When Annia Ciezadlo started dating a Lebanese man she met in New York, she had no idea how his culture and his family would influence her life. After all, most of Mohamad’s family lived elsewhere, in Lebanon, France and Spain. But when Newsday appointed Mohamad to chief of its Middle East bureau, he wanted to [...]

Brother, I’m Dying is Edwidge Danticat’s memoir of growing up in Haiti and the U.S. In Haiti, most of her years were spent with her aunt and uncle, who felt more like the mother and father she barely remembered until they came back from New York to get her and her brother, Bob. Once in [...]

Yesterday, I featured a review of Pesi Dinnerstein’s book A Cluttered Life. Today, I’m featuring an essay she wrote about clutter and the need to create borders, something different from boundaries. Dinnerstein, also known as Paulette Plonchak, has also written selections for the best-selling series Small Miracles, by Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal, and has [...]

On her 50th birthday Pesi Dinnerstein recognized the need to address the mountain of clutter that had built up in her life. It overflowed at her home and at her office, and she wasn’t sure where to start getting rid of it, or even if she could. She turned to a group of women friends [...]

Here’s a guest book review by author Christina Hamlett (AuthorHamlett.com). Title: “Growing Up Jewish in Small Town America: A Memoir” Author: Elaine Fantle Shimberg Published in 2011, Abernathy House Publishing Among the numerous delights in Elaine Fantle Shimberg’s latest release, Growing Up Jewish in Small Town America: A Memoir, are the inclusion of quotes that speak [...]

Carlos Eire was born during the 1950s into a fairly well off family in Havana on the island of Cuba. The son of a judge, Carlos and his brother learned to expect special privileges that came from being the children of a well-respected and powerful man. But everything in his life began to change when [...]

Children’s author Ralph Fletcher seemed to live an ideal life for a child. The oldest of a large clan in the small town of Marshfield, Massachusetts, Fletcher had nearby woods to roam in, numerous bothers and neighbors to recruit for games, and parents who loved him. Fletcher recounts stories from his young days in Marshfield [...]

Beverly Cleary is known and loved for her books that appeal to young readers. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and The Mouse and the Motorcycle are just two of the titles that have remained popular through multiple generations. In her memoir, A Girl from Yamhill, Cleary talks about her early life, first on a farm in [...]