• Book Reviews

    Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn | Book Review

    Gone Girl book cover

    Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Genres: American Literature, Fiction Original Publication Date: 2012 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram Is Amy a gone girl? On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under…

  • Writing

    Leave A Light On For Me

    lights

    We Need Some Light The last several weeks have been difficult in the New Jersey and New York areas as we recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. After two major storms last year, Hurricane Irene and the weird Snowtober storm, I learned my lesson and made sure that I did not have too many perishables in the refrigerator. On the night of the storm, the lights stayed on for longer than we had hoped. But then the lights started flickering and finally, around 9 p.m. the lights went off and we were plunged into total darkness. Since the lights did not come back until Friday, we mostly subsisted on…

  • Book Reviews

    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot | Book Review

    Henrietta Lacks book cover

    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Genres: Biography, Illness, Medicine, Science Original Publication Date: 2010 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses,…

  • Seasons,  Poetry

    To Autumn by John Keats (1820)

    autumn trees

    To Autumn by John Keats Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a…

  • Book Reviews

    All That Is Bitter and Sweet by Ashley Judd | Book Review

    All That Is Bitter and Sweet book cover

    All That Is Bitter and Sweet: A Memoir by Ashley Judd Genres: Memoir, Non-Fiction Original Publication Date: 2011 Source: I borrowed this book from the library. Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram All That Is Bitter and Sweet: In 2002, award-winning film and stage actor Ashley Judd found her true calling: as a humanitarian and voice for those suffering in neglected parts of the world. After her first trip to the notorious brothels, slums, and hospices of southeast Asia, Ashley knew immediately that she wanted to advocate on behalf of the vulnerable. Seeking in-patient treatment in 2006 for the grief that had nearly killed her, Ashley found…