An almost seismic sense of expectation emanates from a college campus. That is the true elixir of youth: the grand, the glorious, the magnificent hopes and dreams because all things - all things - are yet possible.

Words are, quite simply, weapons. How a person or an act or a thought looks depends entirely upon how - and by whom - it is described.

Don't we all look back in longing, those of us who had happy childhoods? Because the greatest loss we ever know is not the loss of family or place or money, it is the loss of innocence. There is forever a hollow place in our hearts once we realize that darkness rings the campfire.

There's nothing quite so irritating to an author as a family member's easy confidence that, of course, the book will come.

Los Angeles is a sprawl of broken dreams and lost opportunities, disconnected souls and entertainment junkies. The sunny skies and graceful palms don't redeem jammed roadways to nowhere.

Mary Daheim writes with wit, wisdom, and a big heart. I love her books.

Oh, the joys of baseball, manly men in tight pants.