What’s New

Rose Madeline Mula: If You Can’t Stand the Heat

Rose Madeline Mula Writes: “It was with considerable trepidation, therefore, that I entered the kitchen of my hostess, the legendary actress, Joan Fontaine, one long-ago Thanksgiving morning, to offer my assistance. Acting was not Miss Fontaine’s only talent. Not by a long shot. She was also a hole-in-one golfer, a prize-winning fisherwoman, a hot air…
An Undocumented Childhood by Rose Madeline Mula

Rose Mula Writes: Some people never leave home without their American Express card; I never leave home without a camera. Digitized pictures of the twenty-five countries and forty-plus states of America that I’ve visited since my first tour of exotic New Hampshire constantly flash on my computer monitors and digital frames throughout my home, helping…
Julia Sneden Wrote: Love Your Library

Julia Sneden Wrote: My mind’s eye can still see the face of the Children’s Librarian, although I have long since forgotten her name. We will be wise to continue to back up our knowledge of history and literature and art and science with hard copy. She kept up with my reading level, suggesting writers and…
Julia Sneden Wrote: If The Shoe Fits … You Can Bet It’s Not Fashionable

Julia Sneden Wrote: My mother was a mini Imelda Marcos. She kept upwards of 40 pairs of shoes well into her 80’s, and was crushed when she had to give up high heels following a heart attack at the age of 89. Her sole criterion in buying shoes was style, not comfort, and she was…
Joan L.Cannon Wrote: A Family Inheritance: More Than ‘Things’ … Emblems of Our Lives

Joan Cannon wrote: As one advances in years, one accumulates possessions the way a caddis fly larva accumulates grit. The glue that makes us carry it all along with us is in a way self-secreted as well. However, it’s psychic rather than physical — emotional rather than material. Perhaps the most obvious example is a…
Julia Sneden Wrote: Old Dogs, New Tricks

Julia Sneden wrote: At the age of 37, I started a new career as a kindergarten teacher. My first day on the job, the lead teacher, who was in her 70’s and scared me every bit as much as she scared the children, watched me writing a note. “You’ll have to change the way you…
Joan Cannon Writes: Finding the Right Excuse; Committing Words to Paper Because …

Joan Cannon Writes: Think of the poets and novelists and playwrights whose words sink into the consciousness of thousands and even millions and remain there, as emblems, guides, beacons of hope or warnings of disasters, and the excuse (as if one is needed) presents itself. Maybe there’s information or a revelation for some unknown viewer…
Joan Cannon Asked: What is a Book Club? An Old-Fashioned Book Report? A Program Given By an Author? What Is the Accepted Practice?

Joan L. Cannnon wrote: A year or so ago, I was invited to attend a tea given by the combined membership of all the book clubs in the town where I now live. A presentation was scheduled for the proprietor of the much-loved local independent book store cum gift shop. She is a legend in…
Brennan Center Study: New Voting Restrictions May Affect More than Five Million

New voting laws could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012, according to the first comprehensive study of the laws’ impact. “In 2012 we should make it easier for every eligible citizen to vote. Instead, we have made it far harder for too many”
My Mother’s Cookbook; Recipes from Younger Friends: Cindy’s Cookies, Gaby’s Butter Cookies with Jam, California Cheesecake, and Cynthia’s Lemon Bars

My mother valued the companionship of friends her own age, but she also liked learning about the tastes, interests, and ideas of younger women. As she grew older and faced the reality that friends of her generation were leaving this earth in far too rapid succession, the friendships she cultivated with younger women helped to…
A Tale of Two Countries: The Hyde Amendment Turns 35

A poor woman is five times as likely as her higher-income counterpart to have an unintended pregnancy (132 versus 24 per 1,000 women of reproductive age), six times as likely to have a birth resulting from an unintended pregnancy, and five times as likely to have an abortion
The House That Sam Built: Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley, 1945–1985

“The Maloof residence and workshop were filled with the finest examples of Sam’s own furniture and offered a warm and welcoming environment where creative colleagues met to share a meal, exchange ideas, and provide mutual support and encouragement.”
CultureWatch Reviews:

Biographer Gwinn writes in Emily Greene Balch: The Long Road to Internationalism that Balch “had been fundamental to the life and work of Jane Addams and other settlement and peace workers; she had been an influential teacher, revered friend, a respected scholar and visionary thinker.” Dr. Mukherjee, author of Emperor of All Maladies, explains with…
Most Frequently Challenged Authors of the 21st Century

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the country. Where can you find more information on why a particular book was banned?
Pre-retirees may underestimate health, financial challenges of retirement

Many retirees say their stress is less, their relationships with loved ones are better, their diet is improved, and the amount of time they spend doing favorite activities is increased – yet 25 percent of retirees say life is worse
Never Too Old to Talk Tech: Ah Yes, I Remember It Well

In my previous life my office desk, computer, bathroom mirror, and other surfaces were covered with Post-It Notes. Then ancient tree products and writing instruments were old hat, and programs or applications replaced all of those Pitman-penmanship stickies
Masterpiece’s Second Season of Downton Abbey

We were in England last Fall and viewed the first episode of the Downton Abbey’s second season; it was everything you’ve come to expect. Hint: Sympathy for the character of Lady Mary Crawley is emphasized and considering a new character in the life of the estate inheritor Matthew Crawley, that sympathy is well-founded! If…
Banned, Burned, Seized and Censured and The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door

How did hundreds of thousands of books, pictures, plays and magazines come to be … censored in less than 30 years? “During the interwar years, more often than not, the objection boiled down to sex. One of the goals of the exhibition is to show that censorship is far more complicated than one might think.”