The Google effect refers to our tendency to forget any information that can be easily found online. Another term for the Google effect is “digital amnesia.” For example, what’s the name of the actress who plays Shelby in the movie Steel Magnolias? If the answer doesn’t come immediately to mind, chances[…]

I love to follow breadcrumbs; to read, for example, one book, and have the author nudge me toward another. That’s what happened this week. I had reread Natalie Goldberg’s Old Friend from Far Away while writing a six-part series on how to write memoir. On page 31 she writes, “I couldn’t[…]

Hybrid narratives are the latest publishing craze, and the hybrid memoir is a big part of that. Often combining self-help and personal narrative, the hybrid memoir fits the bill for people who want to make changes in their lives with the assistance of someone who has “been there, done that,[…]

A friend told me that she would never write a blog. To her, it is the same as living your life on Facebook. Another friend said she would never post anything online. She believes in keeping her personal life private. I Agree With My Friends The thing is, I agree[…]

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (2009) is a really unusual book. I didn’t love the writer’s style. There were moments when the detail felt excessive and I was a bit bored. But the premise of the book? The premise was brilliant and thought-provoking and inspiring. I don’t know if I’ll[…]

I have long been fascinated by dreams, but suspicious of books and websites that purport to interpret them for me. I agreed with the argument that only the dreamer can interpret the dream, but knew my interpretations to be superficial, self-serving and almost always wrong. Then my editor, who knew[…]

I hadn’t anticipated using the #FridayBookShare template to write another book review so soon after the last one. But then I hadn’t anticipated that Sandra Campbell’s debut novel, Getting to Normal (2001, Stoddart) would affect me as it did. First Line of the Book Getting to Normal opens unusually, with a two[…]

There are many things I just can’t write. Notes of appreciation or congratulation are one–they sound stilted and insincere. Books reviews are another. I am an avid reader, and sometimes a voracious one. I’d love to share thoughts about books but beyond assigning them a score in my Goodreads account,[…]

The term has a pleasing, rhyming lilt to it –wabi-sabi. It’s a fun word to say. But what does it mean? Describing Wabi-Sabi The juiciness of wabi-sabi is squeezed out when we try to define it. That is because wabi-sabi is a feeling, a way of being, not a list[…]