As 2010 begins, the unemployment rate is showing some improvement, but there are still too many Michiganders out of work.  In 2009 the Jackson District Libraries ordered new materials targeting job hunters.

One of the best books I have read in a long time is the Man Booker Prize winner for 2009, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

    One book with an unlikely title has consistently shown up on the bestsellers lists.  People called it a horror novel, which put me off, but I finally took home the audio book of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  It comprises 22 discs, which was attractive, given my long commutes. Still wary, I began listening and found myself drawn in by the book's intricate weaving of three fascinating stories. At first.

    A New York Times article in October claimed that "incongruously and with regularity, this is a generation that yells." The ensuing controversy has mixed up a slurry of affirmations, denials and rationales on child rearing practices. As a mom whose adult daughter still squirms when I whisper at her, I ask you, "What's a mother, or father, to do?"