Tomorrow is a day to celebrate with the second-most important woman—or women—in your life—your sister(s). (Okay, if you are married, maybe she’s third…) Sisters Day is a perfect time to either go out or make plans to spend the day with your siblings, or to reconcile with them if you’ve had a spat. Here are a few things you might want to do with your sisters on this special holiday.

Hang out. This isn’t so complicated, is it? Just block out an hour or two and spend some time together. Visit a park you went to as kids or have a treat at your favorite ice cream shop. Watch a marathon of your favorite films (my sister and I are planning a Jim Henson marathon soon) and make some frozen margaritas while you quote or sing your favorite lines. Have an old-fashioned sleepover if you want and paint each other’s toenails, pop popcorn, and listen to music. Speaking of music…

Read more >

I just finished reading, “A Reliable Wife” by Robert Goolrick and found a reader’s guide and discussion section at the end of the book; my first thought was: Is there really anything to discuss about this book? How could a Book Club get past a few sips of wine before exhausting everything there could possibly be to say about it?

Like many novels in the suspense genre, “A Reliable Wife” is a quick and fairly entertaining read- it was kind of a bad cross between “Rebecca” and a watered-down version of “Vanity Fair” with only a couple of plot twists thrown in for good measure. None of the characters in “A Reliable Wife” are particularly likable and the author does little to set the scene of novel, which takes place in Wisconsin.


Read more >

Finally—a worthy romance fantasy novel for women to read! After so much insanity over the Twilight series, Maria V. Snyder’s Poison Study is a breath of fresh air. While you won’t find vampires or werewolves, you will find a smoking hot assassin, a deep and calculating transgender character, witty dialogue, magic, mayhem—and best of all, a strong female lead who saves the freakin’ world. Well, the kingdom, anyway. (Spoilers ahead.)

Read more >

Ralph Waldo EmersonThough the Breakthrough Institute’s annual activist boot camp is over, it’s still possible to get in on some of the learning that occurred there. Based around the Breakthrough Institute’s core values of imagination, integrity, and audacity, the boot camp offered ten activists the chance to learn about political issues in terms of national security, energy, or climate. The activists were able to do so with the support of staff, completing projects throughout July. Their lessons were based on a curriculum outline that is available online, here, for anyone who wishes to follow it. The syllabus is also available at the site.

Read more >

Anne Rice Will Follow Christ but Not His Followers

Read more >

It’s funny reading descriptions of Alexander Trocchi’s final novel, Cain’s Book. For the most part, the writer, a heroin devotee, is couched in terms of existential uncaring and set in a line with Albert Camus and any number of other beats.

What separate’s Trocchi from his American brethren is admittedly his uncaring about pretty much everything apart from how to get high. But in Cain’s Book, that flippant perspective on life is related in some of the most poetic language possible. Granted, the subject matter and the resultant physical toll is apparent at times as Trocchi’s prose moves in and out of this flowery language. But the writer does maintain a rather concerted tone throughout the entirety of the work.

Read more >

Have you ever noticed the preponderance of dead naked ladies in fiction?  I'm talking television, movies, books, graphic novels, the whole shebang.  If it's aimed at adults, it probably has a dead naked lady in it.  This goes extra for any work of mystery or suspense.

Just as a random example, where would CSI and all its clones be without dead naked ladies?  I wonder what CSI: Miami would look like, if its producers decided to challenge the writing staff by banning dead naked ladies from the scripts.

I began pondering this recently as I was reading Stieg Larsson's runaway global bestseller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  What started out as a fairly intriguing mystery at one point (not to give anything away) suddenly devolves into a collection of dead naked ladies.  How disappointing.


Read more >

I heard SO MUCH about Stieg Larsson's  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  It has a strong female character!  It's practically feminist fiction!  I would pick it up and turn it over and read the back, and flip through the pages and read a paragraph here or there and put it back, puzzled. 

I mean, it seemed like "same old same old" to me.  And the prose I caught in bits and pieces didn't exactly wow me.

I was finally motivated to read the book when I learned of the impending movie.  I'm glad that I did, if only because I can re-sell the book.  You can't re-sell your movie ticket when you don't like a movie, more's the pity.


Read more >

I know that this is kind of a backwards approach on this forum in reference to book reviews, however, I hope this thread makes for some interesting discussion on the forum. The Book is entitled "Sagar'un - Tales of a New World" by Crystal Rayne and Konrad Hollenstein, and is available through Amazon's Kindle Books and will be available through Amazon.com in a day or 2. This is a new book by these authors with a very interesting back story on it.

Before I begin explaining the back story, I wanted to let you know that you can read a free chapter of the book at http://sagarun.com as well as the press release that was published world-wide.

Read more >

Apparently America's Test Kitchen puts out one of these books every year.  I have to admit, I'm surprised!  The volume of work that clearly went into producing this book must have been staggering.  

Although admittedly it seems that the book itself is just cherry-picked awesome stuff from the Test Kitchen Empire.  According to the back of the book this includes eight different books produced during the year, plus a television show.  

So in theory, if you are consuming all that other Test Kitchen stuff, everything in this book would probably be old hat by now.  But if, like me, you have only the vaguest recollection of having heard the phrase "America's Test Kitchen," then you will be delighted by this book.  DELIGHTED I TELL YOU.


Read more >