I presume many people have a bucket list of accomplishments they’d like to achieve before parting from this life. I have 4 items on mine, all related to writing and I work toward attaining them every day. If I do succeed with any one of them, I hope I have the wit to find other goal

I picked up another book bargain at the Dollar Store a while ago, this time a novel by Tom Rob Smith who made the New York Times Best Seller List for an earlier work, Child 44. Smith graduated from Cambridge University in 2001 and, apparently, has enjoyed a brilliant success at an ear

Laser printing has lowered the cost of book publishing for everyone. In the case of fiction, that may be a bad thing because the market is flooded with some pretty awful writing, even from the main stream press. But in the case of memoirs, I make an exception. Almost everyone has a st

I’m going to let the subscription of another women’s magazine expire when it comes due. The repetitious information I can live without — just as I can live without those little subscription cards that keep falling from the pages or the constant renewal reminders stuffed into

The more science learns about human beings, the more puzzling we seem to be. For years, the assumption has been that the ability to postpone gratification was a better predictor of future success than IQ. (“Headlines,” by Simon Makin, Scientific Mind, March/April 2012, pg. 8) The

A friend recommended a new science book to me, The Particle at the End of the Universe, by Sean Carroll. I’m 50 pages in to it, but I’m so excited about what I’ve learned so far that I have to share. Unlike Jim Holt, author of Why Does the World Exist?, which I’ve touched upon

I’m struggling to complete my 4th novel. I thought I’d finished it, but something doesn’t feel right. Unlike my third novel, Trompe l’Oeil, where each character is driven by a desire to obtain something from life which life refuses to give, the latest work is even more charact

I’m sure I could assert “there is a book written for every topic under the sun,” without fear of contradiction. Why not? There are as many books written as there are people on the planet. Even so, the range of subjects can surprise me.  Browsing through my latest copy of Town&a

In a recent interview, a high ranking official in the Justice Department conceded that “some financial institutions are too large and too complex to be held accountable before the law.” (Reprint of Simon Johnson article, Bloomberg.com in, The Week, 2/15/13 pg. 34) The source claim

Talk to owners of small bookstores about business and the reply is usually tentative. They are grateful to have a business but uncertain about the future. So far the stores in my neighborhood are hanging on, particularly if they sell used books as well as new, I try to support these e