Many readers would be interested in cultivating relationships with a group of friends who might offer encouragement in times of need, listen with patience to complaints about a miserable day, or offer sage advice about work and family... Read More

Reading this book is like listening to a veteran blues player—B.B. King, say—one so sure of his craft that he seems totally unconcerned about showing it off. Casual as they seem, the author’s poems generate unexpected intensities... Read More

“Getting a pizza delivered is particularly challenging,” writes the author. “When I tell them my name there is always a pause, a moment of disbelief.” Her aunt was Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Roosevelt; her father... Read More

For formalists, this author comes as a gift, a poet fully in charge of her forms, subtle and controlled. She embraces the villanelle, Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets, the measured quatrain, rhymed couplets. The book seems a... Read More

Prehistoric humans experienced several simultaneous physiological changes when threatened. These constituted a “fight or flight,” or stress, response to predator attacks or similar situations. The author notes: “However, in the... Read More

There are some facts that writers of all genres should know: about half of all mass-market novels sold are romantic fiction; rough figures indicate that only one in 50,000 would-be writers will sell a book, and only one writer in 100 who... Read More

“Drifter” is the kindest term most people would use for Jubal Siner. Criss-crossing the West in an old Buick Wildcat, finding solitary solace in a hidden cabin, he skids through life, fleeing a succession of groovy scenes gone bad.... Read More

A month before her wedding, the author abruptly calls it off, much to the displeasure of her family, who want to see her married and a mother as soon as possible. As a thirty-three-year-old Korean woman, her shelf life is about to... Read More