“Left Neglected”
Lisa Genova‘s second novel, “Left Neglected” is the fictional story of a young woman who experiences a severe brain injury after a car accident that resulted from her taking her eyes off the road to search for her cell phone. Eight days after the accident, Sarah Nickerson wakes up in a hospital, forever changed. Read more 
“By Nightfall”
Michael Cunningham, author of “The Hours” (which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1998) published his newest book “By Nightfall” in 2010. The story takes place in New York City and although the summary on the back of the book states the story is about Peter and Rebecca Harris, a couple in living in Manhattan, the real story is about Peter Harris. Throughout the entire book, the reader is privy to every thought Peter has to the effect of feeling like the reader is in the head of the main character. Read more
“Olive Kitteridge”
When I was in high school, I worked in a local pharmacy and learned the secrets of everyone in town: the mayor was taking Valium, an overwhelmed mother had a prescription for 100 Percocet tablets filled monthly, a close friend’s parents never paid their bills (this was back when I thought everyone paid their bills), and a young girl voted “best looking” by her fellow classmates in the graduating class of the local high school was trying to break into modeling and getting hooked on diet pills to become the size 4 she would never be. Read more
“Still Alice”
“She liked being reminded of butterflies. She remembers being six or seven and crying over the fates of the butterflies in her yard after learning that they lived for only a few days. Her mother had comforted her and told her not to be sad for the butterflies, that just because their lives were short didn’t mean they were tragic.”
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“Immortal Bird”
“Immortal Bird – A Family Memoir” by Doron Weber is the story of Weber’s firstborn son, Damon, who was born without a second ventricle on the right side of his heart which means there was no passageway to pump oxygen rich blood back into his lungs. A blue baby whose organs and tissues could not get enough oxygen, Damon underwent two open heart surgeries, the later called a “Fontan” which alleviated his problem by bypassing his right side altogether and pumping oxygen rich blood directly to his lungs. Read more
Jeffrey Zaslow on Daughters
A few months ago, I bought tickets for my daughter and I to attend an author forum featuring Jeffrey Zaslow, who I knew of from his column in the Wall Street Journal and as co-author of “The Last Lecture:” a life lesson story of a Carnegie Mellon professor named Randy Pausch who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and wanted to leave a lasting message to his young children. Read more
Exploring Madison County, Iowa
“A Visit From The Goon Squad”
A Visit From The Good Squad was written by Jennifer Egan and awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The 340-page book has won numerous other awards and endorsements but has also been criticized for its unconventional format. At first the book appears to be about a group of characters in the music industry but music serves as a backdrop for the characters across the generations. Read more
“Lords Of Finance”
In 2010, “The Lords of Finance” by Liaquat Ahamed, a professional investment manager was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History. A non-fiction account of “the bankers that broke the world,” this 505 page book takes a complicated topic – macro and microeconomics – and makes it easily understandable. Read more
“Forks Over Knives”
A few weeks ago, my friend, Kathy recommend a book called “Forks Over Knives” and also the movie of the same title. Her 13-year old son had decided several years before that he wasn’t going to eat anything that had eyes and became a vegetarian. In her search for information on a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle, she came across this book and movie. Read more
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