True or False: 1. The safest seats on an airplane are at the back. 2. If you fall into a frozen lake, you have only 3 minutes to escape the water. 3. In prisoner-of-war camps in Vietnam, optimists lived longer than anyone else. Who lives and who dies in a crisis? Do you have what it takes to be one… Read more
Julius Fromm was born in Russia in 1883; when he was 10 years old, his parents left Russia for Berlin. At the time, Berlin offered the hope of more economic opportunity and a better life. Fromm grew up feeling like a German, and a patriotic one at that. It all came to crushing end when Hitler came to power, because… Read more
Have you ever wished that you knew a little more about football? You’re watching with friends, everyone is yelling about the lousy blocking or the zone defense and you wish you knew what they were talking about? Or maybe you wish your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse could get as excited about the pass coverage as you are? This may be just the book you… Read more
Who better to talk about celebrities than Dr. Drew? For more than 25 years he has co-hosted Loveline on the radio and, for 4 years, on MTV. On VH1, he produces and hosts Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew and Sober House. He is definitely an expert on celebrity behavior, and this book is full of anecdotes and descriptions of the… Read more
If you work in an office, you have probably watched the bigwig’s desks to see which management self-help books are in vogue. Whether it’s The One Minute Manager or Who Moved My Cheese or First, Break All the Rules, managers like to look like they are up to date on the latest management theories. Rubies in the Orchard is a… Read more
If anyone needed this self-help book, it was me. I actually have at least one thing in common with author Gail Blanke – both of our mother’s were extremely organized, while both of us struggle to keep ourselves organized. That’s a good start. In addition, as I have mentioned before, I am a packrat. I need to go through things… Read more
My bookshelves are not terribly political. A biography or two, a bit of humor about our political system, but not much else – I figure it’s bad enough I have to see politicians on the news every day, I have no desire to read about them in my leisure time. I accepted The Obama Revolution for review primarily because it… Read more
Someone in Amsterdam is enjoying my copy of Ambrosia. I have torn my luggage apart, but somehow my copy did not make the flight home with me. It’s sort of fitting, really, because according to Ambrosia, Amsterdam has a thriving electronic music scene. Sadly, I don’t get to take advantage of that when I’m traveling there on business, but one… Read more
Legerdemain: French term (literally “light of hand”) commonly used to refer to sleight of hand or magical manipulation. The term could have been James Heaphy’s job description. Legerdemain is the story of Heaphey’s time in Morocco, working for U.S. Air Force intelligence. At the time, the United States had a secret cache of nuclear weapons, hidden in an air force… Read more
How would you like to go to the grocery store or the gynecologist or your graduation wearing a $37,000 diamond necklace? Would it be fun? Would it be shocking? Would it change your life? In Cheryl Jarvis’ book, The Necklace, Jonell McClain convinces 11 other women to band together with her to bid on a $37,000 diamond tennis necklace. (The… Read more