ArcaMax

Q. My husband’s 8-year-old daughter has a birthday this weekend and she decided she would like to take a few friends to the movies and then out for frozen yogurt around the corner from our home. My husband and his ex-wife plan to take her and I was not invited. What’s good ex-etiquette?

A. Let’s clarify something first. Your husband’s ...Read more

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

'WICKED'

Rated PG for some scary action, thematic material and brief suggestive material.

What it’s about: The movie musical adaptation of the blockbuster stage production that imagines the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz."

The kid attractor factor: The fantastical magical setting, songs and stars.

Good ...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

Q. I have been dating my boyfriend for 6 months. We do not live together but see each other or talk almost every day. His ex died three years ago. They had a daughter, who is 6, who lives with my boyfriend. The problem is my boyfriend has a very large tattoo of both his ex and his daughter’s names on his chest right above his heart. This makes...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- In March 1998, Ben Decter drove from Los Angeles to Tijuana to get medicine for his 17-month-old daughter, Addie. She had "catastrophic childhood epilepsy," the neurologist had told him, and a drug not yet available in the U.S. was their best bet to treat her nonstop seizures.

That terrifying moment is currently revisited five ...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

'RED ONE'

Rated PG-13 (for action, some violence, and language)

What it’s about: Santa Claus is kidnapped right before Christmas, so his head of security and a hacker go looking for him among mythical beasts and beings.

The kid attractor factor: This sort of has a kiddie appeal with the holiday cheer and monsters and creatures, but it also...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

Q. I wish I could say I look forward to the holidays, but now that my kids’ mother and I have split up, it just seems impossible. Thanksgiving is the worst. We used to live in the same neighborhood, therefore alternating just Thanksgiving Day worked. But their mom recently moved to the next town. The kids hate sitting in the car. I hate ...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