You know we're always digging into the backstory of what people create - it's one of the best parts of publishing this website. I love seeing the inspiration, drive, and focus of writers and musicians. Without further ado, here are our best recommendations for books and music we've reviewed in 2016 - with interviews!

“I’m not just an autistic kid anymore, I have climbed a freaking mountain" writes Colin Eldred-Cohen on the release of his new children’s book, The Fire Truck Who Got Lost.   

Eldred-Cohen is a 28-year old creative writer with Asperger’s Syndrome. The Fire Truck Who Got Lost is his first children’s that became a reality through a highly successful crowdfunding campaign. 

Do you love your fiction to be intercultural, full of travel and learning about new things and cultures? Me, too. One such read is a new book by Katherine Reay, entitled A Portrait of Emily Price. It's a book about finding yourself, in more ways than one. It's about family, and doing what you love (and finding out what you love, which is a whole different ball game), and intercultural adjustment, and love, and moving to another country, and finding a new family. Here's the truth: I couldn't put it down.

The Library of Congress today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Digital Public Library of America to become a "content hub partner" and will ultimately share a significant portion of its rich digital resources with DPLA's database of digital content records.

What happens when 30 US educators spend an afternoon at CONAPAC’s  tiny Amazon library, located along the banks of the Amazon rainforest in Peru? Not your normal library experience, that’s for sure! 

Every year, I make it a point to take my sons on a mother-son trip. I have found this is a great way to bond with each child individually, as well as cater to their individual likes and dislikes. I’m sure my kids are a lot like yours. While they certainly have common interests, they also are very different. By creating two different trips, it accomplishes several things; it’s cheaper to travel with just one child, I’m able to plan things that I know that child will enjoy, we’re able to spend time one on one.

Have you seen RENT yet? It is hard to imagine that this Broadway show is 20 years old, but time flies. We went to see it last night at Miller Auditorium at Western Michigan University - and were blown away by the talent, story, and music. The actors? Incredible. The band? Likewise. Each actor stayed true to the original, while somehow making it modern for today. My favorite character? Angel!

It’s the smell that hits you first: a ureic stench so thick it feels like something solid is foraging up your nostrils. Tourists are given sprigs of mint or rosemary, like the nosegays carried by Renaissance gentlefolk. But if you want to be accepted by the tanners, you have to go unprotected. I’m turning up for my first day as an apprentice tanner, in the old city of Fez, with nothing to filter out the odours.