This Couple's Therapy 101 back to basics book is humoristic enough to lift you out of the Valley of Gloom and get you to stop yelling at your loved one long enough to reflect on all the nice things they do that you appreciate and have likely forgotten about gradually over the past 20years (or 2 days). Harville makes the reconciliation process simple by employing the maximum amount of Star Trek references, the geekiest cartoon egghead illustrations, and keeping religious doctrine out of the picture. There's something very heartwarming about reading that opposites really do attract, childhood issues do matter, and it's possible to love someone into being who hasn't really blossomed yet but is destined to with your mature watering. The grass is green wherever you water it. Water your relationship today by reading this book and stop fighting about who needs to read it first. You're welcome.

George Hagen gives Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven a run for it's money in this delightful juvenile literature book destined to be read before bedtime. Gabriel appears to be a normal boy on the outside but both his parents are missing in action and he must journey to a distant place and un-cover the truth himself. However he is not alone; in a world where animals can talk, spirit-animals are real, and real life bullies can't be ignored any longer Gabriels fortune pulls his friends together into a magical combat which will both unite them and change his personal destiny forever. Will Gabriel and his amicus be courageous enough to rescue his father? 

What a timely release for Justice Ginsburgs book and a wonderful satiating glimpse into all that paved her way to the highest court, and how she found her home in her life's work. This is an academic journal detailing events from her childhood in new york, her mothers' passing, her first publications and lesser known trivia facts about what she did or did not share in common with Justice Scalia etc etc. My Own Words also contains enough of her written opinions to be quoted in a court of law for many generations to come. Here's to the Notorious R.B.G.

Donald Miller afficionados will be pleased with this book as a follow up to Blue Like Jazz, it reads like the final piece of a Trilogy. Part semi-autobiographical novel and part writers how-to-manual it is easily the 'steak frites' of his career. Waffling between comedic glimpses of his middle years, a juicy reunion with his ever-absent father, and the hard won wisdom that what is most memorable about stories and life is when things go wrong Miller shares his personal wisdom, triumphs, and life philosophy without beating the pulpit, shaming or degrading other peoples personal journeys. Add it to your arsenal of A+ modern masters of the quill.

Bale and Jackman as dueling magicians make for a compellnig premise, add in Direction and Story from Christopher Nolan and a bravura performance fro mthe late, great David Bowie and you have a classic film about the nature of reality a decade before Inception was praised for exploring similar themes. 

Another gorgeous and compelling ensemble dramedy from Wes Anderson, mixing many of his usual players with other less known for serious work (Bruce Willis) and a surprisingly adept cast of children - usually the Achilles heel for any film that features many of them. 

Turtles all the way down is as good as the cover, with material too heavy to be considered downright uplifting, John Green has done himself justice as a TEEN fiction guru by managing to write two polar opposite female characters. TATWD gives a disturbingly authentic glimpse into the sporadic thought spirals of someone living with germaphobia. For me the highlights of this book are the small forages into tangent subjects which Green obviously thought would be most engaging to the reader (which I can't name without spoiling but they will comfort your inner geek.) The heavy topics encountered are un-answerables: Which is more life giving: love, financial stability, or health? How do we leave room for "just friends"? How important are parents? How important are our daily thought trains really? Even if the subject matter is dangerously close to your real life disorder...this book will be a safe space to laugh and feel understood without having to say anything or touch anyone; and that is good. 5 stars.

Switched On is Robisons personal testimony of the unique life he led before, during, and prior to his participation in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to change his autism. Due to the changes in his genius and limitations of his socialability the climax of his life story and self-perception take a full U-turn for the better. Switched On will provide you not only with all the cutting edge information on TMS being performed in the greater Boston area but globally. It will bring up thought-provoking questions such as "How successful do we have to be?" "How do you know when you've arrived in life?" "What are the limits we go to to cope with ourselves?" Perhaps most scary of all: "What would you do if you could get 'better'?"

Wondering what compelled you to buy the most recent lotto ticket? Wondering how you were able to decide between oatmeal and eggs for breakfast? How about a deeper question involving risk or chance where the outcome is not certain? "TFAS" is Kahnemans' opus on decision making processes. Citing decades of research and interesting statistics from psychological studies Kahneman will pinpoint the logic utilized in many real life scenarios and shine a light on areas where we are typically biased. If ones decision-making ability can be enhanced; truly this book is the means to that end. The implications are infinite. This book is worth carrying around for the full month it will take you to finish it.

Stylisticly gorgeous and of its time - antics and attitudes that are presented as commonplace would result in criminal charges today, or  at least social ostracization among the kind of people intent on declaring to the world what they find acceptable or not. Worth rewatching for the strong ensemble performances and forgotten fashions as well as the story itself. 

The series spreads its wings in the second season, working on non-contiguous multi-episode plots (a decade before Game of Thrones and others) that build to a satisfying season finale. 

Episodic and procedural, but with enough flair in the storylines, performances and style to stand out from the crowd. Nice to see a series that isn't beholding to explaining every piece of backstory or charachter development, instead trusting thre audience to put things together over seasons of viewing. 

A whole that is less than the sum of its parts. Most of the individual story elements and set pieces are entertaining, but Kevin Spacey is woefully miscast, Jamie Foxx is a one-note cliche, the soundtrack is intrusive, several scenes are more extended music video rather than essential film scene, and the ambiguous ending is unsatisfying at best, annoying and lazy at worst.  All of this overshadows some great car chase scenes that are wonderfully filmed and an interesting performace from Jon Hamm. 

It took forever to get involved in the story, to the point that I skipped it entirely and moved on to subsequent volumes. When I finally forced myself to push through it, it read much longer than its page count and had a hurried, abbreviated, barely outlined ending that could have been fleshed out into a novel of its own rather than tacked on as the final thirty pages of this one. Additionally, it shortchanged the antagonist, didn't wrap up thew love interests storyline, and was altogether disappointing.

Hidden Figures is the true story of NASA's space race to put a man in outer-orbit during the 1960's. At a time of racial prejudice and continued segregation which lingered even after the passing of Brown vs. Board of Education (which passed in 1954) a whole department of brilliant African American female Computers contributes to science and helps America shine. Wonderful performances are given portraying Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) etc. This is a story for women, and men of every stripe, and children who didn't come up in that era to understand what was happening socially and also in the upper echelons of power. 

Paulo Coelho's best-selling novel flows smoothly when translated into French. The sense of "Destiny" is translated as "Legende personelle". Our sheepherder leaves his quaint village and all that he knows for the chance of newness. He encounters choice, chance, strangers, and the sense that ‘there are no goodbyes, only different ways of saying hello’ as he takes on new challenges and explores how to make decisions and what life looks like when you are led by higher powers. Intermediate Level; this book is only slightly more difficult to read than Camus' L'etrangere, but twice as fun. Consider it deeply.

Jaime Ward presents an overview of the history of documented extreme cases of synesthesia. The writing style is succinct and accessible. Using vivid imagery and real historical quotes the reader is sure to glean a better understanding of the world as experienced by others who are super-sonically sensitive to noises, sounds, tastes, etc. I especially enjoyed the detail on spacial number synesthesia. However, this book does not contain many graphic illustrations as a whole; if that is what you are looking for I suggest reading A Union of the Senses which contains similar information.

A million year old skull in Calavaras county
Pancho Villa's lost severed head
Missing Army payrolls
Giant art discovered before Nasca
Mysterious meteorites
Rainmaking gone wrong
Missing Missions

All these and more are to be found within the pages of this volume.  Entertaining and informative; and considering how relatively recent some of these occurrences are, scary that so much can be so easily lost or forgotten. 

Cute crossovers between characters from different creators.  Enjoyable for what it is - one off entertainment - but the shtick would pale quickly if overexposed.  

 A cross section of material, but a bit heavy on the modern, still in print runs that are still available in stores. Retrospectives like these are usually better served by including material you can't easily get elsewhere.