There’s always been a picket fence in your future. You could just picture it: charming spouse, two-point-five kids, minivan, Cape Cod with manicured lawn, birthday parties on the patio, all surrounded by that picket fence. It was a perfect dream of a blissful life. And, as in The Wedding Heard ‘Round the World by Michael…
Your closet is packed with mistakes. Odd-colored shirts, patchwork jeans, alligators, prairie-wear, weird ties, you wore it all once. But will those things ever be in style again, even if you wait long enough? No, Nehru jackets, leisure suits, and knitted knickers are best left in the rag bag. As you’ll see in the new…
Years from now, it’ll all seem so sweet. There’ll always be a soft place in your heart for your first kiss, your first I-love-you, and for the person who gave them to you. You’ll never forget the electricity of holding hands or the rush of being together even after, as in the new novel “What…
As you look back over your year, there are a lot of things you notice. You had fun – probably more than once. You had some really great meals with really great friends – also probably more than once. And in my case, there were books – definitely more than one. Over three hundred twenty,…
You have to tell somebody. There’s a secret inside you, one you’ve been keeping far too long and you’re about to burst. You need to talk about it. You need some advice, some perspective. As in the new novel Naughtier than Nice by Eric Jerome Dickey, if you don’t talk about this issue soon, it…
Six degrees of separation. That, supposedly, is the difference between you and any given person on the planet. Your dentist, for example, knows somebody who knows someone who … and pretty soon, you’re linked to a famous scientist or Hollywood star. It’s a fun pastime, that Six Degrees thing, and surprisingly easy to do but…
Veronica Lake had her “peek-a-boo.” Jackie O loved her pearls. Mary Quant made a teeny-weeny mini, perfect for the twiggy body of Twiggy. Kate Moss was waifish, Joan Collins pushed our shoulders out to there, and JLo and Nikki push the envelope every chance they get. So what’s your style? Dress up, dress down or,…
The minute you glimpsed the red-and-blues, you knew you were sunk. Yep, and now you have a traffic citation to pay for stepping on it, having a lead foot, a pedal to the metal. You knew better than to exceed the speed limit, but you couldn’t resist and, as you’ll see in the new book…
And they lived happily ever after. Even today, years after you’ve outgrown fairy tales, those words make you smile. Ohh, how you love a happy ending, even though (and maybe because) life doesn’t always work out that way. As a matter of fact, in Nothing Looks Familiar, a new short-story collection by Shawn Syms, sad…
Your favorite hang-out isn’t all that fancy. It’s comfortable, though: you’ve got places to sit, flat surfaces for your stuff, and your friends are always around. It wasn’t always that way, though, as you’ll see in Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights by Ann Bausum. For years, it’d been illegal in many…
