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Bookworm: How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who is Sick

Now, HERE my friends is an absolute MUST read: How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who is Sick by Letty Cottin Pogrebin! It is a must read because the truth is – and I know this all too well! – we are all either going to be sick or have a friend who is sick. I can’t begin to tell you the number of people who have asked me over the years:  ”What can I do for my friend (or family member) who is sick?” Well, my friends, How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who is Sick is the book for you. Seriously. Letty Cottin Pogrebin — an award-winning journalist, widely published opinion writer, acclaimed public speaker, admired political activist, and author of several nonfiction bestsellers — really GETS IT. Prompted by her experience with breast cancer, Letty Cottin Pogrebin became fascinated by her friends’ and family’s diverse …

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Bookworm: Advice to Little Girls by Mark Twain

Recently, I came across the most wonderful Silver Lining book: Advice to Little Girls written by Mark Twain in 1865. In this beautiful children’s story, Mark Twain challenged -as the title suggests – little girls to digest the intelligent humor he was, and still is, known for among his adult audiences. How fun is that? The Silver Lining is that Maria Popova from Brain Pickings discovered the Italian version of the book in the summer of 2011 and convinced Claudia Bedrick of Enchanted Lion Books to reprint the book in English. How fabulous is that?  I mean, really. And THEN, beloved Russian children’s illustrator Vladimir Radunsky signed onto the project. He wrote in the New York Review of Books that in his illustrations, he tried “to follow Twain’s style, I wanted to make something along the lines of a scrap-book or an album that you could buy in any paper-goods store at the time. Children used these small albums to paste in various curious objects, or for …

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Bookworm: It’s All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow, you know, the Academy-Award winning actress, GOOP writing, bestselling cookbook author, is back with recipes for the foods she eats when she wants to feel energetic, lose weight, and look good. This is my new favorite cookbook. I love-love-love it! Last spring, after a particularly grueling schedule that included a bit of overindulgence, Gwyneth Paltrow was feeling fatigued and nearly fainted during Sunday lunch with family and friends. A visit to Dr. Alejandro Junger revealed that she was vitamin D deficient, anemic, and that her liver was congested and her stress levels were sky high. Dr. Junger prescribed an elimination diet to clear out her system and help her body heal. This meant no coffee, no alcohol, no dairy, no eggs, no sugar, no shellfish, no deep-water fish, no wheat, no meat, no soy, nothing processed at all which, she admits, are tough restrictions for a foodie to …

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Bookworm: Shadow of the Wind

Before our vacation last week, the HOTY (yes, he’s STILL the Husband Of The Year) asked for a book recommendation. I didn’t hesitate: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t recommended it to him before because it is one of my all-time favorite books. In fact, it could be my tippy-top all-time favorite book. I can’t remember where I heard about it, but it changed my life. It made me love reading more than ever before in my life and I’ve always loved reading. In fact, I was the geeky girl who drooled over the Scholastic Magazines in grammar school. Then it occurred to me that I haven’t written about it here on The Silver Pen. Tsk-tsk to me. As I’m writing this, I’m wondering, “Do I tell you about the plot or no?”  I’m going with “no” because I don’t want even one of …

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International Children’s Book Day

You all know how much I love books and reading, right?  Well, today is International Children’s Book Day!  Yippeee doozers! Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday, April 2nd, International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books. How great is this? Makes me want to do a Happy Dance! How ’bout you? We love to read. In fact, for the past few weeks, we have had family reading time before bed. Suddenly Seven, the HOTY, Buzz and I all pile onto her twin bed and read together. It is my idea of heaven and the Silver Lining of every day.  

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Bookworm: Love, Loss, and What I Wore

When I was sick, a friend sent Love, Loss, and What I Wore to me.  It was the most wonderful Silver Lining on a dark and gloomy-feeling day. It takes about 12 minutes to read and as soon as you finish, you’ll want to start all over. I picked it up again the other day and just had to share it with you. This is the story of Ilene Beckerman’s life, through her clothes. From her Brownie uniform to her Diane von Furstenburg wrap dress and her Rita Hayworth-style strapless from the Neiman Marcus outlet store, each outfit in LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE tells its own story. I don’t know a single woman who can’t relate, which is probably why it was a runaway bestseller. Nora (don’t you miss her?) and Delia Ephron went on to write a wildly successful play about it. In 2009, the show was produced Off-Broadwayas an …

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Children’s Series: 5 to 7 Year Shift

One of the most poignant things that I learned during my graduate work earning a masters degree in early childhood development was that when children prepare to move to the next stage of development, they have periods – often intense – of regression. Our daughter, a/k/a Suddenly Seven has had a slight (ok, not so slight) obsession with Star Wars since playing R2-D2 in a play last year.  As of the past few weeks, the HOTY (a/k/a Husband Of The Year) and I can confirm that she has gone the “Dark Side” on more than one occasion – daily. The Silver Lining is that she doesn’t go dark for long periods of time; but when she does (e.g., meltdown in the middle of the produce section of Whole Foods just yesterday), it’s awwwwwwwwful!  The worst part is that she knows it.  She doesn’t like these intense feelings either and after they pass, …

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Friday’s Fixin’s…Sort of

Today’s Friday’s Fixin’s is a book recommendation. Recommendation is an understatement. Truth be told, I am actually jumping up and down about this book. As many of you may recall, nutritionist extraordinaire Rachel Beller MS, RD pretty much saved my nutritional life during my treatment. When I was in the bottomless pit of chemo despair, it was Rachel who suggested nutritious foods that I could actually eat (and keep down)…which was a double Silver Lining. Rachel is a wealth of information. I never cease to be amazed by her!  Not only does she work with cancer patients, but she is a featured guest on shows like Dr. Oz, The Biggest Loser, Good Morning America and the Today Show. Yes, she’s that wonderful!  So, you can imagine how excited (actually you may not be able to imagine me THIS excited!) I was that Rachel wrote a book to share her practical, non-nonsense, easily accessible information with the world …

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Little Girl’s Book Club

Little Girl’s Book Club

January 9, 2013

Sweetly Six’s “BunBun” at the Bookstore Tomorrow evening, Sweetly Six and I are attending our very first Little Girl’s book club where we will be discussing Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary.  We are both so excited. A friend of ours put the group together by thoughtfully assembling five girlfriends who love to read. Sweetly Six has read for as long as I can remember. Frequently she says to the HOTY and me, “I love being a book worm!” …which is Silver Lined music to my ears! There are tons of Silver Linings to a children’s book club. Here are my top 10 reasons why I’m especially excited about participating in our new book club: They provide a comfortable, communal atmosphere that promotes reading, critical thinking, and expressing ideas. It provides an extra-special glimpse of how and what children are really thinking about the world. They are a fantastic place to promote learning master literary …

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