It would be almost impossible to talk about Room by Emma Donaghue without telling the story. Without ruining it, in some sense. I am extremely torn about my feelings for this story, as well, which is adding to my difficulties. Room is narrated by a five-year-old little boy named Jack. This gives the story a personal, unique and sometimes heart wrenching perspective. Jack lives in a soundproofed 11 x 11 square room with Ma. No windows other than a skylight, a door they can never use, no fresh air. It doesn't even take the reader long to guess why Jack and Ma are in this room, so I'll go ahead …

Long before Jim Carrey offered up his version, and even before, believe it or not, it aired on television in 1966 (narrated by Boris Karloff, no less), Dr.Seuss wrote a beautiful little Christmas tale published in 1957 called, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And I just read it aloud to my three border collies. That is the magic of Dr.Seuss: the rhythm and rhyming is impeccable!  My dogs were enthralled. One cannot help reading the tale with a delightful pace and animation in one's voice. It's the way it was meant to be. And I had three little dogs tipping their heads from side to side like …

I guess I wanted Captain Teague. I wanted to hear all the antics. I wanted to hear the stories behind the stories. I really wanted to read Keith Richards' memoir, Life. While I have never been a Rolling Stones fan, per se, they have always been in regular rotation in my musical life.  I mean, "Get Off of My Cloud" was the number one song on the day I was born, so clearly, the Rolling Stones have always been there for me.  Like everyone else, I heard things about the Stones, you know? Read things. Some of them seemed ridiculous and exaggerated, and those were the stories that ended up being …

Michael Koryta's So Cold the River is a thriller in the truest sense, with all the usual components:  murder, suspense, crime, a wee bit of romance.... and ghosts.  Eric Shaw was an aspiring film director until "failure" landed him back in his hometown, Chicago, with a going-nowhere job and an impending divorce.  But things changed in a hurry when the beautiful and wealthy Alyssa Bradford hired him to go to the small town of French Lick, Indiana to make an unimportant, private film for her dying father-in-law. With nothing better on his plate, Shaw quickly accepted the lucrative offer and his…