This memoir about calling demonstrates that while Wendy Widder has earned a PhD and written scholarly works (including a commentary on Daniel, should you need one!), she also writes gracefully and accessibly for a non-technical audience.
I appreciated her honesty about her struggles in trying to follow God’s will and the path as it was revealed, then changed—more than once. Widder brings humor even to her dark moments, another plus for me. The book is also a terrific example of metaphor applied consistently throughout both the chapter titles and text. Full disclosure: Wendy and I are writing buddies, and I had the privilege of reading this book as it was coming to life. The book will be published on November 1, but is available for pre-order at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. For more about the book, including back jacket copy, see https://wendywidder.com/every-road-goes-somewhere/.
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Valerie Biden Owens is Joe Biden’s younger sister; she has also managed every political campaign for him, in addition to other work. In this memoir, she details her upbringing as the only daughter in an Irish-Catholic family with four sons. She discusses their education, their marriages, and their tragedies.
It’s clear their bond is unusually strong; Joe refers to her as his best friend since he was three. Valerie became a surrogate mother to the two young boys who survived the car crash that killed their mother and baby sister. The underlying emphasis is that faith and family are important to the Bidens. Many Elinor Lipman fans know only her fiction, but Lipman tells stories from her own life as well. This collection, published in 2013, is divided into four sections: Meet the Family, On Writing, Coupling Columns, and Since Then. In her introduction, Lipman gives thanks to the publications that first brought these pieces into being, including Boston Globe, Good Housekeeping, New York Times, and others. As readers of her novels know, Lipman is a fine writer. I find that essays are well-suited to these times of fragmented attention and little leisure. This is a great starting point if you think Montaigne and Joseph Addison are the only essayists out there.
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What I’m ReadingI began working in libraries as a seventh grader, courtesy of scoliosis. My orthopedic surgeon wrote me a pass to miss gym class, so I began working in the school library to feed my love of reading. Even after my surgery to correct the curvature, I kept getting out of gym to work in my high school library and then in my college library (for pay, at last!).
So began my eventual career as a college reference librarian—after a detour into teaching high school English. Later I worked for an educational publisher before going back to libraries.
I have a reading and writing life now. I devour both fiction and nonfiction, and will tell you about some of my favorite reads, both old friends and new discoveries.
Here's some library-themed music to get you in the mood.
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