Read your Way to Better Relationships
When my kids were younger and more inclined to listen to me, I’d try to impart to them some impressive pearls of wisdom. “Hey kids,” I would say, “sports offers a metaphor for practically everything.” And, “Never try to compete in someone else’s arena.” For this month’s article, I am Ndamukong Suh at a Lansing Country Club cotillion. If you...
Continue ReadingReading to Help your Resolutions
Well, welcome to 2012! Welcome to what mystical Mayans and wise men have prophesized might just be our last year of existence. Seeing as how we have already frittered away the first few days of this red-letter year (and how we might be getting cheated back-end out of another 10 days), let’s hit this list running (or jogging, walking, lopping or dragging)! As...
Continue ReadingRing in the Holidays with These Satisfying Reads
Bah humbug! What, too soon? Sorry. With the holidays just a good stone’s throw away, I guess that I was just getting into the spirit-of-the-season. Okay, maybe the whole “humbug” thing was a bit much, but the “bah” was sincere. You see, I love the holiday season, (at least the being-with-family and the goodwill-to-all people and the soy-nog stuff),...
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Books to Get You Back in Business
According to the TV shows that I watched growing-up, finding work was easy. Your options were limited only by your spunkiness and the imagination of your writers. If you could fling your hat just-so into the air, you’d be a fine local news producer. You could be a compassionate (and passionate) nurse in Korea. You could be a private eye. Heck, if you could...
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Turn the Page to a Better You
The other day a friend made the horrible mistake of asking me what was new. “Wow,” I thought. “Where to begin?” And then it hit me: I’ve been running 100 miles an hour in 100 different directions for heaven knows how long and I had no idea what was new. I was tired (that wasn’t new) and out-of-focus (not new since 1964) and I didn’t know what...
Continue ReadingBooks to Keep You Cookin’ and Cool This Summer
Ah, summertime and the living is … um, warm. As a kid I always looked forward to summer because summer meant vacation from school. Summer meant sleeping-in, playing with friends, consuming slushies and trying to figure out why my parents lacked my passion for summer and the freedoms and opportunities that summer offered. Curmudgeons! Now that I am a card-carrying...
Continue ReadingBy Land, By Sea, By Book: Travel Michigan this Summer
Some immutable facts: summer vacation is coming; gas prices are higher than an elephant’s eye and the kids are already planning on how they’re going to express their impending boredom. To help ease that boredom in my household this summer, the kids, the wife and I will be hitting the roads to discover fun, inexpensive and memorable places in Michigan....
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Traditional Cookbook Keeps Readers and Stomachs Happy
I originally planned on reviewing three books at three different age and interest levels, but when I started talking about The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, I could not stop. It’s just that good, and it’s useful for ages five on up. My children started using the book with me as soon as they could help me cook and, at 24 years old, my eldest still comes...
Continue ReadingReader’s Lounge: Reading That Gets to the Heart of the Matter
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, my young daughter, Pam Chamberlain, and my barley double-digits daughter, Kristen Carter and I each picked out a book that highlights love for people near our ages. We hope you enjoy reading the following as much as we did. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand By Helen Simonson Random House Reader’s Circle, 2010, $15 This...
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Reader’s Lounge: Give the Gift of Adventure in the Form of a Book
I love to give books as presents at Christmas time. What other present can enrich, enlighten and entertain? I have spent many a Christmas Eve inscribing the end pages of my gift selections with descriptions of my thoughts and feelings as I chose each title — a habit I inherited from my mother and that I hope will be continued by my children. Here are a...
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Reader’s Lounge: Empowered By Words
Adults and Teens Can Find Inspiration in These Books It has been quite some time since I last felt compelled to proclaim, “You must read this book,” to anyone and everyone I meet. But as this year’s season of thanks approaches, I have encountered just such a story — that of East Lansing resident, Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, and his work with the AIDS...
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Reader’s Lounge: Find Your Next Favorite Book By Remembering Your Last
When a customer comes into the bookstore looking for something new to read, the first question that I ask is, “What books have you enjoyed recently?” If you enjoy the work of Elizabeth Peters and Diana Gabaldon, you may like… Dark Road to Darjeeling By Deanna Raybourn ISBN 9780778328209 $14.95 Mira Books The fourth in the Lady Julia Grey series of...
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