Leanne Shapton grew up under the definitive identity of “competitive swimmer”. She spent the larger part of her life on the humid decks of muggy swimming pools, in and out of freezing waters, and constantly comparing herself and her times to the swimmers around her. Growing up as a competitive swimmer myself, the images and scenes that Shapton portrays in her novel Swimming Studies is all but too familiar. While this novel r...

Charles Gordone, the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, was born on this day 12 October 1965 (d: 16 November, 1995)....

Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger is an autobiography of the famous actor, politician and champion body builder....

Reading is one of the most important habits that children can pick up. A child who loves to read has a larger vocabulary, a bigger imagination, and can pick up more details than other children. However, getting your children to love reading is often easier said than done. Here are some tips for fostering a love of reading in your children: Start young – The best way to get your children to love to read is start reading to them at a ve...

Article first published as Book Review: Not Famous Anymore by Michael Loyd Gray on Blogcritics. About: Not Famous Anymore by Michael Loyd Gray is a fictional book which addresses the price of fame. We all know that being famous cannot be easy, but why do famous people who got what they wanted keep complaining? The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book –to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the ...

Article first published as Book Review: Thomas Jefferson’s Crème Brûlée: How a Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America by Thomas J. Craughwell on Blogcritics. About: Thomas Jefferson’s Crème Brûlée: How a Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America by Thomas J. Craughwell is a non-fiction book which covers the time Jefferson spent a...

The folks at Star Wars reads have generously donated a Star Wars reads t-shirt and Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia –to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post Due to a mistake I made with the Rafflecopter form I extended the giveaway one more day Today October 6th, 2012, fans will come together to celebrate reading, Star Wars and reading Star Wars. There are many events n book stores and librar...

Wel­come to another install­ment of “Thoughts from the Ran­cor Pit” in which Andrew and David from the fab­u­lous blog “Ran­cors Love to Read” will review books tak­ing place in the Star Wars uni­verse. This time they are review­ing The Last Command the third install­ment in The Thrawn Tril­ogy which pop­u­lar­ized the Star Wars books. Also, don’t forget that today, 6 October, 2012 is the ...

Today is the birthday of Caroline Gordon (6 October, 1895 – 11 April, 1981) an American award winning novelist....

About: Emotional Wellness: Transforming Fear, Anger, and Jealousy into Creative Energy by Osho is an amazing book that helps us understand our emotions, why they appear and how they influence our life decisions, are they manipulating us, and can we break out of our unhealthy patterns when we deal with them. Here Osho offers a new and effective approach for us to better cope with our emotions, sharing his wisdom for living healthy emotio...