I don't think this will make it better - if anything, if you read the story in its entirety, it might make it worse - but this is actually an honest representation of the earliest extant versions of the fairy tale of "Sleeping Beauty." It may actually be ... well, I can't say "better," but "less bad" than the…

People need to know it's more than just 'a cough'.

It does seem to be a generational blindness. I'm in my early 50s, and have permanent hearing loss from mumps I contracted as a toddler (just before the vaccine became available); my down-the street neighbor, just a couple of years older than me, had polio and required braces to walk (had to crawl when we went to the…

There have been nearly 8000 cases of Pertussis in California this year, and there has already been one infant death. Nothing's going to change these people's minds because they are idiots and narcissists, a dangerous combination of shitty.

It wears off.

If she hasn't had a Tdap recently, she could still get it. As an aside: if you can't remember the last time you got a tetanus-diptheria vaccine, you should go get one.

We've had babies die, and the anti-vaccine movement continues :/ . Same dynamic happens with "unassisted" childbirth- a baby dies a birth that appears to be preventable, yet mom doubles down on her belief that it's the best way. There's no reasoning with them.

I think being rich and privileged would give people a greater illusion of control like they keep vegan and organic so their child could never be sick. It's magical thinking but it's easy to fall into if everything else that you've ever planned has always worked.

Oh my god...Girls IS Catcher in the Rye! Both center around insufferable, whiny, assholes who I can't stand, yet somehow everyone talks about them like it's the second coming of Jesus and the pinnacle of entertainment. They both blow.

Librarian here, with a friendly reminder that there are people sitting at desks RIGHT NOW, just wishing you'd come up and ask us this question. And usually you can email us and download the book right to an e-reader if going into the actual building is too scary.

If you like gritty fantasy and monarchies, have you…

Oooh wait. The entirety of Jasper Fforde's writing. Start with The Eyre Affair (Book 1 of the Thursday Next series) and plow through those. Then read The Big Over Easy and The Third Bear (Nursery Crime series) and then Shades of Grey (no not THAT one, the good one). His stuff is so so so good.

Shirley Jackson, all her stuff. The Haunting of Hill House is a shudder captured on the page.

I haven't liked any of his newer ones. I think the last one I read was "A Widow For One Year" and it was just so... Irving-y. Owen Meany, Garp, and Hotel New Hampshire are my 3 favorites with special mention going to Cider House Rules.

The book that I have recommended to everyone I know that has been universally loved is The Brothers K by David James Duncan. It's stunning. Don't be put off by the jacket description which completely does not do it justice.

I couldn't disagree more. A few years ago, my friend remarked to me (in our late 20's) that he 'missed stories about good versus evil,' and that he was disappointed that things were so complicated these days. I was astonished — I absolutely loathe anything that dares to simplify to unambiguously good, or even worse,…

Oh man, my list of influential books would all be grown up books! As a kid, I never put down a book after finishing and had to take a break from reading because my heart hurt or I was so drawn into the world I couldn't yet pull myself away.

You've gotta read better grown up books! There are so many that have stayed with me for years and years. I won't be so presumptuous to just drop a bunch of recommendations on you. But if you want recommendations, I am totally your girl.

I have random words pronounced with different regional intonation because I moved around. Louisville is LOO-i-vul and Nashville is NASH-vul from living in Kentucky. (I have finally eradicated the verbal tick of saying I'm "fixing to" do something.) I have a lot of upspeak and slang from late 1990s Southern California.…

I'm an accent chameleon. Put me in another region for a few months, and I will start to sound like I'm from there. I do it subconsciously, and start to mimic the language patterns I hear every day. My Northeastern relatives tell me I've totally lost my Northeastern accent, and it makes me kind of sad.

I'm probably in the minority in that I liked it. It was stupid and messy and self destructive... which is all too human.