Three of our elementary-school grands have a new landline phone sitting in their family room. They called us multiple times the first week it was installed, each time saying, "Hello, Watson?"

No, they didn't. Each time a soft voice cautiously said, "Hello, Grandma?"

The poor things were apprehensive. A handset that rests in a base alongside a ...Read more

For many people, filling out paperwork about their family's health history is a routine part of a medical visit. For adopted people like Ramya Gruneisen, it's impossible.

"We don't have any information about my biological mom or dad, so there's quite literally nothing to go off of," said Gruneisen, who was born in India and adopted by a couple ...Read more

There’s a school of thought that argues how important it is for the remaining Holocaust survivors to discuss their experiences while they still can, so that subsequent generations can learn from the past. Studies have supported this line of thinking.

Estimates tag the remaining number of Jewish Holocaust survivors at about 245,000. But try to...Read more

Set between 1964 and 1972 in Meridien, Virginia, "The Little Bird" is a true-life-based psychological novel by the historical fiction author of "The Crossing," Ashby Jones. In "The Little Bird," the murder of a black teenage boy by a white cop unites two kindred spirits who are individually grappling with grief and guilt.

In 1964, Shane ...Read more

‘Tis the season to be thankful, which is why I am hanging tight to the fourth Thursday in November. I may be hanging on by the greasy tip of a wishbone swinging dangerously low over scalding hot gravy, but I refuse to let go of Thanksgiving, the only holiday that has not been grossly commercialized.

For starters, I am thankful there is no ...Read more

What would you do if you could suddenly live hundreds of years? What would your future look like? Would you even know where to start?

Anthony Hamer answers these questions and more in "M Was Twenty August 1346," a historical novel that’s sure to excite every reader’s imagination.

August 1346. Marcel de Bois, known to most simply as M, was ...Read more

Kiki Fehling was enjoying a dance class she regularly attended when the weirdest thing happened.

Trying to lift her arms above her head, she couldn't do it.

Moments earlier, she had another bizarre sensation – like a metal bar was squeezing her chest, making it difficult for her to breathe.

Fehling was 29 and living in New York while ...Read more

Some health care providers are trying to give mammograms a new purpose — assessing heart disease risks. The practice is not unanimously accepted among health experts, however.

Mammograms are X-ray examinations that detect breast disease, and they’ve helped diminish the United States’ breast cancer mortality rate by almost 40% since 1990. ...Read more

In 2005, American journalist and single father Judah Loeb returns to Israel to investigate the decades-old death of an academic mentor and Holocaust survivor, only to discover that the past is indeed a foreign land in Philip Graubart’s entrancing "Here There Is No Why."

Ten years after the suicide of his wife, Mary, Judah is sent on ...Read more

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