The music I listen to tends to vary with the seasons, so about this time every year I’m making the very most of my summer favorites. In the summer, I tend to want to hear upbeat music with a catchy hook. The kind of music that’s liable to make me dance a little in my […]Read more "Contest: The Songs of Summer"

With events in Libya taking up front-page headlines this week, I turned to one of our most popular blog entries from earlier this year: background information about Libya and about its leader, Muammar al-Qaddafi. Below are 10 quick facts that are still relevant about Libya and about Qaddafi: 1.Qaddafi was born in the desert near […]Read more "10 Quick Facts about Muammar al-Qaddafi and Libya"

I have been doing a little reorganizing at home. In my one-year old son’s room, his books had previously been all out of reach. (Why? So he didn’t chew them all to bits!) But now he has a small selection of board books on an easy-to-reach shelf. Well, guess what? We’re doing a lot more […]Read more "Where Are Your Books?"

[I asked production editor Brie Cohen to blog about one of the recent releases from Lerner Publications. She took it to a personal level!] I buzzed a friend into my apartment building recently, and a few minutes later received a phone call from that friend. “I can’t find your apartment. There are so many doors […]Read more "Personally Speaking"

I love almost everything about the dog days of summer. I say almost because unfortunately for me this time of year also means allergy season. Even with my watery eyes and constant sneezing I loved reading Allergies , one of our new Fall 11 titles from our USA TODAY Health Reports series. Somehow the personal […]Read more "Allergies and Free Books!"

Ashley Hope Pérez has an enlightening (if you’re inclined toward DIY) post on scanning one’s personal library. Ashley’s moving to Paris, and so like any book lover, her mind turns to these things (hopefully after it has turned to wine and pastries and bistros and museums, etc.). I’m not moving anywhere, but I have had […]Read more "Discreteness and idle worries"

It’s times like this when I really really love my job. I mean, how many chances do you get at work to stage your own Philippe Halsman photo shoot (above)? The photo at left of surrealist painter Salvador Dali and three cats, as if suspended in the air, is typical of Halsman’s stop-action jump pictures. […]Read more "Jump!"

“Even though I hate taking on all the responsibility myself and I’m often crazed,” she said, “the moment that I hold a book I’ve completed, it makes up for all the uncertainty of getting there.” Source: Maybe It’s Time for Plan C article in the New York Times While this article as a whole isn’t […]Read more "Quote of the Day"