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Terri Schlichenmeyer’s The Bookworm Sez: 10 Best Books of 2025 – Fiction and Nonfiction
By Terri Schlichenmer
The Bookworm SezThis past year, you’ve often had to make do.
Saving money here, resources there, being inventive and innovative. It’s a talent you’ve honed, but isn’t it time to have the best? Yep, so grab these Ten Best of 2025 books for your new year pleasures…
Nonfiction
Health care is on everyone’s mind now, and “A Living: Working-Class Americans Talk to Their Doctor” by Michael D. Stein, M.D. (Melville House, $26.99) lets you peek into health care from the point of view of a doctor who treats “front-line workers” and those who experience poverty and homelessness. It’s shocking, an eye-opening book, a skinny, quick-to-read one that needs to be read now.
If you’ve been doing eldercare or caring for any loved one, then “How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir” by Molly Jong-Fast (Viking, $28.00) needs to be in your plans for the coming year. It’s a memoir, but also a biography of Jong-Fast’s mother, Erica Jong, and the story of love, illness, and living through the chaos of serious disease with humor and grace. You’ll like this book especially if you were a fan of the author’s late mother.
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The Twist Podcast #312: Indiana Comes Through, Worst Words of 2025 Survey, and Ice Skating Fun Facts
In this episode of The Twist Podcast, co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose take on politics, culture, and everyday absurdities with their trademark irreverence and personal spin. From unexpected political backbone in Indiana to linguistic crimes we’re ready to retire, Episode #312 delivers commentary, humor, and a few surprises.
The hosts congratulate Indiana’s senators for finally showing a spine, roll out a new “Worst Words of 2025” survey featuring the phrases you never want to hear again in 2026, and cool things down with fun facts about ice skating you probably didn’t know. As always, the conversation blends cultural commentary, politics, entertainment, and personal observations into one twisted take on the world.
In this episode:
- Indiana politics and a rare moment of accountability
- The Worst Words of 2025 survey (and why we’re done with them)
- Ice skating fun facts and surprising history
- Culture, language, humor, and personal reflections
The Twist Podcast is a weekly podcast covering politics, culture, entertainment, language, and life, hosted by Mark McNease and Rick Rose, featuring smart conversation with a sharp edge and a sense of humor.
👉 Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and on our YouTube channel (YouTube.com/@TheTwistPodcast). Follow and share!
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LGBTSr Fun Facts: Five Things You May Not Know About Ice Skating
❄️ Five Fun Facts About Ice Skating ⛸️
1️⃣ Early skates were… bone. Literally.
The earliest ice skates, used over 4,000 years ago, were made from animal leg bones — usually horse or deer — and strapped to the feet.
2️⃣ Figure skating was once manly and muscular.
In the 1800s, figure skating was considered a rugged sport for men only, with moves designed to show off strength. The graceful spins and jumps we know today came later.
3️⃣ The first skating “rinks” weren’t ice at all.
Before refrigeration, fancy hotels built indoor “rinks” out of a weird mixture of lard, salt, and sawdust to mimic ice.
4️⃣ Ice dancing has strict rules — including how long you can stare at your partner.
Partners must maintain “character-appropriate” eye contact but not too much, or it looks like a soap opera on skates.
5️⃣ Blades don’t cut the ice — they melt it.
Your skate blade creates a thin layer of water as you glide, letting you slip across the surface.
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On the Map: A Day Trip to NYC’s Bryant Park and Lunch at Chez Josephine
Narration provided by Wondervox.
By Mark McNease
Ever since moving permanently to our home in New Jersey we prefer to visit New York City by bus. After driving back and forth for over a decade, spending most weekends at our little house in the Jersey woods, the last thing I ever want to do again is drive into Manhattan. So we take the Trans-Bridge bus line instead, leaving from Clinton and arriving at Port Authority a little over an hour later. It makes for an easy and stress-free way to visit our old hometown and be back before bedtime.
This trip was to visit some new friends who were in the city for a week’s vacation. It was a shorty, with just a couple hours before lunch and a return in time to have dinner with local friends for a birthday celebration. We arrived around 11:00 a.m. and headed over to Bryant Park to stroll through the booths and vendors they have set up for the holiday month.
From November through early January, New York’s Bryant Park transforms into a festive, and crowded, winter wonderland with holiday stalls and shops. If you’re there on a weekend it can be mobbed, especially once you get past Thanksgiving and head into the December homestretch. These stalls are set up in the heart of the park, creating a marketplace that does its best to capture the spirit of the season.
In addition to the stalls, the park hosts a collection of holiday shops that are often housed in wooden cabins or tents, decorated with lights and ornaments. These also serve as a community gathering space where visitors can enjoy live entertainment, holiday-themed activities, and seasonal performances. And don’t miss the iconic ice-skating rink. I scored a new winter scarf that’s about six feet long, appropriately colorful and warm enough for the frigid temperatures we’ve found ourselves in.
Having planned the visit several months ago, I wasn’t sure where to have lunch. I ended up looking at several restaurants, including a few I was familiar with from my 11 years working at a news agency in the heart of Times Square (it was not the Times!). I saw some photos of a place called Chez Josephine, and without having any knowledge of its history I said let’s eat there. It was a perfect choice.
Founded with the vision of celebrating the legacy of Josephine Baker, a legendary performer and civil rights activist who moved to Paris, Chez Josephine pays homage to her life and contributions through its decor and menu. The restaurant features a selection of French-inspired dishes, including classic escargot, coq au vin, ratatouille, and a variety of desserts suited to the clientele.
Located on 42nd Street just west of 9th Avenue, the restaurant attracts everyone from theater enthusiasts on their way to a show, to tourists to locals seeking a cozy dining experience, to a couple Jersey guys heading into the city for lunch. Our server, Andy, was extremely nice and friendly, and surprised us by telling us he was the owner’s son. Apparently Josephine’s son, who founded restaurant, left it to Andy’s father Manual when he passed away, and it’s been in his hands ever since.
We loved this place! It was quiet, with an old-ish elegance that was cozy without being stuffy. There are portraits and reminders of Josephine Baker everyone, including the paper hand-towels in the bathroom that had her image on them. We will definitely be back.
By mid-afternoon were on the bus returning to Clinton, after an absolutely perfect trip to a city that will always hold a place in our hearts.
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Cover Reveal: ‘Blank Page to Bookshelf’ – Early 2026
Two years in the making …
I’m writing the final draft of a book based on my workshops for the past nearly-two years: fiction writing essentials, character creation, and self-publishing. I love doing the workshops, and this is a natural outgrowth of that. One of the most rewarding things I learned the past couple years is how much I’ve learned in 50+ years of writing, 15 of self-publishing … it’s a natural progression for me to write this book, and a bit of a ‘what’s next?’ venture. We’re about to find out—what’s next for me, what’s next for this country, what’s next? It really is the question that kept me going through the rough times and difficult years, especially in my youth. I was determined to stick around not just to prove a point, but to find out what my life would look like after whatever crisis I was in had finally passed. I’m still asking myself that question, and I’m still excited to see what comes next.
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Book Review: The Grave Robber: The Biggest Stolen Artifacts Case in FBI History and the Bureau’s Quest to Set Things Right, by Tim Carpenter
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“The Grave Robber: The Biggest Stolen Artifacts Case in FBI History and the Bureau’s Quest to Set Things Right” by Tim Carpenter
c.2025, Harper Horizon $29.99 299 pagesYou wouldn’t call yourself a perfectionist.
Still, if something is amiss, you feel a need to make it right. Something’s broken, you fix it. If it’s off, you make it right. That goes for minor issues or, as in the new book “The Grave Robber” by Tim Carpenter, matters of grave importance.
The tipsters were adamant. Don Carlin Miller had “Indian bones.”
And so, on a cool, cloudy fall afternoon, FBI bomb tech coordinator and sometime art crime expert Tim Carpenter and one of his associates headed to a remote property near Indianapolis., in search of the truth.
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Free To Subscribers – One Thing Or Another: Life, Aging, and the Absurdities Of It all (2nd Edition)
Now free to current and new subscribers:
One Thing Or Another: Life, Aging, and the Absurdities Of It All (2nd Edition)
Welcome to the Second Edition of One Thing or Another, a collection of humor columns that takes a look at life, aging, and the absurdities of it all. It’s been a few years since the first edition, and even more since they were written. The Big Six-Oh is now the Big Six-Seven, and life is just as absurd as it was the first go-round.
From our culture’s refusal to use the word ‘old,’ to the sometimes comical consequences of aging in body and mind, if not always in spirit, you’re sure to enjoy this skewed look at life’s foibles for the ages. Collected from the author’s personal columns, these short essays will make you chuckle, recognize yourself, and sometimes grimace at the not-always-funny price we pay for simply staying alive.
Current subscribers will receive a link to download their complimentary copy.
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Online Fiction Writing Workshop Sample Video (20 Minutes)
Thanks to Stacey, Michael and Steve for permission to share this. The workshop is two hours long, this is just a sample to show how they work online (and in-person!)
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NEW! ‘One Thing Or Another: Life, Aging, and the Absurdities Of It All (2nd Edition) Now Available on Amazon and IngramSpark
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NEW! Monthly Subscription, Weekly Delivery! Just $5/month
For those inclined to support LGBTSr.com with some spare change, you can now SUBSCRIBE MONTHLY for just $5. Cancel anytime, and get the LGBTSr email weekly.
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The Twist Podcast #310: On to Christmas, Colonoscopy Gift Ideas, and Prime’s ‘The Outsider’ Chills
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we head for the Christmas homestretch, take a break for Mark’s colonoscopy, and recommend Prime’s ‘The Outsider’ for some winter chills.
NOW ON YOUTUBE! Check us out each week on the MadeMark Publishing YouTube Channel. Playlist: The Twist Podcast.
Our holiday survey: What are your favorite parts of the holiday season?
You can treat your co-hosts to a cup of coffee … just $3 a brew!
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Holiday Survey: What’s Your Favorite Part(s)?
The Twist Podcast’s holiday survey. What’s your favorite part(s) of the holiday season?
Visiting with friends/family.
Food and/or gifts.
Taking a break from the rest of the year.
Other (write in the comments).
Holidays aren’t my thing.CLICK TO TAKE THE SURVEY
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q8996MC
