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Books
Are librarians obsolete in the Google era? They couldn't be more important
A former obituary writer celebrates the cult and culture of obituaries Obituaries
After an early life controlled by her mother and her Hollywood studio, nobody would tell her how to live.
A salute to the great actress from Life Book's Katharine Hepburn: 1907-2003
He was talented and careless and pain followed him wherever he hid. Essays
An avid reader’s wry take on books, past and present
Essential preparation for parenthood: visiting a toystore, watching cartoons. |
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This Book Is Overdue!
What is it like to be a librarian in a world of too much information? Talk about wild--constant change, exploding technology, shrinking budgets, and growing numbers of the baffled...could there be a better spot than behind the librarians' desk to watch the digital age unfold?
The Dead Beat
Enthralled by the fascinating lives that were marching out of this world, the author tumbled into the obits page to find out what made it so lively. The result is the true story of a flourishing art, with impassioned writers, addicted readers and a parade of characters we never quite appreciate until they’re gone.
The Dead Beat was a Barnes & Noble Discover finalist and a Borders Original Voice.
She Lived: A Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor
Note: I wrote this tribute to Elizabeth Taylor over a decade ago, before she filmed the TV movie "These Old Broads," before she outlived Rod Steiger and Michael Jackson, before she went on Twitter.
One of a Kind: A Tribute to Katharine Hepburn
This obituary of Hepburn was written seven years before her death for a special issue of Life magazine, but the monthly magazine died before she did. Life Books issued it in a coffee-table volume featuring the photographs of John Bryson, with a long version of this essay as its text.
Talk about Pain: A Tribute to Marlon Brando
As a beautiful and compelling young actor or a huge and tormented cross-dresser, Marlon Brando could not make us look away. His life is remembered, and puzzled over, in this tribute, written years before his death.
About Books
These bite-size topical essays are appetizers for book lovers. One week, it's about the hypocritical moral superiority of the movie Capote toward the writer’s greatest work; another week, it's about the pleasures of reading on the red-eye.
Slouching Toward Toyland
I wrote this essay for New York Woman more than twenty years ago. Details of the trashy kiddie culture have since changed (this predated video games, interactive dancing robots, and even Barney the purple dinosaur), but as far as I can tell, parenthood still means being dragged through a swampland of garbage.
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