How will you be spending World Book Night? I’ll be attending a reception sponsored by the Chicago Writers Conference and Chicago Women in Publishing at the Book Cellar Cafe! Here’s hoping you’re able to enjoy a function in your area celebrating this wonderful event! For more about one of the sponsors of the Chicago event, click here ...

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be a guest on the Blog Talk Radio show “Padaran” with host Daya Devi-Doolin this Thursday, April 24, at 2 pm Eastern. Tune in for some insightful chat by clicking here ...

“The Great Beauty” (“La grande bellazza”) (2013). Cast: Toni Servillo, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Verdone, Serena Grandi, Carlo Buccirosso, Pamela Villoresi, Luca Marinelli, Giusi Merli, Roberto Herlitzka, Giovanna Vignola, Iaia Forte, Massimo De Francovich, Vernon Dobtcheff, Galatea Ranzi, Giorgio Pasotti, Isabella Ferrari, Luciano Virgilio, Annaluisa Capasa, Flavio Mieli. Director: Paolo Sorrentino. Screenplay: Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello. Story: Paolo Sorrentino. Web site. Trailer. Taking stock of where we stand in our lives can be a very rewarding – and revelatory – experience. Sometimes we affirm what we already know, but, in other instances, we come to conclusions that come as surprising, if not shocking or perhaps even disillusioning. That’s just the sort of exercise an aging protagonist pursues in the profoundly moving, often hilarious Italian comedy-drama, “The Great Beauty” (“La grande bellazza”). Celebrating one’s 65th birthday should be a joyous occasion. But, for journalist and one-time novelist Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), the event evokes mixed emotions. The longtime fixture of Rome’s social scene throws an outrageous party for himself, one where all of the city’s beautiful people and celebrity elite turn out for a full-blown hedonistic bacchanal. It’s not unlike many of the evenings Jep has spent over the years, long, ...

In case you missed my lively radio interview with Doreen Agostino on Align Shine Prosper this past Sunday, you can still catch it on the Blog Talk Radio archives, available for listening any time, by clicking here ...

Interested in film reviews with a conscious perspective? If so, then join the nearly 900 Pinterest followers of the Conscious Film Reviews board, available by clicking here. New posts to the board appear weekly. Enjoy! ...

“Le Week-End” (2013 production, 2014 release). Cast: Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum, Judith Davis, Olly Alexander, Xavier De Guillebon. Director: Roger Michell. Screenplay: Hanif Kureishi. Web site. Trailer. We all reach critical junctures in our lives, and those turning points nearly always require us to make some significant (and hard) choices. It’s a process that can become considerably more difficult if we tune out to it, be it intentionally or inadvertently, during the time leading up to those decisions. Such is the lot of a middle class English couple in the bittersweet romantic comedy-drama, “Le Week-End.” To break the tedium of everyday life, Nick and Meg Burrows (Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan) decide to celebrate their wedding anniversary with a weekend in Paris, the site of their honeymoon 30 years earlier. But what should be a joyous occasion gets off to a rocky start. Considering the prevailing humdrum of their daily lives back in Birmingham, coupled with the prospect of less-than-satisfying vacation accommodations, they approach their weekend getaway with a decidedly sour attitude. So, given these disappointing circumstances, Meg springs into action. She’s convinced they deserve something better, and, in an act of impulsiveness, she takes off in search of ...