I understand the need for faith. It helps get people through tough times and provides a sense of hope for tomorrow and beyond. However, when religion gets into the mix, faith becomes something quite different, and it seems that so many religious people cannot differentiate the two.

I actually...

His name is Pringle. Well, that's the name the rescue folks gave the scrawny Yorkie-mixed breed they'd found dumped on the streets of a neighborhood known for their high kill shelter. He is my first foster dog.

It's been a couple of years since I toyed with the idea...

As I write this, two majestic maple trees that offered shade for my childhood home are being cut down. My siblings are witnessing the project, but since I now live several hours away and not knowing exactly when the tree company was going to do the deed, I could not...

When I hear people sermonize while using phrases such as "spiritual war" and "father of lies," I am reminded again of what drove me to write "Of Little Faith," where I completed the first draft in six weeks. It's the conviction of these people -- people like Santorum who think...

It wasn't until I reached page 101 in Jan-Philipp Sendker's The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (Other Press) that I knew how I was going to approach writing about this magical novel. Julia Win, a young woman who is searching for her father and is amazed to discover he...

I was at a holiday party in a noisy bar where there were several holiday parties going on when I was first told about Diana Senechal's Republic of Noise: The Loss of Solitude in Schools and Culture. Not much later did I find a review copy in my...

How is it that the pendulum can swing so far right thanks to the bluster coming out of the mouths of those who are so sure that they are God's spokespeople? Unless you've been fully distracted by the Casey Anthony debacle (and it seems seems much of the country was),...

My path has crossed with Talia Carner's for quite some time. She first introduced herself to me when I worked as a national event specialist for Borders Books when the company was still viable. A few years later, we were both panelists for the International Women's Writing Guild. Then, our...

Books, stacks of books waiting to be read, are piled high in my office. Most of these books were sent to me by publicists or the attributed authors, all with the expectation that I'd review their works. Unfortunately, many of these books are dusty with age and any review I'd...

It seems that most fiction is usually inspired by someone's reality. I thought about this while reading John Milliken Thompson's forthcoming and impressive first novel, The Reservoir. Even though the story takes place in Richmond, Virginia about twenty years after the Civil War ended, there was a sense...

There's an Albert Einstein quote that's making the rounds on Facebook, one that I also had as my status because it says exactly how I feel: "If people are good only because they fear punishment and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."

Many of us...

Seventeen years ago about this time I was part of a staff of about 100 that helped open a Borders Books & Music store on Long Island. The energy was palpable, especially since we were there when the newly-built shelves were empty and it was our job to fill them...

Red cut-out hearts, cupids with arrows, and heart-shaped boxes of candy abound today, a day set aside to show one's love for another. I've been single for quite a number of years now, having divorced after twenty-some years of marriage. Some people worry about my lack of a partner. Just...

In November 1979, while Iranian students took hostages after occupying the American embassy in Tehran, I was raising my four-year-old son and trying to maintain a household budget in my suburban Long Island home. The books I was reading were undoubtedly Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad...

Perhaps I was too quick to point a finger, a knee-jerk reaction to yesterday' shooting in Tucson. However, I cannot help but think had Sarah Palin not put the crosshairs of a gun sight on her website over those in districts who challenged her politics, districts that included yesterday's victim,...

I was in high school when Watergate broke out. Years before and after, my parents always made it a point to finish supper in time to watch Walter Cronkite. I knew enough not to disturb them during that half hour and usually hid in my bedroom to read, do homework...

It's difficult to believe that it's been over a decade since my twenty- three year marriage ended. I hadn't really thought much about it for quite some time, but the recent survey that states marriages are in decline reminded me of those last few stressful years before I waved the...

I've been thinking about one of the comments made in response to my latest Huffington Post blog, "A Mother's Love Versus Her Sons' Religious Demands" and decided to explore it, especially since it's something often said by those who have a laid-back faith, one that doesn't require a...

What would you do if someone close to you did not want you to write a memoir that involved him or her? Would you respect their wishes or would you forge ahead? And, if you did forge ahead, would their watching over your shoulder, metaphorically speaking, compromise what you really...

After several years of being shifted here and there to less than worthy spaces, my autographed books are finally where they belong. Just yesterday I eagerly transferred them, well over 300 volumes in various sizes, shapes and sentiment, from their temporary shelves to the refinished bookcase in my newly refurbished...