The Only Plane In the Sky

I published this review in 2020. Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and I have decided to repost it in memory of all those who lost their lives, as well as everyone affected by this terribly attack on our country. May we never forget. 

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff
Nonfiction - History
2019 Avid Reader Press
Finished on January 11, 2020
Rating: 5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

The first comprehensive oral history of September 11, 2001—a panoramic narrative woven from the voices of Americans on the front lines of an unprecedented national trauma.

Over the past eighteen years, monumental literature has been published about 9/11, from Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower, which traced the rise of al-Qaeda, to The 9/11 Commission Report, the government’s definitive factual retrospective of the attacks. But one perspective has been missing up to this point—a 360-degree account of the day told through the voices of the people who experienced it.

Now, in The Only Plane in the Sky, award-winning journalist and bestselling historian Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived—in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, Graff paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet.

Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York City, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker underneath the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard the small number of unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down. In the skies above Pennsylvania, civilians aboard United Flight 93 make the ultimate sacrifice in their place. Then, as the day moves forward and flights are grounded nationwide, Air Force One circles the country alone, its passengers isolated and afraid.

More than simply a collection of eyewitness testimonies, The Only Plane in the Sky is the historic narrative of how ordinary people grappled with extraordinary events in real time: the father and son working in the North Tower, caught on different ends of the impact zone; the firefighter searching for his wife who works at the World Trade Center; the operator of in-flight telephone calls who promises to share a passenger’s last words with his family; the beloved FDNY chaplain who bravely performs last rites for the dying, losing his own life when the Towers collapse; and the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from rushing into the burning building to try to rescue their colleagues.

At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to the literature of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal experiences of the men and women who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented human drama. The result is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives.

I have so many thoughts about this book. As I began, I discovered I couldn't stop reading, very much like that September morning 18 years ago when I couldn't stop watching the news. It brought back vivid memories of where I was, who I was with, and how the shocking events of the attacks unfolded before my eyes as I watched the news reports in disbelief and horror. Like Garrett Graff's excellent compilation of interviews and transcripts, I simply could not pull my gaze from the scenes. I was afraid there would be more attacks and I felt compelled to know what was happening at every moment. At that time, my teenage daughter and I were living in Texas and my husband was working in Nebraska, so I was even more anxious, not being together as a family to face whatever might come.

From the first pages of this outstanding narrative, I was quickly engrossed, reading far into the night, which was not particularly a good thing since my dreams were full of images of that terrible day. I noticed that as I read, I was holding my breath, literally on the edge of my seat, despite the fact that I knew the terrible outcome as I turned each page. Yet, the intimacy of the oral histories revealed so much more than I saw on the TV broadcasts.

I had considered listening to the audio version of this book, but I'm glad that I decided to go with the print. Each chapter is arranged in a format of individual accounts, noting the name, place of employment, or relationship to a family member involved in the attacks. Without those visual references, I would have lost track of who was who; the print version made it easy to flip back and forth, refreshing my memory of the specific individual describing a particular anecdote. I also think the audio book (and hear all of those stories, which are read by a full cast of actors) would gut me. 

Here are just a few passages that gave me pause:

For those at the tip of Lower Manhattan, the only viable evacuation route turned out to be the water. A makeshift, unorganized armada of more than 130 ferries, pleasure yachts, sightseeing vessels, Coast Guard and police vessels, fireboats, and tugboats gathered--many without being asked--at Battery Park and nearby piers. By the end of the day, they had collectively evacuated somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people from Manhattan--a maritime rescue larger than the World War II evacuation from Dunkirk.

and

James Luongo, inspector, NYPD: At one point, there had to be 200 construction workers walking down West Street. I said, "Who's in charge?" They said, "Nobody's in charge. We're here to help." I'll never forget those men--big burly guys, coming down. So much of that day, so much of that day was just New Yorkers. People who can help people. A lot of credit goes to the fire department. A lot of credit goes to the police department and emergency response people. But that's what we get paid for. The amount of New Yorkers--just everyday New Yorkers--who stepped up to the plate that day was incredible.

and

Ileana Mayorga, management specialist, Volunteer Arlington: At 1:00 the phone started ringing, people who wanted to come and help. I put the names of all these people in an Excel sheet and what it is that they wanted to do. They wanted to help dig out the people at the Pentagon. They wanted to secure the area themselves. They wanted to enlist to go and fight. I had a man who called and he said, "I am 80 years old. I still fit in my pilot uniform from World War II. I can still see. I can still hear. I have kept up with my training as a pilot. Tell whoever you can tell that I'm ready to report for duty." That broke my heart, this 80-year-old man saying that.

and

Ileana Mayorga: It was completely amazing, the feeling of support, of unity. I felt so proud that my community, the Hispanic community, were calling. Suddenly the phones were ringing and saying, "This is the country that we chose to come to. Nobody will destroy our country." They would say, "I'm not legal in the United States. Do you think they will accept me to do volunteer work?"

and

As the morning of September 11th passed, a stunned, wounded nation found itself enveloped in a quiet--businesses and schools closed, traffic thinned, the normal air traffic overhead fell silent. Many Americans, both ordinary civilians and government officials, were glued to the television, soaking in the news, overcome with emotion.

and

At Ground Zero, an impromptu bucket brigade had begun work, trying to sift through the acres of burning wreckage in hopes of finding survivors and recovering the dead. The fires at Ground Zero would burn for another 99 days, until they were finally extinguished for good on December 19.

and

Paul McFadden [firefighter, Rescue 2, FDNY]: When everything settled, I lost 46 friends. The were either my friends or they were sons of my friends. 

I've read two other books that deal with the horrors of 9/11. The first is The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard (reviewed here). The second is a memoir by Abigail Carter called The Alchemy of Loss: A Young Widow's Transformation (reviewed here). Both are excellent and The Only Plane in the Sky has inspired me to pull them from my shelves for a second reading.

Click here to listen to the Garrett Graff explain his research process and motivation for creating this comprehensive and important oral history of 9/11.

We must never forget.

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death

 

I Am I Am I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell

Nonfiction - Memoir

2017

Finished on November 10, 2025 and July 16, 2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good) and 4/5 (Very Good)

Update: I read this a second time for book club. It was good, but not as good as the first time around. Not one I'll read again, so I've passed it on.

Publisher's Blurb:

We are never closer to life than when we brush up against the possibility of death.

I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter--for whom this book was written--from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life's myriad dangers.

Seventeen discrete encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations, reveal a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. In taut prose that vibrates with electricity and restrained emotion, O'Farrell captures the perils running just beneath the surface, and illuminates the preciousness, beauty, and mysteries of life itself.

I've read all but one of Maggie O'Farrell's books (The Marriage Portrait) and other than a couple of her novels, I Am I Am I Am is my favorite of her entire collection of published works. Wow. She has crafted a lovely memoir, filled with love, fear, and the most near-misses a human being could possibly encounter in their lifetime. O'Farrell is both a very unlucky and lucky woman to have experienced so many brushes with death. And she doesn't simply recount those situations in a cut and dried manner, but weaves poetic details throughout each beautifully rendered essay. I held my breath as I read a couple of the vignettes, fearful of the outcome despite knowing she is currently alive and (hopefully!) well.

There is nothing unique or special in a near-death experience. They are not rare; everyone, I would venture, has had them, at one time or another, perhaps without even realizing it. The brush of a van too close to your bicycle, the tired medic who realises that a dosage ought to be checked one final time, the driver who has drunk too much and is reluctantly persuaded to relinquish the car keys, the train missed after sleeping through an alarm, the aeroplane not caught, the virus never inhaled, the assailant never encountered, the path not taken. We are, all of us, wandering around in a state of oblivion, borrowing our time, seizing our days, escaping our fates, slipping through loopholes, unaware of when the axe may fall. 

I can't imagine anyone reading this memoir who doesn't revisit their own close calls. While I don't care to go into detail of the times that I might have avoided the Grim Reaper, O'Farrell's encounters do remind me of a few. I suppose anyone who has given birth, gone swimming in the ocean, hiked alone, or flown in an airplane will find themselves nodding their heads as they read this book. The final essay had holding my breath, especially knowing someone who has a child with severe allergies to numerous food items.

I know I must nod calmly when people tell me they understand exactly how I feel because they have a gluten allergy, which makes them really bloated whenever they eat bread. I know to be patient and genial when I have to explain that, no, it’s not OK to bring that hummus into our house. No, it’s not a good idea to give her a little bit to get her used to it. No, please don’t open that near her. Yes, your lunch could kill my child.

I loved this beautiful memoir. It's a keeper.

Highly recommend.

Raising Hare: A Memoir

 

Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton

Nonfiction

2025

Narrated by Louise Brealey

Finished on 4/29/2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare.

Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end and gave birth to leverets in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality.

In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how impossible it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton’s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, stoats, feral cats, raptors, and even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death.

Raising Hare chronicles their journey together, while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness first-hand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.

I did not expect to enjoy Raising Hare was well as I did! When I first learned about Dalton's memoir, I associated it with H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, which I read in 2017. (Does anyone else look back on a review with astonishment that it was written almost a decade ago rather than two or three years??) While I liked Macdonald's book, it's not one that moved me with the same tenderness as Raising Hare. 

Dalton educates her readers on the differences between hares and rabbits, as well as other details about the life and history of the hare. I have deep respect for the author who rescued the leveret, but did not cage or attempt to adopt it as a pet. She did not name the small creature, nor did she confine it to her home. I thought it was remarkable that once old enough to leave the safety of Dalton's home, it returned day after day, joining Dalton in the house, eating the oats provided for nourishment, as well as giving birth to its own leverets behind the curtains in Chloe's study. Each time the hare disappeared for a few weeks, I felt a sense of foreboding, worried that it had been attacked by a fox or raptor (or run over by a car or tractor), and breathed a sigh of relief when it returned from its adventures. 

Part memoir, part natural science, Raising Hare is both entertaining and informative. It's a beautiful story that I won't soon forget. The audiobook is read by Louise Brealey, whose lovely narration added to my enjoyment. 

Highly recommend!

Note: I understand the print edition includes illustrations. All the more reason to order a gift copy in order to take a peek before wrapping!

The Story of a Heart

 

The Story of a Heart by Dr. Rachel Clarke

Nonfiction

2024

Finished on January 20, 2026

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A riveting and inspiring true story of two families linked by one heart—written by a bestselling author and palliative care doctor. 

The first of our organs to form and the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of what makes us human; as long as it continues to beat, there is hope. In The Story of a Heart, Dr. Rachel Clarke interweaves the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the story of two children—one of whom desperately needs a new heart.

One summer day, nine-year-old Keira Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira’s parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.

Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max’s parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family—in what Clarke calls “the brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery.”

The act of Keira’s heart resuming its rhythm inside Max’s body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK’s laws around organ donation. Following his successful surgery, Keira’s mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughter’s heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet. This is the unforgettable story of how one family’s grief transformed into a lifesaving gift. Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira’s heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible, stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless nurses and technicians, immunologists and paramedics. The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honor our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.

Last year a couple of my friends read The Story of a Heart, giving it such high praise that last week I decided to borrow a copy from the library. I find that if I don't already own a book, it's too easy to forget about those that are on my friends' year-end favorites' lists. Unless it's a auto-buy author, I try not to buy every book that lands on my radar.

The Story of a Heart is a short book (220 pages, excluding the notes), but it wasn't one I could zip through quickly. The author doesn't simply tell the story of the two families and how their lives intersect, but provides extensive background on the history of new technologies in medicine. Ventilators, skin grafts, artificial heart-lung machines, LVADs (a titanium and gold HeartWare left ventricular assist device), are just a few that Dr. Clarke incorporates in her book. While not dry or too technical, these clinical details pulled me out of the story at hand, ultimately holding me back from what could have been a real tear-jerker. My heart went out to both families, reminding me of the importance of organ donation.

"In the back of my mind, I know nothing I say can make their day any worse because they've already lost their loved one. This is the worst day of their life. But if I can give them a slight bit of hope and comfort by offering organ donation as part of end-of-life care, then that's what I need to do. It's not a taboo topic. It's a normal part of critical care. If someone meets the criteria to be an organ donor and we're not offering it to them, then I'm not doing my patient justice, I'm not being their advocate. The foundation of who I am as a nurse is trying to support the family however I can. Organ donation can help a family feel as though something good has come out of an awful situation, so it can be incredibly positive." (Sarah Crosby, specialist nurse)

 

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

 

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Nonfiction - Memoir

2005

Finished on November 29, 2025

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

How do you conjure a life? Give the truest account of what you saw, felt, learned, loved, strived for? For Amy Krouse Rosenthal, the surprising answer came in the form of an encyclopedia. In Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life  she has ingeniously adapted this centuries-old format for conveying knowledge into a poignant, wise, often funny, fully realized memoir.

 

Using mostly short entries organized from A to Z, many of which are cross-referenced, Rosenthal captures in wonderful and episodic detail the moments, observations, and emotions that comprise a contemporary life. Start anywhere—preferably at the beginning—and see how one young woman’s alphabetized existence can open up and define the world in new and unexpected ways.

 

An ordinary life, perhaps, but an extraordinary book.

I've never read anything like this book! Not only is it comprised of alphabetical entries about everything under the sun, but even the copyright page, inside cover flaps, and back cover blurbs are unique and entertaining.

From the copyright page:

Not responsible for lost or stolen property.

Not responsible for the weather, the moon, or scalding nature of soup.

Not responsible for the extra s some people add to the word occasion.

Not responsible for the short, edible window between

the banana is not ripe enough and the banana is rotten.

About this book:

I am not writing a memoir (I have no story); I am not writing an autobiography (for who really cares). I am writing a personal encyclopedia, a thorough documentation of an ordinary life in the end of the twentieth century/beginning of the twenty-first. And in fact, while I didn't know it then, I started this encyclopedia nearly two years ago, when I began gathering my columns/writings and putting them in alphabetical order. And I began it even before that, when I was busy making charts and tables for no apparent reason. And I began it even before that...

Allotting Enough Time to Make Flight:

I always work backward. Okay, the flight leaves at 11:15, so I should be at the airport by 9:15. That means I should leave the house at 8:30--no, play it safe, could be a lot of traffic, say 8:15. That means I need to get up at 7:30; that gives me 45 minutes to get ready and finish any last minute packing. As soon as I've come to this conclusion, I'll immediately repeat the whole internal dialogue-calculations, see if I come up with the same time estimates. I'll do this at least a couple more times the day before I leave, on of the times being that night when I set my alarm clock.

Broker:

It is weird and unsettling that a person who is hired to handle your money, make wise decisions about it, and, ostensibly, keep you from losing it is called a broker. 

Brother:

My brother, who grew up with three sisters, was I won't say how many years old when he finally realized that he did not have to wrap the towel around his chest when he came out of the shower. 

Dishwasher:

It is very difficult to try to load someone else's dishwasher; everyone has their own method. Glasses stacked in this row, bowls this way, silverware facing up, down--it's a highly personal thing. The few times someone outside the family has loaded ours, I opened it up and am disoriented, dismayed even, to find plates in the wrong slots, bowls on the top (the top?!), and even a skillet crammed in there. It's just too counter-productive and unsettling, even though it is nice of them to try to help.

Improvisation at Concerts:

I go to a concert, a band I really love. The band plays the first few bars of my absolutely favorite song, but then... what's that? They're altering it, improvising. The band thinks this is refreshing and artful, a welcome deviation, a prize for attending. But I am irked and disappointed they didn't play it just as I've enjoyed it on the CD all these years.

Potato Chips: 

When I eat potato chips, particularly the crunchy kettle kind, I find myself looking through the bag for the good chips. Somehow a good chip is one that is extra thick looking, and curled onto itself or folded, as opposed to straight and flat. It is a treat, a victory, to find a really good chip and pluck it from the bag. The thinner, straight, or broken ones aren't nearly as pleasing.

Some entries had me nodding my head in agreement and others had me laughing out loud. This is not a book to read straight through in a couple of sittings. I enjoyed reading several pages here and there between a few other books. 

Sadly, Amy Krouse Rosenthal passed away of ovarian cancer in 2017. She was 51. Her husband, Jason Rosenthal, has written a book called My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me: A Memoir. 

Highly Recommend

Safekeeping: Some True Stories From a Life

 

Safekeeping: Some True Stories From a Life by Abigail Thomas

Nonfiction - Memoir

2000

Finished on November 26, 2025

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A beautifully crafted and inviting accounting of one woman's life, Safekeeping offers a sublimely different kind of autobiography. Setting aside a straight-forward narrative in favor of brief passages of vivid prose, Thomas revisits the pivotal moments and tiny incidents that have shaped her: pregnancy at 18, single motherhood of three by the age of 26, the joys and frustrations of her marriages, and the death of her second husband. With startling clarity and unwavering composure, Thomas tells stories made of mistakes and loyalties, adventures and domesticities, of experience both deeply personal and universal.

This is a book in which silence speaks as eloquently as what is revealed. Openhearted and effortlessly funny, these brilliantly selected glimpses of the arc of life are, in an age of too much confession, a welcome tonic.

This is the third book that I've read by Abigail Thomas. I first discovered her memoir A Three Dog Life in 2007 after reading about it on Nan's blog (Letters from a Hill Farm). I followed up with What Comes Next and How to Like It in 2016. Safekeeping was published in 2000 and provided me with greater insight into Abigail's earlier years, but I didn't care for it as much as her later works. The vignettes jump around in time, as well as point of view (first person, third person, etc.). This slim book reads a bit like a novel, and is just shy of 200 pages, so it's a quick read, but with little take-aways. I had planned to read Still Life at Eighty as soon as I finished Safekeeping, but I think I'll hold off. Maybe I'll re-read the two I loved and then finish up with Still Life at Eighty.

"An artful scatter of snapshot moments... revealing a life that's remarkable not for its events but for the way it's recalled, with rue, insight and wit." ~ Rocky Mountain News

"Razor-sharp pieces of radiant truth.... Not so much memoir as a stained-glass window of scenes garnered from a life. This is an unforgettable portrait of a grown-up woman who has learned to rejoice in being herself. Reading it, we feel the crazy beauty of life." ~ Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird

Altitude Adjustment: A Quest for Love, Home, and Meaning in the Tetons

 

Altitude Adjustment: A Quest for Love, Home, and Meaning in the Tetons by Mary Beth Baptiste

Nonfiction - Memoir

2014

Finished on November 23, 2025

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Aware that her youth is slipping by, Mary Beth Baptiste decides to escape her lackluster, suburban life in coastal Massachusetts to pursue her lifelong dream of being a Rocky Mountain woodswoman. To the horror of her traditional, ethnic family, she divorces her husband of fifteen years, dusts off her wildlife biology degree, and flees to Moose, Wyoming, for a job at Grand Teton National Park. There, unexpected lessons from nature and wildlife guide her journey as she creates a new life for herself. Set against the dramatic backdrop and quirky culture of Jackson Hole, this is a thoughtful, often humorous account of a woman's bumbling quest for purpose, redemption, and love.

My husband and I spent two weeks exploring the Tetons in the fall of 2024. We drove our RV from Oregon through Idaho and Montana, stopping briefly in West Yellowstone before arriving in the Grand Teton National Park. We camped at Headwaters Campground and RV Park in Moran, Colter Bay RV Park, Signal Mountain Campground, Gros Ventre Campground, and Alpine Valley RV Resort. Always on the lookout for books by local authors, I found Mary Beth Baptiste's book somewhere along the way, drawn to the cover with the stunning image of the jagged mountain peaks and John Moulton's barn in the foreground. 

My photo of John Moulton's Barn

I enjoyed reading about Mary Beth's responsibilities in her various roles as a seasonal employee at the Grand Teton’s Division of Science and Resource Management, as well as her descriptions of the locations that Rod and I visited during our trip. I could easily picture Jenny Lake and Moose Pond, which is where I saw my very first moose. Actually, three. Mama, papa, and baby! 

I also recognized Lupine Meadows, which is where I wound up after taking a wrong turn on the trail to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Oops. Thankfully, there were no bears around, although maybe there were and my loud singing scared them away. Speaking of bears, Baptiste has more moxie than I do! Able to hike off-trail with a 40 pound backpack for three days, beat her male coworkers at target practice (for tranquilizing bears), staying calm (well mostly, other than the time she crawled up the back of a fellow ranger) during various encounters with a moose cow and a grizzly bear. Her responsibilities were varied and unpredictable. One day she may help with a breeding bird count or locate and count elk tracks. On another, she might help clear vegetation to reduce fire hazard. One day she may hike with coworkers to count bighorn sheep or help transport a great blue heron to the vet's. 

A twist of the binoculars' focus wheel and I gasp: two toddler-sized black bear cubs, one brown and one black, twined together high up in a spruce tree fifty yards away. I scan the ground for the mother. In a nearby huckleberry patch, her cinnamon-colored rump bobs like a swatch of scruffy hide on a clothesline. 

It unnerves me, this lack of boundaries. Every animal, scat, or track I find brings a new fear--a mother bear will charge, a moose will explode from the brush and trample, something out there will break through and annihilate me into dust. I long for an owl's head-turning ability so I can take it all in and see what's coming before it gets me. 

I turn and dash on tiptoes down the trail, my imagination conjuring up a multitude of lurking predators. 

This is how I remember those first years on my own in a strange place: thimblefuls of fake courage thrown at a conflagration of fear.

Halfway into the memoir, my attention began to wane. The author recounts her on-again off-again romantic relationship with a coworker that had me wanting to shake some sense into her. Mary Beth's desire for a love life after her divorce came across as immature, and some parts of the book are filled with teenage angst. The woman was in her early forties, not twenty-something! I grew anxious to finish the book and move on to something fresh, but the stories regarding the job rather than her personal life took hold once again. I was pulled back in and enjoyed the remainder of the book. So, a little uneven, but beautifully rendered, especially regarding the landscape.

Before us, smug with audacious power, the Teton range surges from the valley floor and the green-black forests, snagging cloud wisps as it rips through a meek cobalt sky.

Would I have appreciated Altitude Adjustment had I not visited the Grand Teton National Park? Probably not. And I doubt I'll read it a second time.

Recommend with reservations.

The Next Day

 

The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates

Nonfiction - Memoir

2025

Finished on November 19, 2025

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In a rare window into some of her life’s pivotal moments, Melinda French Gates draws from previously untold stories to offer a new perspective on encountering transitions.

During times of transition, we step out of our familiar surroundings and into a new landscape, a space that can be filled with possibility but also shadowed by uncertainty. The Next Day accompanies readers through that space, offering guidance to anyone--young or old--who is navigating change, finding their bearings, or trying to move forward when the ground beneath them is shifting. 

In this deeply personal book, Melinda writes about the joyful upheaval of becoming a parent, the death of a close friend, her life after divorce, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, the stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends through times of crisis, trusting your inner voice, and more. Melinda also introduces readers to some of the authors, poets, and thinkers whose work she had leaned on for wisdom and comfort in moments of need.

Each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are life, is headed toward a transition of our own. With her signature warmth and grace, Melinda empowers readers to make the most of the space between an ending and a new beginning and find the courage and confidence to embrace a new day.

I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did! Easily read in one sitting, Melinda Gates' memoir is conversational and engaging. The author acknowledges her position of privilege, and yet she comes across as a very humble and kind-hearted human being. 

Some passages of note:

You don't get to be my age without navigating all kinds of transitions. Some you anticipated and some you never expected. Some you embraced and some you resisted. Some you hoped for and some you fought as hard as you could. 

Still though, I believe that there are many aspects of the human experience that are universal. All of us want to feel a sense of ownership over our lives and our stories. All of us want to make meaning of the events we live through--the bitter and the sweet. All of us long for connection and the chance to be fully known.

Often when I've found myself in unfamiliar waters, I have reached across time and space to find something to buoy me in words written by someone else, sometimes someone who lived and died before I was born, someone with whom I have nothing obvious in common. In those moments, I'm glad that these people took the time to write about the things that mattered to them.

As a society, we often ascribe a certain virtue to people's lifelong dreams, as if those are, for some reason, more authentic or worthwhile than the dreams and aspirations we develop later in life. The truth, though, as Reverend McCaulley explains, is that there's important value in being willing to change your plans as your understanding of the world expands and grows more complex. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for yourself and the people around you is to have the wisdom to know which dreams to let go of in order to make room for something new. Some dreams undoubtedly propel us forward, but others hold us back. The trick is learning to distinguish between the two--and, when you decide an old dream no longer serves you, finding the courage to slip its bonds.

... wherever we are in life, we should find a way to look back at the versions of ourselves who came before us not with shame or regret but with tenderness and compassion. The people we used to be deserve for us to remember that they knew so much less, had experienced so much less, and were doing the best they could with what they had. 

While Melinda shares candid glimpses into her personal life (the loss of a dear friend, a difficult childbirth that reminded me of my own, and a very brief mention of her divorce), The Next Day is less of a memoir and more of an inspirational read. It has the feel of a series of wise TED Talks, which is not a criticism. Fans of Kelly Corrigan, Dani Shapiro, and Anna Quindlen will appreciate this work. I enjoyed each chapter and will return to this slim book in the future for a second reading.

Highly recommend.

Memorial Days

 

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks

Nonfiction - Memoir

2025

Finished on November 14, 2025

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey to peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse.

Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz – just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy – collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.

After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha’s Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at Lambert’s Cove. But all of this came to an abrupt end when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf.

Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the varied ways those of other cultures grieve, such as the people of Australia's First Nations, the Balinese, and the Iranian Shiites, and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony's death.

A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life.

I've only read two of Geraldine Brooks' novels (Year of Wonders and People of the Book), but now that I've read her recent memoir, I'm eager to try more of her books, especially Horse, which she completed after the death of her husband, Tony Horwitz. Memorial Days is an especially touching memoir in which Brooks recounts the days and weeks following the sudden death of her husband, while alternating chapters describe her retreat to Flinders Island three years later. 

When I get to Flinders Island, I will begin my own memorial days. I am taking something that our culture has stopped freely giving: the right to grieve. To shut out the world and its demands. To remember my love and to feel the immensity of his loss. "Grief is praise," writes Martin Prechtel in his book The Smell of Rain on Dust, "because it is the natural way love honors what it misses."

and

When I finally fall asleep, I don't wake till late. It's a gray, windy morning, and the sea is high. I have only a loose notion of how I will spend my time here. I will walk and reflect, taking whatever nature cares to offer me. I will write down everything I can recall about Tony's death and its aftermath. I will allow myself time and space to think about our marriage and to experience the emotions I've suppressed.

It's been over twenty years since my husband and I received the shocking news of our eldest daughter's death, and much of Brooks' thoughts on grief resonated deeply with me. I remember reading Joan Didion's book The Year of Magical Thinking shortly after Rachel's untimely death, hoping to find some comfort in Didion's words. While I highlighted several passages, the book didn't speak to me like Memorial Days. (I still have my review for that book languishing in my draft folder, and I'm not sure why I never got around to publishing it. Maybe I'll work on that in the coming weeks.)

Random Thoughts:

Geraldine's husband died on Memorial Day in 2019. Our daughter was killed on Memorial Day weekend (but not the actual day) in 2005.

Geraldine wasn't able to share the awful news of Tony's death in person with her son, having to resort to phoning him at his boarding school.  

That call, the sound of my son's sobs, in a place too far to reach for him and hug him, was a new depth of darkness on a dark, dark day.

We were living in Nebraska, and our younger daughter was in college in Texas. Making that phone call was the worst thing I have ever had to do.

I woke out of it [a dream], and there was a minute or two when everything felt fine. He wasn't dead. How ridiculous to have thought that. Yesterday--that was a dream.

Then I came fully awake. I lost him a second time.

I remember the early days when we would wake from a fitful sleep, those first moments of consciousness when we had yet to remember Rachel was gone. Like Brooks, we felt as if we were losing her a second time, day after day after day.

My sons' stories are their own to tell. I will not do that here. I will only say that on the street corner, with Bizu sagged against me, I did not know how lonely his journey would be and how little I would be able to help him.

So often when parents are dealing with their own grief, children suffer the loss of their sibling (or parent) by themselves. It was all we could do to get through each day. I often wonder if we could have done more for Amy had she lived at home rather than so far away at college.

On Grief:

In her essay "On Grief" Jennifer Senior quotes a therapist who likens the survivors of loss to passengers on a plane that has crashed into a mountaintop and must find their way down. All have broken bones; none can assist the others. Each will have to make it down alone.

On Writing:

I have written this because I needed to do it. Part of the treatment for a "complicated grief" is to relive the trauma of the death, returning to the moments again and again, striving each time to recall more detail. That is what I have tried to do.

My husband and I each created blogs comprised of letters to Rachel in the early months after her death. Those therapeutic blogs helped us deal with our grief, as well as provide our friends and family with a glimpse into how we were coping. As Joan Didion said, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.”

Our culture is averse to sad. We want people to be happy. We're chagrined and slightly offended when they're not. There is a desire to cheer them up. And then, later, there will be a glancing at the wristwatch, a tapping of the foot if they cannot be cheered, if their grief is perceived to go on too long. I wish we could resist those things.

Memorial Days is a beautiful, honest, thought-provoking memoir that touched my heart. I wish I could reach out and give Geraldine a hug. 

Highly recommend.

Truth & Beauty

 

Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett

Nonfiction - Memoir

2004

Finished on November 4, 2025

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Ann Patchett and the late Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. In Grealy’s critically acclaimed memoir Autobiography of a Face, she wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, years of chemotherapy and radiation, and endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth and Beauty, the story isn’t Lucy’s life or Ann’s life but the parts of their lives they shared. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long winters of the Midwest to surgical wards to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined--and what happens when one is left behind.

I wanted to love this book, but I got weary of Lucy's constant neediness and craving for reassurance, begging to be loved by Ann, whining about never finding a man who would love her, lying to Ann and other friends about her drug use. Truth & Beauty started off great, and I love Patchett's prose, but the story of her friendship with Grealy was bleak and drawn out far too long.

But in the evenings when we sat in front of the fireplace talking, it always came back to the same things: she was lonely, she was depressed, she wanted a boyfriend, she couldn't understand why no one loved her. She told me that she often had a couple of drinks and a couple of Percocets before getting in her car after midnight in Vermont and driving a hundred miles an hour over the icy back roads to New York. She said that she wanted to tempt fate.

I love this metaphor:

Oh, people like to say when they hear this part of the story, this is why you and Lucy are so close. You went through the same thing. [Referring to Ann's plastic surgery after an accident.] But nothing could be farther from the truth. I read one slim volume of the available information. Lucy read the library.

In reference to writing:

We shared our ideas like sweaters, with easy exchange and lack of ownership.

Truth & Beauty is an honest and brutal (if not exhausting) account of deep friendship. There is a lot to think about when reading this memoir. What constitutes a healthy friendship? Who has a right to share such intimate details of an individual while their family members are grieving? (See Lucy's sister's article here.) Despite my frustration with Lucy, I still intend to read her memoir, Autobiography of a Face. 

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

 

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

Nonfiction

2024

Finished on October 20, 2025

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A gorgeous, witty account of birding, nature, and the beauty around us that hides in plain sight.

Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, author Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.

In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater—an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired.

Random Thoughts...

Began reading on January 1st. Reading one journal entry each day. [This didn't last. I wound up reading some here and there, but not every day.]

Inspired to look up each bird mentioned by Tan on the Cornell Lab website. Listened to the bird calls, as well as noting physical characteristics that Tan has mentioned in her notations. Started watching Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam at Sapsucker Woods, which is highly addictive. So many birds to see. Chickadees, nuthatches, juncos, cardinals, woodpeckers, jays, doves, tufted titmice, finches, etc.

Humor in sketch captions - gorgeous drawings of the birds! I was going to list my favorites, but they are all lovely. What a talent.

Tan is a very involved backyard birder:

Now that the migrants are returning in greater number, I have added more feeders to each of the four locations: the patio, the verandah, the office porch, and on the other side of the bathroom window. Sichuan Sunflower Seeds. Vindaloo Suet Mini Balls. Farm-raised Mealworms. Vegan Nectar. Spicy Suet. Nuts & Chews & Bugs. Nyjer Nirvana. Graines Pour Oiseaux Sauvages. Alaskan Taste Water. These are signs of my descent into madness.

Hand feeding a hummingbird – amazing!

Tan mentions the Camp Fire and the loss of the town of Paradise (Nov 2018) and as I read this entry, L.A. County was burning. When we drove through Oregon last summer, the smoke was so thick from the fires out there, and like Tan, I wondered how the polluted air would affect the birds. Do they fly far away to get out of the smoke?

Tan is very curious. She ponders the sounds of a hummingbird as it approaches a feeder or circles her head. Clicks and chirps that are accompanied by a tail swing. What is the purpose of these noises and movements?

What I Leaned:

Auricular – feathers around ears?

John Muir Laws advised his nature class to talk to yourself to encode details into memory and understanding while watching birds/animals.

Mention of a fake dead crow to ward off crows in backyard. One of our neighbors did this and it seems to have worked. We have a lot of crows with noisy babies in the spring. Might have to try it…

“Hummingbirds use sticky spider webs to bind together a strong flexible nest that attaches like rubber cement to a branch and expands as the babies grow.” (p. 48)

"When people compliment bird drawings, mine or others', saying they are 'better than Audubon,' they don't realize that there is a lot more that Audubon did than simply draw feathers on a bird, apart from being a racist slave owner. He took on the feat of drawing all the birds in America, tracking them down, capturing both their habitat and a signature behavior. (p. 112)

I enjoyed Amy Tan's birding journal, which spans five years (September 2017 to December 2022) and includes 132 drawings, sketches, and color illustrations by Tan. This is not the sort of book to read quickly, but rather over several weeks or months. 

Simply lovely. 

The Ride of Her Life

 

The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts

Nonfiction

2021

Finished on September 14, 2025

Rating: 3.5/5

Publisher's Blurb:

The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion.

“The gift Elizabeth Letts has is that she makes you feel you are the one taking this trip. This is a book we can enjoy always but especially need now.”—Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv

In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.

Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers—a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.

Until now, I hadn't read anything by Elizabeth Letts, but I recognized her name and the title of her popular book, The Eighty-Dollar Champion, from my days as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble. I love to travel, so when my book group chose The Ride of Her Life, my curiosity was piqued, wondering how in the world a sixty-three-year-old woman (with a serious health condition) could possibly ride a horse from Maine to California. It took me far too long to get engrossed (and I admit to counting the remaining pages, which is never a good sign), but I eventually found myself looking forward to returning to the story. I'm glad I persevered. I decided if Annie Wilkins could keep going, so could I.

If you've been following me here (or on Instagram) for even a short time, you know that I love to travel. However, I'm not sure what it is about reading travel stories, at least those about traveling around the United States, that fails to impress me. I've read Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, The Longest Road by Philip Caputo, Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon, and The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck. None of these resonated with me as I would have thought, and I find it interesting that I gave each of these the same low rating of 2 stars! Curiously, the travel stories that have entertained me are those set in France, specifically Paris. 

What I liked about this particular book wasn't necessarily the details or route Annie and her menagerie traveled, but the tidbits of historical trivia Letts weaves into her narrative, creating a richer reading experience. (Coincidentally, my husband utilizes the same parenthetical style in his nautical books.) I learned that Lincoln Logs were created by Frank Lloyd Wright's son. I also discovered that AAA (American Automotive Association) issued the first road map for drivers (a map of Vermont), and that Duncan Hines was a former traveling salesman who put together restaurant and lodging guides for travelers. There's also a bit of a "Forest Gump" tone to Annie's adventures, with her crossing paths with Andrew Wyeth, Casey Jones' widow, and Art Linkletter, as she makes her way across the country.

I was reminded of Cheryl Strayed's memoir, Wild, and how ill-prepared she was to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Like Strayed (who had no experience in backpacking), Annie never looked at a map of the entire United States, relying solely on gas station maps for the surrounding areas, piecing together her route bit by bit. She certainly didn't take the most logical route from one coast to other! It's a wonder Strayed and Wilkins survived their journeys.

At the time of her departure for California, Annie was sixty-three-years-old. Not only am I the same age as she was, but we share the same birthday. I was a little miffed that she was referred to as an old lady, but it was 1954, and 60 is now the new 50, right?

I mentioned that Letts' writing style reminded me that of my husband's. The following can also be compared to one of Rod's books, Sailing by Starlight, in which Marv Creamer sailed around the world without any instruments. No sextant, no compass, no chart-plotter, no GPS, no radar. Not even a stopwatch. But Annie's lack of tools was less to prove a point and due more to nonexistent technologies and simply being unaware of what might help her on her journey:

In November 1954, Annie took her dog and got on a horse and started riding. Destination: California. From a modern perspective, her journey seems almost bewildering--imagine trying to navigate without the benefit of GPS, to travel with no cellphone, no credit or debit card, not even a bank account to draw from. In fact, when she first set off, Annie didn't even have the kinds of tools that were available in 1954: road maps, a flashlight and batteries, a waterproof raincoat. Annie headed south, a Quixote in the company of her Rocinante, a run-down ex-racehorse, and her Sancho Panza, a little mutt. Society had called these people by different names: vagabonds and drifters, pilgrims, hoboes, and hippies. She called herself a tramp.

The Ride of Her Life took longer to grab me than I like, and it began to feel repetitious toward the end, but it's a heartwarming and uplifting story, which I appreciate during these distressing times in our country. I'm not a horse person, but Tarzan (and his little buddy, Depeche Toi) stole my heart. 

Annie had spent the past year on less-traveled roads and in small towns. From her own perspective on horseback, the country she had traveled across had seemed vast, yet still welcoming and friendly, a pace where neighbors greeted each other in local diners and a visiting stranger would attract friendly notice. Annie still traveled at the speed of hoofbeats, but the world she had encountered, one of roadside diners on quiet byways, would soon become more obsolete than she could have imagined.

By the way, the overall reaction at yesterday's book group meeting was resounding praise for the book. With my lackluster 3.5 rating,I was definitely in the minority.