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Picking Cotton
Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson answer questions at Miami University.In 1984, Jennifer Thompson was raped in the middle of the night in her own off-campus apartment. She woke to find a man in her...
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Book Review: What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding
I can't decide how I feel about this book. It was initially off-putting as author Kristin Newman immediately jumped into her sexual escapades around the globe. It reminded me of twentysomethings who...
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Book Review: Summer House with Swimming Pool
I loved Herman Koch's novel The Dinner so I couldn't wait to read this book. His characters are so despicable. There wasn't a single one in The Dinner that was redeemable. This was true again in Summer...
View ArticleReview: The Soul of All Living Creatures
When I was a student in zoology, we were tasked with studying an animal at the zoo and writing a paper about our observations. It seemed so simple at the outset. I chose zebras and spent hours watching...
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Book Review: Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking
It wasn't until I read Anya Von Bremzen's memoir, Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking, that I realized I know next to nothing about Russia. Her memoir, part history lesson, part food chronicle, part...
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My Life As Neil Patrick Harris
Is it a DIY book? A memoir? A choose-your-own adventure fiction full of mystery and magic?Yes.It's all of that and more. Actor Neil Patrick Harris has penned his autobiography...kinda. He's left it up...
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Book Review: Prayers for the Stolen
It starts with this sentence: Now we make you ugly, my mother said.We're immediately taken to Guerrero, Mexico, near Acapulco, where scorpions, snakes and...
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Book Review: A Letter to My Cat
I think I'm about to send my cat a Christmas card. Reading Lisa Erspamer's book, A Letter to My Cat, has made me feel like she's a much more integral member of the family than I'd realized.I read this...
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Book Review: The Expats
I liked The Expats for the same reasons I like the television series The Americans: more than a spy show, it's about marriages based on lies and the dynamics involved.In The Expats, Chris Pavone takes...
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Book Review: It Was Me All Along
It should come as no surprise that a food blogger like Andie Mitchell has spent her lifetime in a love-hate relationship with food. In many ways, it has defined her. And like many who struggle with...
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5 Years of the Same Question
I love this little gold journal! I'm on Year 5 of my Q&A Diary and it's been much more insightful than I could have ever imagined.I learned early that it's best to provide a detailed answer to each...
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Book Review: The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly
I could not put this book down! I read the entire memoir in one day and felt like I was on a roller coaster ride the whole way through.The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly is Matt McCarthy's memoir of...
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Book Review: Hyacinth Girls
The storyline of Lauren Frankel's Hyacinth Girls hit a little too close to home. It is a disjointed story of a young girl being bullied and the lack of awareness by the adults as to what's...
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Book Review: The Little Paris Bookshop
I love the premise of this book. Monsieur Perdu runs what he terms a "literary apothecary" -- a bookshop aboard a boat docked in Paris. He believes that books can heal people if they know the right...
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Book Review: Liar
I'm a sucker for memoirs and this one drew me in immediately. I honestly couldn't put it down!The author's story unfolds in bits and pieces and in a swirling, non-chronological order that would...
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Book Review: I Almost Forgot About You
It's been a few years since I read a Terry McMillan book and I'm glad I finally remedied that. I'd forgotten what a master she is at writing about relationships and all the power dynamics and minutiae...
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Michael Kraus' Memories of the Holocaust
Last night, my daughter and I had the privilege of hearing Michael Kraus speak about his childhood spent in concentration camps. He's written a book about it, re-creating the diaries he kept while he...
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Book Review: In Such Good Company
As a girl, I LOVED watching the Carol Burnett Show. The entire cast felt magical to me and the returning characters Carol and the gang transformed into made me feel like they were people I knew. Mrs....
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Book Review: The Story Cure
I've been toying with the idea of writing my memoir for a few years now. I've written parts; vignettes of different moments that all lead up to the whole story. I've taken a memoir class and joined...
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Book Review of The New York Times: Footsteps
The New York Times: FootstepsAs a travel blogger, I completely understand how a place can shape a person's writing. It's why I write about travel; because places move and inspire me. The same obviously...
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Book Review: Without Explanation
I rarely write about the dangers and downsides of travel. Probably because I rarely have negative experiences, myself. That doesn’t mean they don’t happen. In Rod Jasmer’s terrifying memoir, Without...
View ArticleBook Review: The Lauras
Sara Taylor's book The Lauras hooked me immediately. It begins with teenaged Alex hearing her parents argue -- just like she did most nights. But this night quickly becomes different when Alex's...
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Book Review: Nourished
More and more travel memoirs these days include chapters about food. And more and more books about cooking and food include exotic travel. The two go hand-in-hand and this combination is sure to...
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Book Review: Amsterdam Exposed
I’ve been to Amsterdam and like most tourists, I curiously wandered to the Red Light District. And then quickly wandered back out. I was like so many tourists David Wienir describes in his travel...
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Book Review: Hungry
It is rare that I read a book about anorexia that doesn't make it seem glamorous. It's not. It's so not. And Crystal Renn does a wonderful job of showing eating disorders for what they are: miserable...
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