The year is winding down, the weather outside is becoming chillier, and I can’t wait to curl up by the fire with a great book. As in past Decembers, I am continuing the tradition started several years ago of sharing my top books of the year. I hope you will see one of your favorites […]

The people who give you their food give you their heart.” – Cesar Chavez As the holidays approach and families gather once more, I am reminded again and again that to cook is to nourish, not just the body, but also the spirit. The sharing of food gives pleasure and renewal. Each time we gather […]

“More than kisses, letters mingle souls.” – John Donne There is something incredibly intimate about reading an epistolary novel. It feels a bit like finding a box of letters and discovering the thoughts and feelings that drove someone. Books that are told through the perspective of diaries and letters can sometimes make characters seem more […]

“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.” – Voltaire Literary censorship is something that has existed throughout time. Books have been banned and burned for a plethora of reasons including language, morality, challenging a leader, and violence. Ultimately, it is about control. In Ancient China, 460 Confucian scholars were […]

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” – Sydney J. Harris As we enter the period where students and parents get ready to head back to school, I find myself thinking about education in general. Receiving an education can open minds to new perspectives, and knowledge obtained is (hopefully) gained forever. […]

“The giving of love is an education in itself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt In the English language, love is a word that has many different dimensions. It is uniquely personal, as no experience with it is exactly the same, and yet it is an experience that we all strive to understand better. Love is the foundation […]

“If music be the food of love, play on.” – William Shakespeare With the world feeling so heavy and dark right now, music is a language that can truly speak to the soul. It takes over when words fail and can feel like the soft moonlight only seen in the darkest of nights. It expresses […]

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” – Mark Twain Between the popularity of Wordle and other word games, thoughts about words have been constantly percolating in the back of my mind. On a recent trip to New York, I popped […]

Sometimes everything can be overwhelming. There have been several times during the last few years with the pandemic, war, and the terrible news cycle, where it all just feels like too much. Even my usual methods of escaping into a new world or character can feel like just another thing to be accomplished rather than […]

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” Amelia Earhart In this toast to trailblazing women, I wanted to recommend memoirs and biographies of women who have changed history in eight different fields. There is a politician, an activist, a scientist, a writer, an artist, a sportswoman, a business […]

“The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafón It’s no surprise that book clubs are still going strong as we head deeper into 2022. There is something immensely satisfying about connecting with other readers and discussing books. It doesn’t matter whether you hated or […]

Happy New Year! As promised in my December column, a few of our reader favorites from 2021 were The Push by Ashley Audrain, The Rainbow by Carly Schabowski, Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell, and Intimacies by Katie Kitamura. To celebrate a new year of fantastic books, I […]

As the year wraps up and we cross our fingers that our gifts will arrive on time, I am continuing the tradition I started several years ago of sharing my top books for 2021. I hope you find something new or see that one of your favorites made my list! Fiction What Strange Paradise by […]

“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.” – William Shakespeare’s Macbeth The temperature is finally dropping, the nights are getting longer, and fall has finally arrived. While autumn may be associated with the beautiful array of colors as the leaves change, and pumpkin spice in everything, it really heralds the arrival of […]

When I was quite small, I stumbled across a copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and became absolutely enthralled with the world of Greek mythology. From there, I tore through every anthology about the myths of Ancient Greece that I could get my hands on. Although there isn’t anything supremely unique about Greek mythology, in fact […]

What do Dan Brown, Michael Crichton, and Stieg Larsson have in common? They have all written books that are considered techno thrillers.What exactly is a techno thriller? It is a literary genre that combines two others into one: science fiction and thrillers. It takes the best of science fiction, a world without limits, and pairs […]

Wedding season has officially returned! After the quiet of last year, the summer weather has arrived and brought with it an extremely full calendar of ceremonies, showers, and parties. Weddings can certainly bring out the best and the worst in us: family drama, seating charts, food choices, and fancy locations. Here are a few books […]

It’s summer reading season! With vacations seemingly right around the corner again, the eponymous “beach read” is flying to the top of my to-be-read list. Although I feel that anything can be read at anytime of the year, something about the heat of summer calls for either a fun and frothy book, or a page-turning […]

Throughout history, stories have been told through poetry. My first introduction to these wonderful tales was through The Odyssey as I first delved into Greek mythology. After digging into other epic poems, the ability for stories to shape their culture became increasingly apparent. These works are kinetic and often times visceral with words that have […]

“A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman.” – Melinda Gates Throughout the world there are incredible women doing remarkable things. With International Women’s Day taking place on March 8th, I wanted to recommend a few memoirs and biographies by or about women from around the world. These are just a few […]

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” – Lord Byron With the pandemic still raging and the news cycle attempting to drive us all into some new form of madness, laughter as medicine has never seemed so enticing. As usual, I have been turning to books for respite, and I wanted to share […]