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The friends who shape us

Review by Kelly Blewett

For fans of searingly honest memoirs, the publication of Susanna Sonnenberg’s She Matters is a cause for celebration. Sonnenberg’s previous book, Her Last Death, explored her tumultuous relationship with her provocative and ultimately destructive mother. This book turns to more nurturing, though occasionally heartbreaking, women in Sonnenberg’s life: her friends.

Comprised of 20 short essays, Sonnenberg’s book discusses all kinds of friendships—those that ended well, ended badly, ended mysteriously or (occasionally) continue today. Her Rolodex of friends includes a writer, a painter, a stay-at-home mom, a rabbi and a massage therapist. I can only imagine what her friends must have thought when they found themselves drawn by her pen; but for readers, the rewards are rich. The book’s honesty, eloquence, laugh-out-loud humor, finely wrought prose and magnificent scope will keep readers eagerly turning the pages.

The Sonnenberg who closes the book is not the same woman we meet on page one. Because the essays are arranged chronologically, readers learn how major life decisions—from embracing motherhood to moving to Montana, from becoming a writer to working in an abortion clinic—have shaped the way she chooses and fosters her friendships. We see how time and change impacted some of her oldest relationships. Given this benefit of space and reflection, Sonnenberg adds asides that deepen some of the early stories. “Had I paid attention,” she says of one friend, “she would have shown me a first real lesson in grief, its disorganizing confusions, its inescapable solitude.”

One of the many things to appreciate about this book is its refusal to bundle each friendship into a neat bow. Instead, these memorable and lovely essays gesture to the real-life intricacies of relationships. They celebrate the many pleasures of knowing and being known. For readers who welcome a complex perspective beautifully rendered in writing, this book is not to be missed.

For fans of searingly honest memoirs, the publication of Susanna Sonnenberg’s She Matters is a cause for celebration. Sonnenberg’s previous book, Her Last Death, explored her tumultuous relationship with her provocative and ultimately destructive mother. This book turns to more nurturing, though occasionally heartbreaking, women in Sonnenberg’s life: her friends. Comprised of 20 short essays, […]
Nonfiction

Made of star stuff

Review by John T. Slania

The biblical passage, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return,” is a poignant reminder of our fragile place in the world. It also reminds us how deeply we are connected to the earth, the water, the air and to the other creatures who roam the land. Neil Shubin’s The Universe Within is a further reminder of this critical relationship.

At a time when we pay increasing attention to the effects of our actions on the planet, The Universe Within also reveals how the universe has had a huge impact on the development of the human race. For example, many scientists believe that our universe was created by the Big Bang. Shubin writes that atoms from the Big Bang can be found in our air, our water and inside of us, as a sort of recycling process for the ages. “The particles that make us,” Shubin writes, “have traveled billions of years across the universe; long after we and our planet are gone, they will be a part of other worlds.”

Once Shubin establishes his thesis that we humans and our universe are made of the same tiny particles, it’s easy to accept his arguments for how we are connected in other ways. Consider that humans are made up mostly of water, which also covers most of our earth; or look at Shubin’s illustration of the strong likenesses even among wildly diverse creatures, such as the strikingly similar shapes of the leg bones of an elephant and a mouse.

The Universe Within gives us an appreciation of how we are just small specks and small moments in time. But it also challenges us to take steps to protect our environment so our world can last a little longer.

The biblical passage, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return,” is a poignant reminder of our fragile place in the world. It also reminds us how deeply we are connected to the earth, the water, the air and to the other creatures who roam the land. Neil Shubin’s The Universe Within is a […]
NonfictionMemoir

Wit and candor in a daughter’s tale

Review by Catherine Hollis

There are bad mothers and there are alcoholic mothers, and then there are bad, alcoholic, psychotic mothers like Georgann Rea. Add glamour, beauty and a rapidly dwindling divorce settlement, and you’ve got Chanel Bonfire.

A small-town blonde from Kansas City, Georgann married up and out, catapulting herself and her two small daughters from a Midwestern first marriage to the luxuries of life in New York and London. In doing so, she effectively kidnapped the girls, blocking them from any contact with their father and holding them hostage to her volatile moods, her drinking, her florid romantic conquests and her suicide attempts.

Older daughter Wendy tries to protect her little sister Robbie from the worst of it, but she can’t stop the destructive spiral of her mother’s rage: how she breaks their toys, locks them in a closet, flirts with their boyfriends and tells them they’ve ruined her life. A fortuitous connection with a therapist helps Wendy, even as the violence between Robbie and their mother escalates. Little by little, the girls raggedly break away from their mother, although physical separation is easier than mental detachment.

This miracle of a memoir is completely free from self-pity, and it’s surprisingly suspenseful. Written from the point of view of Wendy’s younger self, it unfolds for the reader as it unfolds for the daughters: with no clear resolution in sight. And yet it is clearly the product of a healthy retrospection, driven by a cinematic attention to detail, dialogue and scene. In writing Chanel Bonfire, Wendy Lawless has given up disguising her mother’s craziness in favor of telling the truth as clearly and objectively as is possible to do.

There are bad mothers and there are alcoholic mothers, and then there are bad, alcoholic, psychotic mothers like Georgann Rea. Add glamour, beauty and a rapidly dwindling divorce settlement, and you’ve got Chanel Bonfire. A small-town blonde from Kansas City, Georgann married up and out, catapulting herself and her two small daughters from a Midwestern […]
Social Science

An enlightening look at modern communities

Review by Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

As he did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond continues to make us think with his mesmerizing and absorbing new book. In The World Until Yesterday, he pushes us to reconsider the contours of human society and the forces that have shaped human culture.

Drawing on both his personal experiences of traditional societies, especially among New Guinea Highlanders, and in-depth research into cultures as diverse as Amazonian Indians and the !Kung of southern Africa, Diamond convincingly argues that while many modern states enjoy a wide range of technological, political and military advantages, they often fail to offer an improved approach to such issues as raising children or treating the elderly.

Hardly naïve, Diamond acknowledges that the modern world would never embrace many practices, such as infanticide and widow-strangling, embedded in traditional cultures but horrifying to modern ones. Yet traditional societies also value societal well-being over individual well-being, so that care for the elderly is an integral part of their social fabric—an arrangement that “goes against all those interwoven American values of independence, individualism, self-reliance, and privacy.”

Ranging over topics that include child-rearing, conflict resolution, the nature of risk, religion and physical fitness, Diamond eloquently concludes with a litany of the advantages of the traditional world. “Loneliness,” he observes, “is not a problem in traditional societies,” for people usually live close to where they were born and remain “surrounded by relatives and childhood companions.” In modern societies, by contrast, individuals often move far away from their places of birth to find themselves surrounded by strangers. We can also take lessons from traditional cultures about our health. By choosing healthier foods, eating slowly and talking with friends and family during a meal—all characteristics Diamond attributes to traditional societies—we can reform our diets and perhaps curb the incidence of diseases such as stroke and diabetes.

Powerful and captivating, Diamond’s lucid insights challenge our ideas about human nature and culture, and will likely provoke heated conversations about the future of our society.

As he did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond continues to make us think with his mesmerizing and absorbing new book. In The World Until Yesterday, he pushes us to reconsider the contours of human society and the forces that have shaped human culture. Drawing on both his personal experiences of […]
Business & Finance

The rich and famous

Review by bookpagedev

All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make and Spend Their Fortunes, by journalists Peter W. Bernstein and Annalyn Swan is published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Forbes, the book clarifies the difference between those who have money (lots of actors and athletes) and those with genuine wealth (the 400 richest people in the world, according to the magazine). If knowing how the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett garnered their fortunes and what they’ve done with their wealth appeals to you, the Bernstein/Swan team’s exhaustive research will prove quite rewarding.

All the Money in the World is one of the most detailed books you’ll see, with a host of tables, sidebars, factoids, anecdotes and material. Depending on your politics, the fact that some of these people have lost more money in 25 years than many nations of the world could raise in triple that time might be amazing, interesting or appalling. This amalgam of lists, profiles and stories does humanize the Forbes 400, however, showing that even the ultra-wealthy make mistakes in judgment, have bad marriages, family feuds, unexpected setbacks and other problems. All the Money in the World is not just scholarly; it’s also highly readable and provocative.

All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make and Spend Their Fortunes, by journalists Peter W. Bernstein and Annalyn Swan is published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Forbes, the book clarifies the difference between those who have money (lots of actors and athletes) and those with genuine wealth (the 400 […]
Animals

The dog wins, hands-down

Review by bookpagedev

Dog devotees are certain to appreciate the strange-but-true episodes collected in What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner by Emily Yoffe. A regular contributor to Slate.com who has also written for Newsweek and Esquire, Yoffe starts out as a staunch cat owner, with no intention of having a dog. But one day, in answer to her daughter’s demands, she brings home a rescued beagle the nervous, sensitive Sasha. With this high-maintenance pet on her hands, there’s no looking back for the author who ready or not enters the rocky terrain of canine ownership. Then, quicker than a twitch of Sasha’s tail, the incredible occurs: Yoffe becomes a dog person. Writing with affection, insight and humor, Yoffe chronicles this classic conversion experience. Her initiation into the canine world is both comic and poignant, filled with unforgettable incidents, as she studies to become a pet psychic (in order to telepathically communicate with her animals), trains the poorly socialized Sasha to work as a therapy dog and cares for a succession of needy beagles. Best of all is Sasha’s miraculous metamorphosis from a hopelessly phobic rescue case to a happily adjusted member of the Yoffe household. The perfect ending. Julie Hale’s dog, Howdy, who was rescued from a shelter, is still working on the basics of sit and stay.

Dog devotees are certain to appreciate the strange-but-true episodes collected in What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner by Emily Yoffe. A regular contributor to Slate.com who has also written for Newsweek and Esquire, Yoffe starts out as a staunch cat owner, with no intention of having a dog. But one […]

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