By Mandy Major

Like the ink on their pages, some books are bound to be indelible. Whether it was an eye-opening mystery in grade school or a powerful work of nonfiction in adulthood, there are books that have a special power to transport, inspire and propel us toward new ways of thinking and living. See which picks influenced the WD team and share your own influential book in the comments below.


The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Carolyn Keene

Learn the best ways to wear short hair.








On the Road by Jack Kerouac
I read On the Road in 10th grade, after my American history teacher recommended it. I had always been an avid reader, but this was the first book that really

When I think of McDonalds, I think Double Quarter Pounder with cheese or French fries (and now I'm officially hungry). I definitely don't associate the fast food chain with fashion. But apparently, McDonalds has a secret chic side. In England, designer Wayne Hemingway has teamed up with McDonalds to create sleek new "Mad Men"-inspired uniforms for the workers.

Related: '60s Inspired Hairstyles

The uniforms are meant to have a slight retro, '60s vibe. No more baseball caps or bright red and yellow. Instead, the men will be outfitted in mocha brown skinny ties, women are in pencil skirts, and both will wear Fred Perry-esque polo shirts. Pretty fancy for fast food. Hemingway admitted that some people were initially weirded out by his latest collaboration with Mickey D's. "Yes, when we first started working with McDonald's we got a lot of comments and eyebrows were raised," said Hemingway.

Related: 13 Retro Swimsuits

I admit I'm a little surprised that McDonalds has

"...be eager to show respect..."



"Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another." (Romans 12:10)

It all began with a simple question I posed to the lobsterman whose home I was visiting. "Would you mind if I took a picture of your stack of buoys?' He and his wife were hosting a birthday party for a friend of ours, but I had never met the couple before pulling into their driveway. "Why sure," the salty fisherman answered. "You can take all the pictures you want," and with a gleam in his eye added, "And maybe you'd like a tour of the trap shop!" "Sure," I said, not knowing for certain if his offer was legitimate or just some landlubber initiation rite.

Later that afternoon he asked if I was ready for my tour, so we descended into the basement that housed the trap shop. As we started down the steps he began an earnest, detailed description of the process by which raw materials are turned into finished lobster traps.



He described each part of the

I was chatting with a friend about a great quote on feminism that I recently heard. When I asked my friend if she related to it, she shrank back in shock"A feminist? I'm not a (with horror) Feminist!"

The talk show for Smart, Funny Women

I was totally thrown. I am always surprised when a woman seems proud of being treated as "lesser" in the name of being traditional; it seems so outdated and insecure, especially when this is a confident and smart woman who lives a very progressive lifestyle. What was I missing here?

So I started poking around the Internet and was blown away by the negative and frankly ignorant ideas that people have about what feminism really is. Here is the word as described by Webster's Dictionary:

fem·i·nism noun \ˈfe-mə-ˌni-zəm\

1 : the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes

2 : organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests

Now that doesn't seem so bad, does it? Maybe I sound patronizing, but I find it unbelievable that women

21 ideas to make the most of summer, from finding the ultimate beach reads to making a lobster roll.


The Best Way to Catch Fireflies
David Tsay
How? With womanly wiles: "Fireflies blink to attract a mate," explains naturalist Lynn Havsall, director of programs at the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History, in Bar Harbor, Maine. "Males fly around while females sit in trees, in shrubs, or on the ground. So find a female and watch her blinking pattern. Then imitate the pattern with a pen flashlight and the males will come to you."

A plus: The bugs move slowly, so they're easy to trap in a jar. Punch some holes in the lid and add a little grass and a piece of fruit for moisture. Admire your pretty night-lights till bedtime, then let them go.

Also See: Summer Party Planner




The Best Way to Get In and Out of a Hammock
Everyone looks good lazing in a hammock―it's getting in and out that's tricky. To make it less so, try these tips from Penny Waugh, a buyer for hammocks.com: Ditte Isager

-Position your backside

The Coors Light Silver Bullet Train is speeding towards the most refreshing summer yet, with special beer packaging, memorable local events, exclusive social media campaigns, a talent search with Ice Cube, and much more. In addition, the seasonal celebration is literally painting the summer silver with a fresh focus on local 3D art by world-renowned artists. In this time-lapse video that is sure to give you goose-bumps, watch a Coors Light Silver Bullet Pint come to life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bNlrm5j6vc

The Coors Light Silver Bullet Summer kicks off with the release of sleek, new special-edition Silver Bullet Summer packaging. Hitting shelves now, certain packs of Coors Light 12-ounce bottles and cans feature a distinctive, all-silver design with the exception of the iconic Cold-Activated blue mountains. The Silver Bullet Summer packaging will be available for about 10 weeks in all varieties of 12-ounce cans, as well as 24-loose and 6-pack 12-ounce bottles.

The

I don't understand why this is suppose to be important. Most African Americans are part white, I would guess 98-100 percent have some white somewhere, this should be well known by now. Is there shame in this or the process of just being human? It depends how one looks at this. A short while ago I knew a woman that was African American and she looked at having a white grandmother as being something awful. One of her sons married a white woman and they had a beautiful little girl: inwhich she would not have anything to do with. So she looked at this as being wronge. My personal thoughts about this is that slavery is and was wronge, but just living in the same country is not wronge. How can we control what our ancesters did? In the Bible it says that the Fathers sins shall be passed on to the sons, I guess this is a true statement, of course the Bible is never wronge. So I close with this , life happens-thank-God.

Life is funny, when your born you know nothing and really don't care. Your parents or caretakers whom ever they may be look out for you.
As you grow you learn to scoot, crawl and then at last walk, talk and eat table or normal food just like your parents or caretakers.
Then you hit that magic number 5 that's the first one. Yeah you get to go to school just like the big kids.
And for a while your happy, you look forward to going. As you go through school, you find all kinds of new ways to skip class and then school all together it seems the thing to do and hey, It cool. Your friends are all doing it and besides if you don't join in then your just lame, square, dull an outcast so you do it.
Of course your parents or caretakers ask you the age old question when you get caught, if your friends jumped off a bridge would you do it to? Trust me, one day you will find a reason to ask you own child this same thing or a version thereof. And you look at your parents as if they are stupid or