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

A few days after Mindy Beyer was born, doctors delivered crushing news to her parents: You'll be lucky if your baby lives until age 3.

Mindy was born with a variety of heart problems. Her ventricles were reversed and there was a hole between them, making it difficult for her heart to efficiently pump blood.

At 1 month old, Mindy underwent ...Read more

For a week or so, Ashley Lunardini felt an intermittent pain in her neck. She also had a dull headache that wouldn't go away. She'd had neck pain before, but headaches were rare.

Overall, she was in excellent health. At 39, she went to Pilates class three times a week, walked every day and ate healthy meals.

She went to see her primary care ...Read more

Writers have often turned to the royal family for inspiration, but in recent years it has been fiction, rather than factual biographies, that have grown in popularity.

And the royals are not only inspiring writers in book form. From the BBC series, "Victoria," based on the book by Daisy Goodwin about the life of young Queen Victoria, to the ...Read more

Does anyone remember when you made a purchase, went to a doctor or took your car in for a repair and weren't asked for a review? We are in the throes of review mania.

I recently visited a new dentist. Two hours after I left his office, a text arrived asking for a review. I hesitated. What if I inadvertently posted something he took the wrong ...Read more

The purpose of Juliana Hastings’ book, "I’ll Have a Double: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Alcohol and Breast Cancer" is to raise awareness and share what she has learned during her own breast cancer journey.

While this book is a memoir of Juliana’s experience, it is also a guide for patients. She offers a wide array of helpful tips...Read more

“Would you like a ticket or would you like to talk?”

Vincent Dodd, from decades as a nurse helping terminally ill patients and their families and then as a law enforcement officer, knows that solutions to crises are often found well below the surface.

So his tendency, and the visual unusuality, to invite conversation rather than issue a ...Read more

Paula Nieto-Morales recalls the puzzled looks on her parents' faces when she told them she wanted to become a neonatologist. She was 5 years old.

"I was so little! And they asked, 'Where did you learn that word?'" said Nieto-Morales, who was born and raised in Colombia.

She likely picked it up while watching television, mostly nature and ...Read more

When I was a little girl taking piano lessons, we lived in an old house with a dark, scary basement where mice frequently gathered and hosted parties.

Sometimes, mice ventured upstairs and hid behind the piano. When I began practicing, they would shoot out due to the horrible off-key sounds piercing their teeny, tiny, perfect-pitch sensitive ...Read more

Maybe I’m prejudiced. But isn’t that the right of anyone evaluating books? It’s about what you like. Or don’t.

In the case of author Jean Hanff Korelitz, I’m indeed prejudiced. That’s because "The Plot," her ingenious thriller in which a bestselling book becomes a matter of life or death, is one of my favorite reads of all time.

...Read more

The evidence surrounding physical activity is clear: It's critical to good health, helping to ward off obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and even dementia. Federal guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each week, but stress that any movement is better than none at all.

What's less clear is what needs to...Read more

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? Love a good historical mystery? Pirates and hidden treasure? Swoon-worthy southern cuisine? Find your heart’s desires in "The Lafitte Affair" by Norman Woolworth.

Curmudgeonly antiques dealer Bruneau Ignatius Abellard is finishing his last bite of Eggs Sardou (poached eggs, spinach and artichokes...Read more

With more than 1,500 posts, “#mucinexdpregnancy” has become one of TikTok’s latest fads. To explain why the cough medicine trended as a fertility booster, OB-GYN Dr. Jessica Shepherd jumped online with “Good Morning America.”

“The reason why people think that this is going to be a way that’s going to help increase chances of ...Read more

Work-related stress that stems from job strain and a perceived imbalance between effort and reward may raise the risk of developing an abnormal heart rhythm condition, new research suggests.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found adults in white-collar jobs in Canada who faced high levels of job strain and ...Read more

This is the third book by Bonnie Traymore that I have reviewed, and they just keep getting better. There’s no question in my mind that Traymore should be getting recognized as a prominent new voice in mystery fiction.

Like her earlier books, "The Bluff" is a deliciously twisted tale about marital infidelity, long-buried secrets and, of course...Read more

Most of us probably think we have a pretty good idea of what a "balanced diet" looks like. And a lot of us may be wrong.

"I don't love the term," which can give people an outdated or oversimplified idea of what healthy eating looks like, said Dr. Matthew Landry, an assistant professor of population health and disease prevention at the ...Read more

Whenever Richard Osman releases a murder mystery, readers know they are in for a clever, good time. In "We Solve Murders," (Pamela Dorman Books), Osman creates a wacky trio on the run from a Russian oligarch and a stream of anonymous assassins. When the bullets fly, Osman keeps his readers guessing about who the shooter is and who is the ...Read more

I've read that doing puzzles helps keep your brain sharp as you age.

I don't like to brag, but I can often solve the Jumble puzzle at a glance. After years of making millions of typos at the keyboard, I'm accustomed to seeing words with letters in the worng odrer.

A granddaughter brought over a new game called Mobi. It's like Scrabble but all ...Read more

There are two sounds that follow natural disasters. The first is an eerie, unnatural silence. No traffic, no car doors slamming, no children’s voices, dogs barking or birds chirping. Just a disquieting quiet.

The second sound is that of motors revving and gears whining, followed by the deafening buzz of chain saws slicing into downed trees.

...Read more