Books Archives - The Culture Mom

09Jan

My Must-See’s January 2017

Posted by The Culture Mom Leave a Comment

As a lover of all things culture, I am so loving what I’m seeing on the big screen and small screen these days, as well as the stages. I’ve been spending the cold winter mainly under a blanket on the couch binge watching streaming TV shows, some network, while also getting myself back into the gym (New Year’s Resolution, what can I say?) and back into reading books again, something I lost sight of in 2016. Nonetheless, I am so in love with what I’ve been seeing that I think I shall start a new “Must-See” column. Here is the first of my Read More

13Apr

Review: Passed and Present by Allison Gilbert

Posted by The Culture Mom Leave a Comment

My grandparents passed away at the same time on a terrible day in 1992. I can't believe it's been 24 years since I last held them in my arms. I was 22 when they died and probably too young to stop to think what they left behind or how I would memorialize them, but I'll tell you one thing I do know. If I had a copy of PASSED and PRESENT Keeping Memories of Loved Ones Alive by my friend, Allison Gilbert, I would have known how to preserve their memories. Passed and Present This past Sunday, I attended her first official "Memory Bash" in a nearby town to Read More

08Jan

My 2016 Pop Culture Resolutions

Posted by The Culture Mom Leave a Comment

2015 was such a good year for pop culture. From books to TV shows to movies, it was just very satisfying. Streaming video and binging kind of took over my life, as I fell in love with shows like Grace & Frankie on Netflix, Casual on Hulu and Transparent on Amazon. Over on the networks, shows that I became addicted to were Jane the Virgin and Crazy-Ex Girlfriend, which I of course binged on Hulu and rarely watched live. Books like The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, Paper Love by Sarah Wildman and Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox by Joanne Read More

26Nov

Year Of Yes: How To Dance It Out, Stand In The Sun And Be Your Own Person

Posted by The Culture Mom Leave a Comment

Year Of Yes: How To Dance It Out, Stand In The Sun And Be Your Own Person starts with a very powerful quote by Maya Angelou: The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind. I knew this book would resonate given my fixation with women like Shonda Rhimes. She's not only a creative force but a feminist - someone who speaks her mind and stands up for issues she believes in. She uses her Thursday night platform so carefully, telling stories that demand telling, exploring issues that demand exploration. She's also a working mom, like me, and Read More

03Jun

Look at a Book: The Hand On the Mirror

Posted by The Culture Mom Leave a Comment

In 2004, Janis Heaphy Durham’s husband, Max Besler, died of esophageal cancer at age fifty-six. While coping with her grief, Heaphy Durham began encountering phenomena unlike anything she had ever experienced: lights flickering, doors opening and closing, clocks stopping at 12:44—the exact time Max died. But then something startling happened that changed Heaphy Durham’s life forever: a powdery handprint spontaneously appeared on her bathroom mirror on the first anniversary of Max’s death. Incredibly, a similar image appeared on the second and third Read More

20Apr

Chasing Holocaust Ghosts in Paper Love by Sarah Wildman

Posted by The Culture Mom Leave a Comment

Is it possible to chase ghosts? One woman would say that it is. It all started with just one letter. After consulting with her grandmother about it, she found out that the woman in the photographs had been her grandfather's "true love". With knowledge of his escape from Vienna during the Holocaust, Wildman wanted to know more about her and started to chase her ghost. No longer able to ask him, as he had passed away prior to her discovery, she would have to venture into the unknown, a chapter not discusssed much by her family. Armed with a a cache Read More

20Feb

FlashBack Post: Do Women Want to be Submissives? A Look at Fifty Shades of Grey.

Posted by The Culture Mom Leave a Comment

(This post is nearly three years old but I feel compelled to post it again, in light of the recent release of the film, as well as the most interesting comment I got at the end - so scroll down. I haven't seen the film...yet.) On a recent trip to London, I took a trip to my favorite UK bookstore, Waterstone’s, and roamed the shelves. As I searched for books to bring home that I can’t get in the U.S., a book caught my eye that I had been hearing a lot about. Yes, Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James. I had been following the talk about this book for some Read More

17Sep

From Book to Screen: A Chat with “This is Where I Leave You” Author Jonathan Tropper

Posted by The Culture Mom 16 Comments

Jonathan Tropper is on a roll. Not only did he watch his novel, This is Where I Leave You, shoot to the top of the best-selling charts, but he optioned it to a film studio. Then they asked him to write the screenplay and he got to keep the story and characters as faithful to its original concept as possible, a rarity these days in Hollywood. After seeing the film, which stars an ensemble that includes Jason Bateman and Tina Fey, I felt even closer to the characters he brought to life on celluloid so vividly, and I was eager to talk to him (along with a Read More

28Aug

An Unkosher Love In “Like No Other” (+ Q&A with Author Una LaMarche & Book Giveaway)

Posted by The Culture Mom 17 Comments

I have met some of the most amazing women via social media and other personal and professional pursuits over the last few years, but most particularly during my time producing Listen to Your Mother. These women are talented, creative and extremely prolific. Una LaMarche is one of them. She appeared in the first season of the LYTM show in NYC. Little did I know that during the production of our show, Una was writing a novel called Five Summers. I also didn't know that she would meet her agent as a result of being in our show and soon become a fabulous Read More

20Aug

This is Where I Leave You Book Club

Posted by The Culture Mom 5 Comments

This is a sponsored post. Are you like me and you love to read the book before the movie? In high school, I took a film adaptation class and we read books before we saw the film, analyzing The Great Gatsby to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. We discussed what was left in and what was left in, discerning the screen writer's decisions and how literary elements are transported to the screen. Ever since then, I've always been interested in films that are adaptations and I look for faithful re-tellings of stories. This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Read More