I am still inching my way through Jim Holt’s, Why does the World Exist?  I’ll probably finish it in the same time frame it took to build a pyramid. The book is so rich in thought that it’s like wading through a vat of molasses. The concepts it teaches are stranger than any foun

I picked up another book for a $1.00 at my local bookstore a few days ago. The author was new to me, Anna Porter, but the plot sounded interesting. It’s about a murder that takes place during an International book fair in Frankfurt, Germany. Book fairs are places where editors and p

One of Emily Dickinson’s well loved poems begins,  I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room.  These lines came to me recently when I was being interviewed for my newly released novel, Trompe l’Oeil. One que

On his show recently, Bill Moyer asked an author why he chose to write fiction instead of non-fiction. The author replied he felt he could uncover truth better with fiction. Of course, I agree and have written on this subject before. When a writer is looking for truth in the everyday

Do I tell lies? Yes. Ask me if that dress you’re wearing makes you look fat or if I think you have the voice of an opera star and I will always be encouraging. I’m the same when friends ask me to review their books on Amazon.  Sometimes I tell the truth. Sometimes I don’t. That

Each Christmas eve I join a couple for lunch to celebrate our long friendship and to enjoy good conversation. On this occasion, the wife sighed, over her plate of macaroni and cheese, and said she was appalled that so many people believe the world is going to-hell-in- a-hand -basket .

I need someone to explain the concept behind fictionalized biography to me. I understand what a biography is and an autobiography. I even I understand the concept of fiction pretty well. What I don’t understand – outside of tabloids which are largely fiction — is the combina

Not long ago, I had coffee with a former student — a darling, talented woman of late middle age whom I am delighted to have in my life. In a way, we’ve watched each other grow and so there’s a comfortable history between us. Nonetheless, I was taken aback when I told her I w

I wrote a blog a while ago that said psychopaths are so prevalent in society some psychiatrist were suggesting the behavior no longer be listed as a mental illness. What’s more, a recent survey of the disorder revealed that those afflicted with the impairment turned out to have some

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe, just out, is about the last months the author spent with his mother as she was dying of pancreatic cancer. Mary Anne, the mother, had compiled a list of books she wanted to read before she died, and the pair spent their precious time to