Helen Gurley Brown, the long-time editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and author of the ground-breaking 1962 book Sex and the Single Girl has died at 90 after a brief hospitalization.

Best-selling Irish author Maeve Binchy has died at the age of 72 after a short illness. She worked as a teacher before becoming a journalist, columnist and editor at the Irish Times. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982 and became a bestseller. A beloved author throughout the world, she was known for heart-warming books which explored family and human relationships with drama and humor. Binchy saw several of her works turned into movies, including Circle of Friends and Tara Road.

The copper beech by Maeve Binchy

Sally Kristen Ride was a physicist and a former NASA astronaut. In 1983, Ride became the first American woman to enter space as a crew member on space shuttle Challenger for STS-7. Her second space flight was in 1984, also on board the Challenger. Her post-NASA years were spent at Stanford University and University of California, San Diego. She holds the distinction of being the only person on both the Challenger and Columbia disaster commissions. She founded Sally Ride Science, a company that creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students. Ride authored many books on space aimed at children. Sally Ride died on July 23, 2012 at the age of 61.

Best-selling author and long-time columnist, Jeffrey Zaslow, died on Friday, February 10th from injuries suffered after a car crash in northern Michigan. Internationally known for his humorous and empathetic columns as well as his non-fiction books including The Girls from Ames and The Last Lecture, the West Bloomfield based author was scheduled to appear at Canton Public Library on February 23rd to discuss his most recent book, The Magic Room.

John Updike was an American novelist, poet, and literary critic. Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series(Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit at Rest, and Rabbit Remembered). Both "Rabbit is Rich" and "Rabbit at Rest" received the Pulitzer Prize.