I would not have expected any less from Michelle Obama’s book, but it was excellent. The book begins with her family and earliest memories, and I found her writing to be insightful and without sentimentality. Like other great memoirs, Becoming managed to to reflect upon the larger picture of history and its ramifications without losing…… Continue reading Becoming by Michelle Obama
Rebecca Serle’s The Dinner List starts with a great premise: choose five people, living or dead, you’d like to have dinner with, and your best friend will make it happen. Sabrina’s thirtieth birthday dinner is the fulfillment of the exercise, completed ten years earlier. Half the book is her dinner with her best friend, ex-boyfriend,…… Continue reading Don’t miss The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
We recently took a monster road trip (two, actually) and occupied nearly 4000 miles with good audio books. What a gift an audio book is! I especially love listening to a book I’ve read previously- hearing it in someone else’s voice always gives me a richer perspective on it. A few of our favorites were:…… Continue reading A few audio book favorites
My oldest son left for college this month. It has been a huge change for our family, and even as we’re all adjusting well, my own coping strategy has been to read Robert Crais novels the way I stress-eat carbs: by the fistful, late at night, one after another. Robert Crais writes a series of books about…… Continue reading How reading is an emotional thermometer
I read Fish in a Tree on my daughter’s recommendation. It’s the story of a seventh grader who has dyslexia. Ally is a great storyteller, and her keen observations paint the difficulty and pain of living in a world of readers when you’re not one. Ally’s world consists of classroom politics and the burden of…… Continue reading Fish in a Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt
I was invited to speak in a book club last week. (Well, I was invited earlier, but went last week.) What a fun day! In fact, it was so good I forgot to take a photo. It was a group of eight women: teachers and nurses and moms and pastors, mostly retired. As book clubs…… Continue reading Book Club thoughts
Steve Sheinkin has done it again. His book on Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon papers is a great story, and a timely one. While he writes for a younger audience, there is nothing simple or simplified about the content or writing of this book, and I tore through it as if I’d never heard of…… Continue reading Most Dangerous by Steve Sheinkin
