Quote de jour
"The greatest gift is instilling a passion for reading."

What do you get when some of the world's best writers take a crack at writing fairy tales? An exciting new collection of modern fairy tales with the crazy good title: My Mother She Killed Me My Father He Ate Me.


Marilyn Monroe loved to read and amassed a home library of over four hundred books from classics to contemporary novels. A new book titled Fragments edited by Stanley Buchtal and Bernard Comment has gleaned bits of her private notebooks, letters and other ephemera interspersed with never seen before photos.


It feels like snooping in someone's medicine cabinet with mixed results. Here's a sample of Marilyn's poetry.


Mr. Toppit a witty and darkly funny debut novel by Charles Elton, a former literary agent, parodies the publishing and film industries with aplomb. I'm hoping I have enough time to finish it over the holidays. So many books, so little time...


When I saw a full page, full color ad in the New York Times yesterday for The Help I knew I had to re-read it. With three million copies sold, a film based on the debut novel to be released next summer, author Kathryn Stockett must be pinching herself. What's interesting is this book about African American maids in white households of early '60s Mississippi had a slow built up of sales over the past two years thanks to its popularity in book clubs and from word of mouth. The three memorable main characters narrate alternating
chapters with jump off the page vividness. There's Minny and Aibileen, two black maids, and Miss Skeeter, a young, white woman freshly graduated from college who stirs up the pot by wanting to interview them. If you haven't already read it, what are you waiting for?

The end of year has a slate of top ten, best of, #1 of the year in entertainment or whatever. When the stress of the holiday season threatens your sanity, try escaping under the covers a magazine or ten. I  always keep one in my bag if I'm stuck waiting. Just don't ask me what my favorite books of 2010 are. Okay ask, maybe I'll post them next week.