For those who can never get enough of the Kennedy’s, there’s a new book out just this week to satiate your passion for this storied family. It’s called White House By the Sea by Kate Storey. The book focuses on the Kennedy lives from the vantage point of their summer house at Hyannis Port, also known as the Summer White House, where for a hundred years America’s most famous political family has come to swim, play, celebrate, and bond. It is also the setting of so many events we remember: JFK … [Read more...] about White House by the Sea

Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott is a suspense novel that turns the age-old “woman in trouble” plot on its head.

I loved Abbott's other bestseller, The Turnout. I learned from my favorite NPR book reviewer Maureen Corrigan that Abbot has a Phd in literature and that she wrote her dissertation on the figure of the macho “tough guy” in the mysteries of writers like Dashiell Hammett. Corrigan says, “Abbott is one smart dame when it comes to sussing out the sexism inherent in those mysteries that … [Read more...] about Beware the Woman

The Power of Wonder!

Author Monica Parker in her new book The Power of Wonder reveals what wonder is, why we need it, and how to cultivate it in your life.

In our technology-obsessed world, Parker points out that many have traded wonder for the “facsimile of electronic novelty-seeking": scrolling on Facebook, Instagram, or whatever your current jam is.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, wonder spirals its way through our shared human experience. From artistic expression to religious … [Read more...] about The Power of Wonder

Hoover was THE best-selling author of 2022. The NY Times describes her books this way: Hoover is eclectic. She’s written romances, a steamy psychological thriller, a ghost story, harrowing novels about domestic violence, drug abuse, homelessness and poverty. Though her books are hard to categorize, most of them have an addictive combination of sex, drama and outrageous plot twists.

Her top-selling book, “It Ends With Us,” a drama about a florist who falls for a brooding, abusive neurosurgeon, … [Read more...] about It Ends With Us

Some of the most significant moments in American history have occurred over meals, as U.S. presidents broke bread with friends or foe: Thomas Jefferson’s nationbuilding receptions in the new capital, Washington, D.C.; Ulysses S. Grant’s state dinner for the king of Hawaii; Teddy Roosevelt’s groundbreaking supper with Booker T. Washington; Richard Nixon’s practiced use of chopsticks to pry open China; Jimmy Carter’s cakes and pies that fueled a détente between Israel and Egypt at Camp … [Read more...] about Dinner With The President

“There are moments that cry out to be fulfilled. Like, telling someone you love them. Or giving your money away, all of it. Your heart is beating, isn't it?” Anything by the Pulitzer Prize winning and astonishing Mary Oliver is wonderful! I love Felicity and Dog Songs. … [Read more...] about Felicity

I used to have a chair in my bedroom I felt guilty about. It was stacked high with clothes I had taken off but didn’t quite know what to do with. They were’t really dirty enough to be laundered but at the same time I didn’t want to put them back with my totally clean clothes.

When we moved a couple of years ago, I was determined not to have an unkempt laundry chair. I would put everything away. Today, I keep a little round stool in my closet to sit on, like for hoisting on a pair of Spanx, … [Read more...] about House Love

This Is How It Always Is blew me away. It’s the story about a family navigating their lives with their youngest daughter who is trans. I found it enlightening and deeply moving in terms of what trans individuals and families face on their journeys.

Yet the story is also universal. It’s about acceptance and love in the face of hardship; it’s about the power of speaking the truth when the truth seems too scary; it’s about seeing our own obstacles in relation to all the other bad stuff in the … [Read more...] about This Is How It Always Is

The summer between my junior and senior year of college I did summer stock at U of I. I’ll never forget that summer. The rehearsals, the friendships, the romances, the drinking, the smoking, the late nights, the FUN. Oh to be young and have your whole life ahead of you.

When I read Ann Patchett’s book Tom Lake I was suddenly reliving my own summer and reflecting on the decisions I did and didn’t make since those heady days of youth.

In Patchett’s book, we meet a family during the pandemic. … [Read more...] about Tom Lake