At a book party for the The Inner Game of Stress (Random House. 2009) by W. Timothy Gallwey with Edd Hanzelik, M.D., and John Horton, M.D., we were inspired by the subtitle “outsmart life’s challenges and fulfill your potential.” We posed a scenario to Horton: What if we’ve been health-conscious our whole lives and then as we pass 40 stressful health issues start cropping up? For example, our blood work comes back with borderline-high cholesterol, causing visions of Lipitor prescriptions to dance in our heads? “You have inner resources beyond what you realize,” Horton told us. “You need to learn to tap into your best inner resources, your more evolved self, in order to handle issues of aging and just about anything else.”

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After a recent relocation, we’re rethinking our hefty (and heavy) book collection. We found that our public library card saves valuable bookshelf space — not to mention cash. In fact, according to the 2008 State of America’s Libraries Report from the American Library Association, visits to public libraries and checked-out items are up 10 percent since the last economic downturn in 2001. The report also found that the sluggish economy has led more people to utilize the library’s free activities, Internet access and job-seeking resources. However, while library attendance is up, many of the institutions — including public, school and university libraries — are facing big budget cuts.

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Having already worked our way through soy, almond and rice milks, we decided to try a box of the Living Harvest Unsweetened Original Hempmilk at our local Whole Foods. Holy yum! When we poured it over some whole-grain cereal, we couldn’t believe how rich and creamy it tasted. What’s more, it contains an impressive amount of protein, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids (lots of healthy omega-3’s and a small amount of omega-6’s). Sold, we started adding hemp milk to baked goods (banana bread), pasta sauces (for mac and cheese) and soups (creamy pumpkin), in lieu of high-fat dairy.

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Whenever we listen to lounge orchestra Pink Martini, we conjure a mental image in which we’re hosting a sophisticated dinner party, with fascinating, worldly guests who eventually clear a space for dancing. In our fantasy, we’re wearing vintage Chanel or a cocktail dress from Betty Draper’s Mad Men closet, and, of course, the 12-piece ensemble is playing in the background. Bandleader/pianist Thomas Lauderdale has said, “If the United Nations had a house band in 1962, hopefully we’d be that band,” which makes sense of our daydream.

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Nothing makes our lives feel more balanced and full of positive energy than when we support worthy causes, whether it’s spending our Saturday afternoons mentoring high school students or participating in sports leagues that help raise money for charity. If you’re interested in volunteering, finding the right opportunity is just a mouse-click away.

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Though our days of trick-or-treating are long gone, we still love Halloween for the chill in the air, jack-o’-lanterns and, of course, the occasional spooky story. Following are three of our favorite reads of the season — an atypical ghost story, a vampire’s tale and a mystery surrounding a grand English manor — perfect for curling up with this time of year.

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If we could trade places with any TV host, we’d want to be 39-year-old Padma Lakshmi. A co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, she’s smart, gorgeous and, as the host of Bravo’s Top Chef, she gets to eat fabulous food for a living. “I’m an omnivore. I have a great curiosity about food,” she tells us. “Food makes me happy, which is why I’m very well equipped to do the job that I do.”

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We recently attended the ninth annual Les Girls cabaret in Hollywood, the annual celeb-studded fundraiser for the National Breast Cancer Coalition. We were pleased to see so many stars out in force. Many in the show have a loved one who had breast cancer, including Modern Family’s Ty Burrell and Mad Men’s Bryan Batt (left), whose mothers survived it.

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After watching Rebecca Romijn in roles like the blue-painted Mystique in X-Men and the transgender magazine heiress Alexis Meade on Ugly Betty, we’re pleased to see she’s portraying a real woman — albeit one with clairvoyant powers — in Eastwick, the new TV series based on John Updike’s 1984 novel The Witches of Eastwick (Ballantine). “This character is the closest to myself in real life that I’ve ever played,” says the 36-year-old supermodel-turned-actress, whose character Roxie Torcoletti is a bohemian Earth-mother type who wears flowing dresses and tresses.

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When we last saw the doctors of ABC’s Private Practice in the second season’s cliffhanger finale, crisis was the operative word. Kate Walsh’s Addison had called it quits with her married man (and delivered his wife’s baby), Audra McDonald’s Naomi was threatening to leave the practice for the rival clinic downstairs, and Amy Brenneman’s pregnant Violet was menaced by a deranged knife-wielding patient intent on stealing her baby. The drama continues on tomorrow’s third-season premiere.

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