The holiday season is meant to be a carefree celebration, bringing people together to enjoy each other’s company and traditions. As it overlaps with the end of the year, people hope to leave the daily stress of normal life behind and enjoy time with the ones they love.

This goal becomes complicated, however, when the desire to have a perfect ...Read more

Feeling the elf-haustion? Does coming up with new adventures for your nighttime Santa spy have you stressed out? Holly (or Buddy or Snowflake) doesn’t need elaborate setups or expensive props to keep the wonder alive.

Here’s how to reclaim the joy while saving your sanity.

Keep it simple, Santa

“The elf just has to move, no need to ...Read more

We have officially entered the "Hard to Buy For" season of life. I am reminded of this every time someone asks me what we'd like for Christmas. No one has said we are hard to buy for in so many words. It's more the looks -- the eye rolls, the raised eyebrows, the barely suppressed expressions of shock and horror.

"We like those little books of ...Read more

It is a grey November morning when an American foreigner in the Peace Corps makes his way through Ukraine aboard a cramped bus. Here, in an unfamiliar land, he hopes he can start fresh and leave his Army days and the war behind him, but he has yet to reconcile with a past he is trying to forget.

Inspired by author Caleb Shawn Sully’s own ...Read more

Dr. Zerelda Esquer Garrigos was in medical school when she became fascinated by a 1926 book about the discovery of microbes.

"I was captivated by the idea that there are countless 'worlds' within our own – microorganisms that coexist with us, often without our awareness, yet some can cause disease," she said about Paul de Kruif's scientific ...Read more

“What the heck is going on in Leonardo’s message!”

In a masterful work with particular appeal for amateur sleuths, historians and art aficionados, author D. Allen Henry has crafted a thoughtful novel, "Killing Genius: The Mysterious Last Days of Leonardo da Vinci," based around the premise that Leonardo da Vinci’s death was a murder.

...Read more

I had an identity crisis yesterday. It was the fourth one this week. Online accounts keep questioning if it's really me.

I have the same thought a lot of mornings when I look in the mirror.

The bank insisted I confirm my identity before I could access our account -- all because I made one teeny tiny typo entering the passcode. Flustered and in...Read more

It’s a hard subject to talk about, especially for someone suffering from it. “Many of us have been labeled or even seen ourselves as freaks, weirdos, oddballs, eccentrics and outcasts. So it’s no surprise that many of us attempt to keep our illness hidden to the extent we can.”

That’s what makes Victoria Maiden’s intimate, heartfelt...Read more

Set in an epic voyage through outer space, "Space City" by William Spencer effortlessly weaves together science fiction, action, suspense, drama and romance.

It’s the 22nd century, and everyone knew Earth was about to be destroyed — just not so soon. With a meteor within days of destroying Earth, 27-year-old Spencer Collins is forced to ...Read more

Cholesterol tests are well-established as an important part of a routine health screening – for adults. For young people, it's another story.

Relatively few children and teenagers are screened for cholesterol issues. Several factors, including differences in medical experts' recommendations, might confuse parents and even their primary care ...Read more

Three of our elementary-school grands have a new landline phone sitting in their family room. They called us multiple times the first week it was installed, each time saying, "Hello, Watson?"

No, they didn't. Each time a soft voice cautiously said, "Hello, Grandma?"

The poor things were apprehensive. A handset that rests in a base alongside a ...Read more

For many people, filling out paperwork about their family's health history is a routine part of a medical visit. For adopted people like Ramya Gruneisen, it's impossible.

"We don't have any information about my biological mom or dad, so there's quite literally nothing to go off of," said Gruneisen, who was born in India and adopted by a couple ...Read more

There’s a school of thought that argues how important it is for the remaining Holocaust survivors to discuss their experiences while they still can, so that subsequent generations can learn from the past. Studies have supported this line of thinking.

Estimates tag the remaining number of Jewish Holocaust survivors at about 245,000. But try to...Read more

Set between 1964 and 1972 in Meridien, Virginia, "The Little Bird" is a true-life-based psychological novel by the historical fiction author of "The Crossing," Ashby Jones. In "The Little Bird," the murder of a black teenage boy by a white cop unites two kindred spirits who are individually grappling with grief and guilt.

In 1964, Shane ...Read more

‘Tis the season to be thankful, which is why I am hanging tight to the fourth Thursday in November. I may be hanging on by the greasy tip of a wishbone swinging dangerously low over scalding hot gravy, but I refuse to let go of Thanksgiving, the only holiday that has not been grossly commercialized.

For starters, I am thankful there is no ...Read more

What would you do if you could suddenly live hundreds of years? What would your future look like? Would you even know where to start?

Anthony Hamer answers these questions and more in "M Was Twenty August 1346," a historical novel that’s sure to excite every reader’s imagination.

August 1346. Marcel de Bois, known to most simply as M, was ...Read more

Kiki Fehling was enjoying a dance class she regularly attended when the weirdest thing happened.

Trying to lift her arms above her head, she couldn't do it.

Moments earlier, she had another bizarre sensation – like a metal bar was squeezing her chest, making it difficult for her to breathe.

Fehling was 29 and living in New York while ...Read more

Some health care providers are trying to give mammograms a new purpose — assessing heart disease risks. The practice is not unanimously accepted among health experts, however.

Mammograms are X-ray examinations that detect breast disease, and they’ve helped diminish the United States’ breast cancer mortality rate by almost 40% since 1990. ...Read more

In 2005, American journalist and single father Judah Loeb returns to Israel to investigate the decades-old death of an academic mentor and Holocaust survivor, only to discover that the past is indeed a foreign land in Philip Graubart’s entrancing "Here There Is No Why."

Ten years after the suicide of his wife, Mary, Judah is sent on ...Read more

Years ago, a bona fide gourmet cook showed me how she passed off store-bought bread as homemade by sprinkling a little sifted flour on top.

From that day forward, I was always suspicious of her offerings at large gatherings, although I greatly admired her ability to economize time and energy.

Not long after, my mother tried to pull a fast one ...Read more