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

In Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino offers nine ori-ginal essays about the current state of the world we live in – as seen through the eyes of a whip-smart millennial with a feminist perspective. Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker who before working in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, grew up in Houston in a family very dedicated to their evangelical mega-church. Through her essays we learn of her transformation from devout Christian and obedient daughter to independent thinker and commentator on her generation.

It may seem unusual for a 60+ woman to be reading a book about pregnancy, right? Well, my daughter Maddie was so fascinated by this book and talked to me about it so frequently, that I told her I wanted to borrow the book when she was done.

The musical Come From Away is easily one of my favorite shows of the last ten years. It tells the story of the days after 9/11 when 36 planes were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland rather than their U.S. destinations. The Day The World Came To Town follows the same events, with many of the same characters, although the two are not related in anything other than subject matter. Each has its own authors who conducted their own interviews.

The subtitle for Simplicity Parenting is “Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Nurture Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kids,” and that is exactly what it delivers. Payne provides a toolbox of ideas, anecdotes and observations about why so many kids today are experiencing such high stress and anxiety, and how we might go about fixing it.

Thank goodness for the twice-yearly “Authors on Stage” program at Wellesley College, which I’ve happily attended for years with my friend, Pam. If not for this wonderful series, which each time features three authors talking about their new books, I may never have found The Food Explorer. As the title suggests, the book tells the remarkable story of David Fairchild, an American botanist, who from the late nineteenth century well into the twentieth, devoted his life to traveling the world in search of new plants and foods that he could bring back to America. He added a vast quantity of foods to Americans’ diets and increased by a huge amount the diversity of what farmers grow.

This amazing book is the true story of the woman who created the Veuve Clicquot empire in France just after the French Revolution when women weren’t generally allowed to own property or run businesses. Upon her husband’s death when she was 27 years old, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin assumed leadership of the wine company she and her husband had run together. With genuine strength and a natural ability for business, she nurtured the company through multiple political and financial firestorms – to become one of the first and most successful business women of her time.

Neither my mom nor I read, or review much non-fiction, and for me part of my avoidance is that when I read non-fiction, I feel like I’m going to be tested.  I get stressed like I have to remember all the facts and figures being thrown at me.  But this book is incredible, and never once did I feel lost in a sea of statistics.