It seems like only yesterday that my friend Teri was telling me that if she could do college all over again she would take different courses: literature, poetry and just a greater variety of subjects. Well, I’ve got some good news: turns out that you can now take an amazing variety of courses, many of […]

The movie, “Elegy,” which opens Aug. 8 and stars Ben Kingsley as David Kepesh and Penelope Cruz as the object of his desire, is the latest film to be adapted from the writings of Philip Roth. This one is based on his novella, “The Dying Animal.” Despite Roth’s long, successful career in American letters, his […]

BookExpo, the annual convention of booksellers and book publishers that took place in Los Angeles one recent weekend, is the book industry’s annual get-together, alternating among the publishing hub of New York and various other cities, such as Miami, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Perhaps it’s the state of the book industry, the economy […]

Over the course of a year, I collect books I should read and books I want to read, but — should have/would have/could have — many I never get around to reading. Over the last few months, as last year came to a close and this new one began, and as a side benefit of […]