Every Monday, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. This week, we've been knocked to our knees by the delightful illustrated essay collection:


The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds With Common Birds
by Julie Zickefoose

"For as long as I can remember," writes Julie Zickfoose, "I've been fascinated by birds. Some of my earliest memories are of...being dazzled by their colors and sounds." Interestingly enough, you don't have to care all that much about birds to get sucked into her dreamy illustrated stories of bluebirds and phoebes, titmice and ospreys. In delicate, subtle strokes of the pen and brush, she reveals a lifetime of backyard friendships—moments spent observing a bluebird couple or listening to the calls of scarlet tanagers. Along the way, she not only endows each bird with human-like personality traits, enough so to bond you with her feathered companions, but also offers up some thoughtful commentary on our human inner lives, such as what she says while attempting to rescue a family of swallows from a rat snake, "I've never much liked catching large snakes over my head while standing on a ladder. Maybe there's a word for that little cluster of phobias. Stepnophidiophobia works; I just coined it. If what one is frightened of is truly, ridiculously scary, is it fair to call one's fear a phobia?" Zickefoose has spent a lifetime observing this particular corner of the domestic-wild world, and she did not escape these experience without gaining both wisdom and humor—about mates, about our obligation to help others or set them free, about loss and about thankfulness. "What does a bird know about gratitude?" she asks, speaking of sick white-throated sparrow she nursed back to health. "I can only say he followed me singing and, in singing, touched an inarticulate place in my heart."

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Got a question you've been waiting to ask Oprah and Deepak Chopra? Today's your chance to ask it. This afternoon at 2/1c, they'll be doing an exclusive taping for Oprah's Lifeclass live on the web and taking questions from viewers around the world in real time (the picture above was taken at last week's taping in St. Louis). To get the advice and insight you're after, log on to Oprah.com or Facebook.com/OWNTV. And, don't miss tonight's episode of Oprah's Lifeclass: the Tour: Oprah and Tony Robbins will be live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City at 8/7c.

Photo: Codis, inc

At clubs and lounges, along the red carpet at Cannes, on Hawaiian beaches, and at a gala in Istanbul, Cynthia Carvajal has carried the torch—and twirled it, too. The 30-year-old professional fire dancer whips flaming ropes around her body, dancing in four-inch heels and a blazing headdress. Carvajal got her start in 2000, when she saw circus performers brandish flames in their act. "I loved the artistry," she says. "It's entrancing to watch." When one of the performers agreed to mentor her, Carvajal started twirling poi (chains with lighted balls of Kevlar at one end). "It's easier than people think," she says. (Give or take the occasional burn, which she says is "all part of the job.") Eventually, Carvajal joined a touring performance troupe, and her hobby became a full-time job. It's also a way for her to fund her passion: saving our seas. In 2010 Carvajal founded marine conservation nonprofit Ocean Lifeline—and has raised thousands by performing at events. "I never thought fire dancing would take me places," Carvajal says. "But it's been such a blessing—and it's helping me do my part."

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Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by...

"I've said many times to myself, 'I can't imagine that happening to me.' It was the unimaginable to me. But guess what, it happened and I got through it."
-Actress Jennie Garth, who is getting divorced after 11 years of marriage.

"Don't be afraid to go ahead and try. It's hard, but once you get the hang of it, you'll enjoy it."
-James Arruda Henry, an illiterate lobster boat captain who learned to read—and became an author —in his '90s.

"We want to send the flowers while people can still smell them."
-Nick Cannon, on saying goodbye to Whitney Houston and his own brush with death.

Photo: Hannah Whitaker

Three TV food stars reveal their favorite way to transform any cheesecake recipe from simple to spectacular.
            
 "Substitute soft goat cheese for half the cream cheese in your recipe to add a fresh tanginess."       
—Anne Burrell, host of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef            
           
"I mix a teaspoon of rose water and half a teaspoon of ground cardamom into the batter, then garnish with a generous sprinkle of chopped pistachios. It tastes so delicate and lovely!"             —Aarti Sequeira, host of Aarti Party            
           
"I love substituting a gingersnap crust for the usual graham cracker. Just pulse gingersnap cookies into crumbs in a food processor. Mix with melted butter, then press the mixture down in the bottom of your cheesecake pan and bake for ten minutes."      
—Gina Neely, cohost of Down Home with the Neelys

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