‘Light’ shines on Fassbender, Vikander Romance

Tags: Movies, romance

It’s hard to fathom, but Michael Fassbender has only been working, really working, for eight remarkable years. Ever since director Steve McQueen saw what a decade’s worth of casting directors didn’t and chose him to play Irish hunger-striker Bobby Sands in 2008’s Hunger, his career has been in the Hollywood fast lane. The first time Fassbender appears in Hunger, his character is being …

Words Matter! Political Discourse Is Even More Confusing

Tags: politics

By Katherine Sharma I’m an Internet political junkie. I follow commentary on the presidential campaign from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, etc. and even occasionally dip in the roiling Alt Right pro-Trump waters of Breitbart.com (Get a feel for its politics with these headlines from the tenure of Stephen Bannon, who is now the Trump campaign CEO: …

Our runaway son gave my bickering husband and me a real wake-up call. Drew came storming down the stairs half-dressed, holding a shirt. The scowl on his face told me he was angry, but I was in no mood to fight with him that morning. My head was pounding and I had to get Lucas off to school on time. As it …

Truth or Fiction: Mystery Plot Twists Fascinate Us

Tags: mystery, train

By Katherine Sharma Mystery lovers, by their nature, are lovers of the plot twist. Just a few of my favorites with surprise twists include Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins,Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, In the Woods by Tana French, Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Of …

My Daughter’s Teaching Me How To Date…And She’s Thirteen!

Tags: dating, romance

Out of the mouths of babes . . . came the sweetest love opportunity of a lifetime! I remembered being thirteen and giggling with my best friend, just like my daughter, Violet, and her friend, Andie, did all the time. Usually, I didn’t bother them while they enjoyed their “girl time” together. But this time, I couldn’t help it. “What …

Thrillers Resonate This Political Season

Tags: books, novel viewpoints

By Katherine Sharma Recently, Russian digital hacks of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee were revealed, raising the specter of foreign government interference in U.S. elections. That’s a plot you’d expect to find in a Cold War-era political thriller, not 2016 news stories. So this very unusual political season has inspired me to take a closer …

Jennifer Garner Has a Heart of Gold

Tags: jennifer garner, she roes

The Woman More than just a pretty face, Jennifer Garner is the complete and beautiful package. With a heart of gold and reputation for being a charitable person, Jennifer is a proud mother of 3 kids who wants her children to grow up in a safe and loving world. Born in Houston, Texas in 1972, Jennifer took an early interest …

Physical Challenges Can’t Stop These Sleuths

Tags: books, novel viewpoints

By Katherine Sharma If you like triumph-over-physical-adversity tales, you may want to check out mystery writing’s long tradition of physically challenged detectives. There are many reasons for authors to create sleuths who are blind, deaf, paralyzed or otherwise physically limited. By literally handicapping crime-solving via a detective’s impaired ability to personally gather clues from crime scene inspection or interrogations, an …

The Price You Pay Getting Into A Relationship

Tags: marriage, relationships

Rom-coms focus on the tummy-butterfly-infused beginnings of romantic relationships, with the credits rolling long before real life with work, family and the power bill kick in. Love is an expensive endeavor with figurative and literal costs incurred by a couple as their relationship evolves. Here’s a breakdown of the price you pay for getting into a relationship: New Love When …

‘Bad Seed’ Characters Exist in Fact and Fiction

Tags: books, evil

By Katherine Sharma Psychopathic villains–manipulative, aggressive, remorseless and unemotional–abound in murder mysteries, but when those psychopaths are children, an element of horror enters. Remember Rhoda, the too-perfect little girl murderess in the 1954 novel The Bad Seed by William March? Or Kevin, a school massacre perpetrator, whose mother suspects his evil capacity long before his final horrific acts in Lionel …