When I first started listening to audiobooks years ago, I was broke and owed the Los Angeles County library a lot of money which meant that I couldn’t check books of any kind out for free. So I resorted to buying audiobooks on eBay. My only requirement was that they be cheap. Like $5 – [...]

The last time I was at Smith College, I had breakfast with my very first creative writing professor, and we got to talking about the death of her father and my mother. One thing led to another, and she told me that I ought to read HOW WE DIE by Sherwin B. Nuland. Now if [...]

Wait a minute, is this by first book by a dude this year? I do believe it is. What’s strange though is that only other women have recommended it to me. And let’s talk about recommendations. Seemingly every other time I told someone that I was working on a book with a one day of [...]

I can’t remember the last time I read a novella. But ya’ll know how much I’ve loved i09′s reading suggestions so far — they were the ones that hepped to be both A HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS by N.K. Jemisin and my favorite web comic of 2010. So when they started raving about THE LIFECYCLE OF [...]

Dearest, I know, I know that I’ve yet to do a graphic novel this year. I think that must be some kind of record, and the sad thing is that I have two really cool ones waiting in the TBR wings: BAYOU Vol. 2 by Jeremy Love and GOOD EGGS by (fellow Smithie) Phoebe Potts. [...]

Though I mostly read women’s & literary fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, and graphic novels, I like to return to my first love, romance novels for occasional reminders about what makes for a good book — not in critics eyes, but in reader’s. Literary novels often have so many problems that romance novels don’t — lack of plot, [...]

Since I moved to a walking neighborhood, I haven’t reviewed a car book (a book I listen to in the car) in forever. The last one was back in the fall of 2010. But thanks to a series of IVF appointments, I recently managed to get through an entire car book. So here are my [...]

One of the things I promised myself when deciding to do my 52 books in 52 weeks challenge again this year, was that you guys would have to put up with more same authors, sequels and more straight-forward romance. I didn’t read either last year, and there’s just no way I could do that again [...]

I’ve never been one for interior design. I tend not to decorate, and though I appreciate well-designed things, I rarely feel compelled to you know, design them. Curious then, that this week’s book is a popular interior design book/manual called APARTMENT THERAPY: the eight-step home cure by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan. Why I Decided To Read It: [...]

I’ve been meaning to read THE HUNGER GAMES for a while now. Not only is Ms. Collins a fellow screenwriter-turned-novelist, but also everybody’s talking about this series, including our own Amy Brown and Gudrun Cram-Drach. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on a little book called THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins. Why [...]