This book by a lawyer turned educator is a manual for parents concerned about their child’s development of values. Michael Parker makes every effort in this short book to cover any issue that a parent might want to consider in discussions with their child about an ethical approach to life and living. The book includes …
This book on aging collects a series of essays on the subject by journalist Michael Kinsley. While the essays are not gathered together as a unit particularly well, they do broach topics that all Baby Boomers will need to face over the next ten to twenty years. Because he has suffered from Parkinson’s Disease for …
I read Writing Down the Bones over the course of two weeks, but it felt to me that this was not appropriate for this book. This is a book to keep at your desk, to read one short chapter at a time, as a reflection or as a creative prompt. Of course, the author, Natalie …
On the frontispiece as you open Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, there is a map of Manhattan with a route through Midtown and Lower Manhattan marked out. The route has twelve stops, the stops of Lillian Boxfish’s walk on December 31, 1984. She leaves her apartment on December 31, 1984 and arrives back home on …
Set on an island in New England near Massachusetts and Rhode Island, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is summer reading. First, it is set in a summer place, an island in New England. Also, the main character, A. J. Fikry, owns a bookstore – isn’t a bookstore in a New England Island town a …
Do we all really wish we were living in a Scandinavian country? Last week, I reviewed The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World’s Happiest People. I have also read a book about Lagom this month and this immersion into Scandinavian living has me wondering why we are all so taken with …
Meik Wiking is the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen and the bestselling author of The Little Book of Hygge. I read this book and found it a bit shallow, so I was skeptical of this second book, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World’s Happiest People. This …
Late last week, on my morning walk, I saw an item out on my neighbour’s curb that reminded me of heading off to McGill University forty-five years ago. The navy blue, hard-sided box was fitted with a lock as well as some supporting struts wrapped around its width. Everyone I knew in residence came with …
It was the picture of the lawn chair, with the rusting pipe frame, with the paint peeling, that drew me to Verlyn Klinkenborg’s The Rural Life. I found a book chronicling the months and the seasons of this writer’s life in several rural settings. Klinkenborg writes essays at times for the New York Times editorial …
A few weeks ago, I wrote Journaling and Mental Health to remind readers of the value of journaling. As a short guide to journaling, for both young adults and their parents, I recommend Keeping a Journal by Trudi Strain Trueit. This is a concise, clearly written text on the subject that can help anyone get …
