On Monday night I dashed through one of the quickest books I’ve ever read: Betty White’s latest memoir. It took me about 40 minutes, cover to cover. That’s 258 pages. And no, I wasn’t speed-reading. The chapters are really short, there are lots of pictures and filler pages, and the margins are wide. It was […]
A Fairy Tale Quartet
It hurts me a little to admit this, but I am kind of a snob about certain kinds of books. One genre that I almost never read is romance fiction. I mean, sure, when I was a teenager, I might have grabbed a few bodice-rippers off the romance shelf at the bookstore, looking for one […]
What To Expect When You’re Expecting
After finding out I was pregnant, one of the first things I did was make sure I got a copy of the so-called pregnancy bible, What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Now in its fourth edition, it has sold over 16 million copies, at least according to the flag on the cover. It also has […]
Lost and Found: A Book Miracle
Sometime during the midst of my pregnancy-related hiatus, I had a small gift conferred on me, via a friend, by the Goddess of Books and Reading. (Is there such a god/goddess? If not, there should be.) There’s a long-established used bookstore in my town called the Bookworm that’s quite popular among the local literati. I […]
Girls in White Dresses
This book was not what I expected. Here’s an excerpt from the book jacket: “Isabella, Mary and Lauren feel like everyone they know is getting married. On Sunday after Sunday, at bridal shower after bridal shower, they coo over toasters, collect ribbons and wrapping paper, eat minuscule sandwiches and doll-sized cakes. They wear pastel dresses […]
Can Rowling Recapture the Magic?
I recently came across this news item in the Huffington Post that stirred intense excitement, mixed with some trepidation, into the cauldron of my heart: New JK Rowling Book Obviously, I’m excited to hear that the author of my favorite book series, a writer I respect intensely, and the lead invitee to my fantasy celebrity […]