Acting & life wisdom

Must thank my friend, actor Kathi Carlson, for suggesting I take a look at a book she bought recently, How to Choose a Monologue for Any Audition by Karen Kohlhaas. She found its wisdom transcended acting and thought I might appreciate it. So with Oscar weekend upon...

Text this

I must say I’m really floored by the amount of people driving and texting and talking on hand-held phones these days. Since I live an urban existence that rarely has me behind the wheel, I see it mostly from a pedestrian standpoint. What in the world would...

Presidential seal of approval

A few clicks into the bookshelf to the right of this blog post, readers will find among the books I heartily recommend is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. So I was heartened to see that President Obama sent some fan mail to Martel after reading it with his daughter. The...

The Bag Lady Papers

Thoroughly enjoyed attending a conversation — hosted by Women in Need — between The Daily Beast editor Tina Brown and author Alexandra Penney recently. Penney lost her life savings in the Bernie Madoff debacle and wrote about it in a book called The Bag...