Some unsolicited thoughts and opinions from a mother and daughter who love reading and talking about books!

Unbelievable was recommended to me by a friend and frankly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it.   Don’t get me wrong.  I happily spend many an evening glued to MSNBC, following Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow.  But, the idea of using my leisure time reading about Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign run seemed potentially anxiety-producing, rather than pleasant.  I decided to try it though, and I am delighted that I did.

One gauge of a great book, I believe, is how long it stays with you after you’ve finished reading it.  Another is how many excerpts you read out loud to your significant other.  A third is how many times you talk about it with everyone you know who likes to read.  A fourth is how many times you recommend it to your friends and family.  By all these standards, Lab Girl is a great read.

I read this book before my daughter Charlotte was born, and it was and remains one of my top two favorite books on parenting.  I know I enjoyed it in part because there is a narrative.  Rather than being an endless list of charts and data, Druckerman tells her own story about raising her three children.  But she is a journalist, and so she supplements her experience with interviews and data, and even a few charts!

Several people told me that I really needed to read Educated.  When I finally began to read it, I wondered if it could possibly live up to all the hype.  Well, add me to the book’s long list of admirers.  Educated will draw you in and bowl you over. It is the true story of Tara Westover, the youngest child of seven, who was raised by survivalist parents in Idaho. 

Anyone who has read Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In knows that she writes well and has a compelling story to tell.  Anyone who has read Adam Grant’sOriginals or Give and Take knows that he also has an interesting set of beliefs and is able to articulate them clearly.  When these two successful authors teamed up to write Option B, it’s no wonder the resulting book is a real knock-out.

I saw Andrew Forsthoefel speak at Wellesley College last year at one of their semi-annual Authors on Stage presentations – where three authors talk about their latest books – always a treat!  He held me captivated as he explained the genesis of the idea of walking across the US (and then writing his book): a combination of graduating from college without being sure what direction he wanted to take in life and looking for more meaning in the life he led. 

David Litt’s Thanks, Obama will charm and entertain you from start to finish.  With his self-deprecating humor, Litt relates his amazing story of becoming one of the youngest White House speechwriters in history.

I don’t read a lot of memoirs, and although we have about a million cookbooks on our shelves, I don’t spend a lot of time reading them either.  But Stir manages to combine the two genres effectively and engagingly to create this quick-read book about healing, home and how our food defines us.

As the subtitle suggests, this book is a bit of a paradox, but I can honestly say, I have NEVER laughed out loud as much as I did reading Furiously Happy.  I can perhaps blame the intensity of my reaction on pregnancy hormones, but my husband Dan came in to the room several times to check if I was alright to find me crying I was laughing so hard.

I read this book for two reasons:  it had been recommended to me by a friend and I loved The House of Sand and Fog, Dubus’ breakout novel.  To say I enjoyed this memoir would be an exaggeration.  But it has stayed with me far longer than most books.  I have thought about it and talked to other people about it many times since I finished reading it.  For me, that’s proof of its power and perhaps even its value.