Laura Nathan

A New Site (Soon!) and a Plea for Houstonians’ Help

I seem to have run into a problem that I’m beginning to think is (sadly) pretty common among people who work in the media and/or the Web sector: I’ve been spending so much time getting other people’s sites loaded up with content and/or looking spiffier that I have ended up neglecting my own. However, a  [...]

Netflix for Bibliophiles

Why didn’t someone think of this earlier? And why am I just now hearing about it?

The Great American Rejection Letter

Here’s a book concept that’s sure to be a big hit among writers for years to come: Bill Shapiro, who edited Other People’s Love Letters, is editing a new collection, entitled Other People’s Rejection Letters. It will be filled with literary rejection letters. Schadenfreude, much? If you’ve got your own great rejection letters to share – [...]

New Blog on the Block

‘Tis the season for eating and giving. For a while now, I’ve had a blog about eating (and living) well over at Prevention.com. Now I’ve launched Sweet Finds, a new blog about giving well. I update it several times a week with creative, affordable ideas for your gift list and your wish list. I invite [...]

Forty Acres: Derek Walcott’s Poem for Barack Obama

Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott recently wrote a poignant poem, aptly titled “Forty Acres,” to celebrate Barack Obama’s election. Read it here.

It’s Blog Action Day. Give the Gift of Good Health.

At times, the problem of poverty and health can seem greater than even the healthiest of us. What can we do? We can factor health insurance issues into our decisions on election day, for one. But any progress after the election will be longer-term. What about doing something right now? As in, while you’re surfing the web?

George Orwell, Blogger

Would George Orwell, critic and essayist extraordinaire, be a blogger if he were alive today? Jean Seaton, a professor at the University of Westminster in London and administer of the Orwell Writing Prize, think so. Seaton came up with the idea to create a blog of Orwell’s diaries. Each blog entry is published on the day [...]

First Loves

“What Book Got You Hooked?” This is the question I just tried to answer for First Book, a nonprofit organization that donates books to children in need. I started to say Freckle Juice by Judy Blume because, well, what’s not to love about Judy Blume? But is that really the book that got me hooked? Upon thinking [...]

Happy Literacy Day!

Today is International Literacy Day. (It’s also three months until my 30th birthday, but that’s nothing to celebrate …) The “holiday” was first started by the UN on September 8, 2003, and we’ll celebrate it until September 8, 2012. I suppose the theory is that we won’t have to celebrate it afterward because there will be [...]

Overheard while walking the dog …

“I just don’t understand why I got invited on chicken night and not on steak night!” This is what I heard a woman say as she sat on her porch talking to friends (or family), a fully dressed Mannequin sitting nearby. For reasons I can’t explain, it made me laugh. Probably because I heard it [...]