –to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post. 288 pages Publisher: Harper Language: English ISBN-10: 0062085492 My rating for Pain, Parties, Work – 4 Buy this book in paper or electronic format Thoughts: Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder (@elizawinder) is the kind of book which seems to be gaining popularity, a short non-fiction book about a specified time-frame of a person. These books seem to replace the all encompassing biographies. At this day and age where a somewhat descent, encompassing biography on almost every important, not-so-important and, let’s face(book) it, not-important-at-all people is at one’s fingertips 24/7 these type of short biographical portraits are flourishing. I can certainly understand why, when I ran a restrictive search for “Sylvia Plath biography” on…

Coming May 14, 2013- Cleopatra’s Legacy Book 1- The Emerald Ring. A new action packed middle grade fantasy series from debut author, Dorine White. Read below for an excerpt not found in the published book! “Egypt- 30 BC The velvet pouch hurtled across the room. Its cords whipped behind it and tangled in the servant’s outstretched hands. Cleopatra’s tense voice rent the atmosphere. “Hurry, there’s not much time.” The horrified servant looked down at the lumpy sack resting in his palms. The queen continued, “I’m placing all my trust in you. Don’t let it fall into Roman hands.” The servant’s legs trembled. He knew his own life was worth nothing compared to the precious objects imparted to him. “I will not fail you.” The words fell from his lips in reverence. “Your legacy will be safe.” The queen paced the floor in determined strides. Her short black hair bobbed against a tan face. Her eyes met his. “On your life, see that it is! I’ll not allow Egypt conquered so easily.” He stuffed the precious bag into his linen tunic and left the royal bed chamber. Halfway down the hallway he abruptly stopped mid stride and quickly ducked…

Tolstoy lays off the aristocracy in this part and concentrates more on the “war” part of the novel. In the novel, is in real life, the lines between good and bad are very murky and usually depends on which line you’re standing on.

Maud Hart Lovelace (26 April, 1892 – 11 March, 1980) was an American author mostly noted for her Betsy – Tacy books. The Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award is presented in two categories, : grades 3–5 and grades 6–8. Children who have read at least three books in the relevant category cast a vote for their favorite. Some believe that Maud’s birthday was 25 April, and that what she believed until she was 50. However, she later discovered her birthday was actually 26 April. All fun facts were extracted from http://www.betsy-tacysociety.org Books by Maud Hart Lovelace Maud, an avid reader, started writing stories as soon as she could hold a pencil. Maud had to drop out of the University of Minnesota for health reasons. She went to California to recover and in the process sold her first story. The story was called Number Eight and Maud was paid $10 for it. After she finished the university, Maud went to Europe by herself (1914) to gather material. Maud incorporated the letters she wrote home in her books (written by Betsy). In early 1917 Maud got a job at the Wakefield Publicity Bureau to fill a position which Delos Lovelace left for…

Article first published as Book Review: The Missing File by D.A. Mishani on Blogcritics. About: The Missing File by D.A. Mishani is mystery novel taking place in Holon, Israel. The book has been translated from Hebrew and is one of the few police mysteries / procedural written in Israel. 304 pages Publisher: Harper Language: English ISBN-10: 0062195379 My rat­ing for The Missing File — 5 Buy this book in paper or elec­tronic format Thoughts: The Missing File by D.A. Mishani (Facebook | Goodreads) caught me unprepared, I was expecting a good book but what I found was exceptional. The structure is fascinating and I could not find any glaring plot holes in the narrative. The book is not only a mystery, but a fascinating glimpse into day-to-day Israeli life and culture without the preaching or propaganda. Mr. Mishani does not underestimate his readers and wrote an intelligent, well built novel. The protagonist of the book, police Detective Avraham Avraham, is not your typical hero. He is a grey man living in a grey world. Avraham is a good, solid police officer who smokes too much , drinks occasionally, visits his parents but keeps them at a distance, a bit disorganized…

A Universe From Nothing is a non-fiction science book about the origins of the universe by theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss. Krauss is a phenomenally insightful writer that approaches this cosmological argument from a point of view that is accessible and digestible to someone with no prior experience of physics or astronomy. Buy this book in paper or elec­tronic format* Some of the questions Krauss tackles in his book include where the universe came from, what came before it, what the future entails and why there is something instead of nothing. Krauss begins his tale diagnosing the origin of the universe from the Big Bang up to the Cosmological Microwave Background Radiation. In A Universe from Nothing, Krauss dismisses String Theory as he claims it provides an inadequate amount of scientific proof for success. In addition, Krauss has argued effectively in A Universe from Nothing that the origins and physics of the Universe do not require any supernatural deity or god. Krauss argues that “nothing” is unstable and eventually through quantum fluctuations a an immense period of inflation could occur which was the result of the Big Bang. Moreover, this is a book for anyone interested in learning more about cosmology in a way that…