My Days: Happy and Otherwise” By Marion Ross

When I was in elementary school and into high school, my dad was the television producer of such shows as “The Odd Couple, “ “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley.” My dad loved his job, and wanted his children to see what he did for a living. We could visit the set of “Happy Days” as often as we liked and even bring friends from school. He said, however, that we could only visit the set of “Laverne & Shirley” on special occasions (like when one of my grandparents appeared on the show.). When I asked why we couldn’t visit “Laverne & Shirley” regularly, he said in his thick Bronx accent, “There is too much swearing going on! Penny and Cindy throw scripts at the writers’ heads, and it’s not pretty! They are not happy people. Stick with Happy Days. Those are hard working, happy people who don’t throw anything.” One of dad’s favorites on that show was Marion Ross, the author of this memoir “My Days.” Dad knew that if he put Marion in a scene with any other actor they would not only behave but also shine. When “Happy Days” started in 1974, Marion Ross was a 45 year-old-single mom with two young children, who had just divorced an alcoholic. She was cast as the mother on  “Happy Days,” which would become the Tuesday night at 8:00 P.M. hit show of the ‘70s featuring Richie, Fonzie, Potsie and Ralph. As the loveable Mrs. C, she not only bonded with the cast but she also set a shining example of what it is like to be a dedicated working actor, and loyal human being. It is not a surprise that Marion still remains friends with members of the “Happy Days” cast today at the age of 89. But her time spent on the Paramount lot is only part of this wonderful book. Before appearing on television, Marion was a stage and film actress working with such greats as Lauren Bacall and Noel Coward. In her early years of acting, she said she often felt like a fish out of water, having moved to California from rural Minnesota to follow her dream of becoming an actress. But her book demonstrates that if you keep trying, you can find your work family and even find your great love late in life as well. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that this book was as charming as Marion herself. To purchase this book on Amazon please click here.

The Narrow Space: A Pediatric Oncologist, His Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Patients, and a Hospital in Jerusalem” By Elisha Waldman

My daughter Lily helps raise money and awareness for research to help cure pediatric cancer. Many people ask me how she got involved in this subject and the answer is simple: social media. Sometimes, wonderful connections can happen that way. She read on Instagram and Facebook about a terminally ill little girl who subsequently died, and followed how her parents created a program in her memory called the Kyle Rowand Foundation. It raises money directed toward Neuroblastoma research. The subject of pediatric cancer and palliative medicine does not speak to everyone the same way, but for Lily and Dr. Elisha Waldman, it is a subject for which they are ready to fight for. “The Narrow Space” by Dr. Waldman is a beautifully written memoir that depicts, up close, what it is like to deal with young patients and their parents struggling to manage aggressive cancers. In this case, Waldman took his oncology practice to Israel, a country where he had roots. This book chronicles his journey as attending physician at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center.  Despite the economic and religious difference among his patients, their heartbreaking will to live and pleas not suffer at the end of life is universal. After seven years, Waldman decides to come back to America and build a new life for himself in Chicago. But it is clear from every page, that his time in Israel made him not only a more experienced doctor, but also a more patient and compassionate one, too.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

I was on two airplanes last week and I brought this book along for the ride. On both legs of my journey I saw women on my flights reading this book. And those women who were not reading it, had recently devoured it. As I slipped into my aisle seat the woman in the middle of my row tapped my book cover and said, “Oh Eleanor! Oh Eleanor!” Clutching my large print edition from the Mill Valley library I said, “Yes, it is wonderful isn’t it?” The other woman said, “Yes but I’m really mad at Reese Witherspoon.” I said, “I said why are you mad at Reese?” as if we both knew the actress personally and saw her every Wednesday for lunch. “She bought the rights to the book and I just don’t see her as Eleanor.” Whether Reese can pull off Eleanor remains to be seen, but the fact is that this book is speaking to millions of woman this summer. As a card-carrying anxiety sufferer, any character who drinks vodka in a stylish OCD manor is a friend of mine. But there is so much more to Eleanor. She suffers from social anxiety, and thus protects herself by leading a lonely, isolated life. Except for her job in the finance department at a Glasgow, Scotland-based graphic design company, she has no friends or hobbies other than doing the crossword puzzle and planning her food for the day. Not until she meets a man at work named Raymond, who works in the IT department, does her life begins to change. For the first time, someone is able to not only see Eleanor’s potential through her damaged veil, but also help her come out of her clamshell as well.  The spirit of this book rings true in every page and it’s just sad that it had to end. Oh, Eleanor indeed! To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies” By Michael Ausiello

A book about anal cancer does not usually scream “Beach read!” However, in this case I would disagree. “Spoiler Alert The Hero Dies,” by Michael Ausiello describes itself as a “memoir about love, loss and other four letter words.” On the day of their wedding, at city hall, Ausiello’s partner photographer Christopher “Kit” Cowan is diagnosed with a rare form of neuroendocrine cancer. Eleven months later, Kit will be dead, but that does not take away from the power and the glory of this funny and poignant memoir. Ausiello was no stranger to the spotlight himself, as he is a long-time television columnist, senior writer at TV Guide, and founder of the website TVline.com. He was together with Cowan for more than 13 years until the cancer diagnosis, and rather than pull them apart, the prognosis brought them closer together.  Some of the best passages in this book focus on the couple as they navigate the complicated sea of medical doctors one has to deal with following a terminal diagnosis. Ausiello is a terrific advocate for Cowan and even though you know the hero dies in the end, you are so happy he has love up until his last breath. This book is honest and heartbreaking, but more than anything else, just genuine down to its core. Humor helps people cope, and this book is a shining testament to the strength of laughter.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

"Calypso” by David Sedaris

I hail from a heavy-duty line up of female driver. My grandmother once drove from Cincinnati to Los Angeles without stopping because she was jacked up on No-Doz. My mother regularly drives from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and only makes one stop at the Harris Ranch to go to the bathroom and have a quick class of champagne. Unfortunately, I did not get the Teflon driving gene. I drive from San Francisco to Palo Alto and can barely keep my eyes open. So last week, when Jeff and I drove to Tahoe, we decided wisely that he would do all the driving. However, when I fell asleep shortly after we passed Sacaramento I began to feel guilty. So I pulled out my secret weapon: “Calypso” the new audio book by one of my favorite authors David Sedaris. This book not only kept me awake all the way to Tahoe, it kept both of us laughing the whole ride. I have read every Sedaris book and this one does not disappoint. Whether he is talking about his love of picking up trash while logging miles on his fit bit or describing the humor of making a 47 city book tour in 45 days, he is funny, charming and just someone you would love to have as a friend. What is new about this book is that he turns his razor sharp humor on his partner, Hugh, as well as his dad and other family members. With the humor comes also heart breaking revelations about the loss of his mother and suicide of his sister Tiffany. I feel with each Sedaris book I get to know the author and his extended better and better. I only which he would write two books each summer instead of just one. To purchase this audio book on Amazon click here.

“Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Important of Imagination” by J.K. Rowling

My daughter Charlotte graduated from Northwestern University yesterday, succeeding her mother, father, aunt, uncle and grandfather before her. I am so proud that she not only graduated from college, but also discovered a passion for health communication and public health that will take her to study at Emory University in Atlanta for the next two years. When Charlotte walked the aisles of Ryan Field yesterday in the pouring rain, it made me think of this book, “Very Good Lives” by J.K. Rowling. This is a book-bound version of the commencement speech that Rollins gave in 2008 at Harvard University. Unlike most graduation speeches, the wizard behind the legendary Harry Potter series did not talk about success, but rather learning to appreciate failure. This was, I’m almost certain, one of the last books my dad read. He did not read books like normal people. Friends would give him a book and he would read a few chapters and be done because he had so many scripts to read. But he did read this book and passed it along to me because he loved it so much. It mirrored his own motto said best by Samuel Beckett, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.  Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” My father worked so hard for the successes he had in television and film, but he was the first one to point out his failures because he learned from them. He would often introduce himself as, “The man who created the TV series ‘Me and the Chimp,” or, “The man who wrote ‘The Roast,’ the shortest running play in the history of the Winter Garden Theatre.” Like my dad, Rowling learned that the goal in life is not to succeed or fail every time, but to try, and try again and again to follow your dreams. I gave Charlotte her grandfather’s copy of this book last tonight to celebrate her bright future.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Forever. . . A Novel” by Judy Blume

My writing partner, Joe, was up in San Francisco last weekend and we spent four days working on a new project. We have written 10 produced fairy tale plays and have been writing together for more than 15 years. The way we write together has never changed: I sit and type on the computer while Joe walks around, talking out loud as we brainstorm. I have a primary book bench in my apartment where I have towers of books. However, I also have a standing glass case of books that are locked with a key. “Why are these books in here and not on the bench?” Joe said over the weekend during one of our writing sessions. I said “because those are the books that are the special ones.” He said, “I thought so.” Locked in this glass case for safe keeping is this book: “Forever” by Judy Blume. Published in 1975, the original hard copy book cost $6.95, and I still have its original dust jacket. I was only 12 years old in 1975, surely far too young to read a book about a girl having sex with a boy for the first time. But that was the point of daring to read “Forever,” wasn’t it? My mom boldly said I could read it and even bought it for me, while other mothers would not let their daughters read it. It appears on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. I consider myself one of the lucky ones because I remember how thrilling it was to open the pages of this book and read something that was forbidden to some. In this technological age of gadgets large and small, it is almost magical to think that a bound book with an unmade bed on the cover caused such a stir in 1975. Whenever I walk by the glass case and see “Forever” peeking out, I still feel 12 inside all over again. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Trials and Crimes of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin

More than 10 years ago my friend Page moved from San Francisco to London. Right before she left she gave me a gift. “On Thursday mornings show up at this house at 8:15 am, and a woman named Jennifer will come out and hike with you.” I said ok, and I have now been walking with Jennifer every Thursday since, except when it rains because I hike in the rain but she does not. While we are walking in the Presidio, Jennifer and I talk about our children, movies and our shared love for Suze Orman. We also talk about books, and recently she recommended this one: “American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnappings, Trials and Crimes of Patty Hearst” by Jeffrey Toobin. Jennifer had just seen the documentary about this book, and loved it. I have to say at first I was quite skeptical. On the one hand, I lived through the kidnapping, and although I was 11 years old at the time, I remember watching the story unfold on the news as I peered over my mother’s shoulder. On the other hand, I wondered “haven’t we already found out everything there is to know about this story?”  The answer is no. Toobin comes at the story with new eyes, and fresh angles emerge as he combs over the timeline, rich with so many details. Much like “The Season of the Witch” by David Talbot, we get to see what San Francisco was really like during the 1970s and 1980s, and you will read this book in awe and amazement. To think that a group of DIY radicals called the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped a wealthy Cal Berkeley senior, and then proceed to transform her into one of their own, crowing her “Tania” is a crazy premise to begin with. And yet, that is just in the first few pages. The year-long odyssey unfolds in front of not only her parents and the residents of San Francisco, but the rest of the world as well. “American Heiress” is a fascinating book and a historical document that portrays what America felt like during such a tumultuous time. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Our Souls at Night” by Kent Haruf

My daughter Charlotte, a senior one month away from graduating Northwestern University, is taking a class called Marriage 101: Building Loving and Lasting Relationships taught by Alexandra Solomon. On Tuesday, Charlotte interviewed me as part of an assignment for this class. She asked me a series of questions about my own marriages as well as romantic relationships, and asked me to offer any advice to her on how to forge successful partnerships. Ninety minutes into the interview, I found myself quite hoarse, so I guess that means I have a lot to say about love. Summarizing my advice to Charlotte I zeroed in on this: Find someone who appreciates you. Find someone who always has your back. Find someone who makes you laugh. And find someone who will drive you to your colonoscopy. Do not grow old alone, I told her. That advice brings me to this delightful little book “Our Souls at Night” by Kent Haruf. This was the author’s last novel published before he died at the age of 71. The story follows the tale of two 70-year-old widowers – Addie Moore and Louis Waters – and how their relationship develops after Addie proposes one day that they sleep together, not for sex, but just for companionship. We know any cute-meet like this one, no matter what age, is going to hopefully lead to more intimacy. And of course it does. Their relationship gets tricky when Addie’s grandson shows up on her doorstep, but when Louis jumps in to help with the boy, we love their relationship even more. This book is quite charming, but more than anything else it depicts an honest and real relationship between two people who have lived for seven decades on this planet. They are wise, but they also are guarded, and of course carry the traditional baggage that comes with age. After loving this book when I read it last year, I recently saw the movie version on Netflix starring none other than Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. At 80 and 81 years old respectively, I have to say these two actors still have the spark that I hope Jeff and I have at that age as well.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying” by Nina Riggs

At the hospice where I work, I always try to stay very calm on the phone when I am starting an admission.  The family members and clients I’m speaking to are often in crisis and feel overwhelmed.  I like to offer them patience with a comforting, yet reassuring voice. However, there is always one thing that rattles my calm voice – and that is entering the date of birth of a patient younger then me.  I was born in 1963, so to enter dates like 1975 or 1982 or 1991, makes me think quietly to myself each time, “This is just not fair.” However, after reading this book, I have a new perspective on what it is like to die young, and it is not about what is fair, but about making it count. My book this week is “Bright Hour” by Nina Riggs, a young writer and poet who died just short of her 40th birthday of incurable breast cancer in 2017. She left behind her husband, John, and two young sons.  The great-great-great granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the author tells the story of how she learned to love and appreciate life during the final year of her life. She finished the book and died only one month later, but not before “accepting the absurdity and the beauty of every day” given a future you cannot count on. Her memoir is sad and moving, but also a road map for finding joy and value in being a writer, a mother, a wife and a daughter. Several friends suggested that I read this book because I am such a romantic. At first I wondered how can a book about breast cancer be romantic? It turns out that Nina’s husband is now dating Lucy Kalanithi, the widow of Paul Kalanithi who wrote the best selling memoir “When Breath Becomes Air.” It sounds crazy to think that these two grieving people would not only find each other and meet, but also fall in love. To think that Paul’s young daughter might grow up with Nina’s two sons in a blended family seems like such a beautiful picture. You can’t help but smile at the happy ending. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

Obama: An Intimate Portrait” by Pete Souza

Jeff and I went to see the photographer Pete Souza speak last night at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco about his book “Obama: An Intimate Portrait.”  It was the most perfect Thursday date night. It began with an Uber ride to Union Square, followed by an excellent dinner of Mexican food with margaritas, and then a 90-minute-no-intermission show. Those who know me well recognize that the key to my heart is not diamonds, but a 90-minute-no-intermission show. This was a show for the history books and history has always been one of my favorite subjects. Souza, previously a photographer for the “Chicago Sun Times,” started photographing Obama during his first year as a senator. He then followed Obama from The Hill into the White House, where he captured literally millions of pictures during the President’s two terms. You realize as you listen to Souza that Obama allowed him behind the scenes of his presidency because Pete is kind, compassionate, funny and just a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. He enjoys a huge Instagram following too at #petesouza. For those of us sitting in the beautiful Curran Theatre, it was a trip down memory lane filled with many laughs but also many tears. The pictures of Obama with Michelle and his daughters, as well as other people’s children, are pure joy. And then there are pictures of shear stress and grief, such as the president hunting down Bin Laden and later the president hugging the mother of a little boy who died in the Sandy Hook massacre. With every photo and backstory you think “What a role model he truly was.” Everyone who bought a ticket to Thursday night’s event was given a copy of Souza’s book. As we all carried our heavy coffee table books out of the theatre into the night, many of us smiled and wiped our tears. It was a lovely evening, and a wonderful time to reflect on Obama’s class, wit and accomplishments during his eight years in the White House. But as we got into our Ubers to go home, I felt like we were all thinking the same thing: It seemed like such a magical eight years and what next? To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“I Feel Bad About My Neck” by Nora Ephron

A few months ago my friend Noelle and I decided that our must-have accessory for spring was a pair of “hostess pants.” These would be the kind of pants that Betty Draper or Laura Petrie might wear to throw an elegant dinner party in their own home with iceberg wedge salad and martinis. The pants would have a sash at the waist and the pant legs would flair at the bottom. A few days later, I bought my first pair of midnight blue evening hostess pants and immediately fell in love with them. Unfortunately, I forgot that one should only wear hostess pants in one’s home. I wore them to work one day, and as I was walking across the parking lot I tripped over one of the pant legs and fell flat onto my hands and knees. Picture blood and bits of gravel sunken into both. A woman much older than me, happen to be riding by on a bike and stopped to help me. She said, “Falling when you are older is not the same as when you are a kid, right? You should go home and ice.” Suddenly I am a person who needs to ice her limbs. How did this happen? Growing old take a lot of work and that is the theme of Nora Ephron’s wonderful book “I Feel Bad About My Neck.” Published in 2006, six years before her death at the age of 71 of leukemia, this book is a collection of essays about aging. She explains the importance of manicures and blow drys as well as men who disappoint her, parenting and the telling contents of a woman’s purse. She even talks about falling out of love with her long-time apartment building, The Apthorp. This collection of essays is pure Ephron and cannot be read without laughing out loud.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Everything is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss” By Stephanie Wittels Wachs

I would rather go to the dentist than drive a long distance in my car, and this is saying a lot because I do happen to drive quite a fancy car. I find driving very stressful, and one of the things I do to calm my nerves while on the road is to listen to audio books. If the book is truly a great one, I find that when I arrive at my husband Jeff’s house, I do not want to get out of the car. “Everything is Horrible and Wonderful” by Stephanie Wittels Wachs is one of the best car books I have listened to in a long time because it is both tragic and poignant, as well as funny and heartbreaking. Harris Wittels was a stand-up comedian, actor, writer, producer and musician who died at the age of 30 on February 19, 2015, alone in his home of a heroin overdose. This is his story as told through the eyes of his sister Stephanie, herself an acting teacher and voice-over performer. A writer and executive producer of the television series “Parks and Recreation” as well as the “Sarah Silverman Program,” Harris had found success in Hollywood earlier than most comedy writers could ever dream. Friends with Silverman as well as Aziz Ansari and Amy Poehler, Mr. Wittels had finished work on “Parks and Recreation,” and was starting to launch Ansari’s new series “Master of None,” when he died. His sister uses this book to comb through his story, from his childhood in Houston to his life in Hollywood, looking for answers and meaning. She knew he struggled with drugs, and both she and her parents had championed him through more than one stint in rehab. Yet his true comedic talent was no match against the strength of heroin.  People grieve in many different ways, and I think this honest memoir by a sister for her brother is not only well written, but also very inspiring for people looking for answers on how to handle the death of a loved one. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“A Nearly Normal Life” by Charles L. Mee

My twins Lily and Charlotte were born on June 13, 1995, at 27 weeks, nearly three months earlier than full term. Lily was diagnosed with cerebral palsy on her first birthday, and Charlotte was diagnosed shortly after her second birthday. After the news settled, I was on a mission to meet a 13-year-old with cerebral palsy. It didn’t matter if the child was a boy or a girl, I just wanted to see what our future looked like. Of course I know now that I was a fool. No two people with cerebral palsy are ever exactly alike. But at the time, I was a 32-year-old new mother looking for answers. When I couldn’t find a 13-year-old with CP just wandering around Laurel Village, I decided I would turn to my back up plan: research. If I couldn’t see our future I would read about it. My quest led me to this book, “A Nearly Normal Life” by Charles L. Mee. The author, who is still alive at 79, was diagnosed with polio as a teenager growing up in small Midwestern town. I’m well aware of the differences between polio and CP, but something about Mee’s memoir not only spoke to me, it gave me more hope than I ever could have imagined for my girls.  Instead of struggling with his physical disability, he developed his intellectual potential and became a playwright, historian, author and professor of theater at Columbia University. He graduated from Harvard University, and went on to get married and have five children. This book gave me the courage to dream similar lofty ambitions for my own twins. And I am so proud of both of them—Lily’s continued interest in San Francisco public policy, and Charlotte soon will be on her way to Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health for a master’s degree. On April 28, 2018, I will be walking in my 13th March for Babies walk with Team Berliner to raised money for premature babies. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.  

“Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say” by Kelly Corrigan

All of my friends named Beth are very smart. I mean intellectually smart but also true street-smart doyennes of life. For example, one of them will say “Drive over the bridge, buy this special chicken salad, serve it to your guests for lunch, and it will be the best salad they have ever eaten.” For this reason, I love having women named Beth in my life. One of the Beths recently sent me a picture of this book and suggested I read it. At first, to be honest, I was not rushing. There are so many books I’m dying to read, with so little time, and I just added this one to my library audio list and forgot about it. I had read Corrigan’s other books and loved them, but I was not going to fall apart if I did not read it this month. Little did I know how wrong my procrastination was. A few weeks later, when the title popped magically into my Overdrive App, I started to listen to it. And then it blew me away. This is not an ordinary book. This is an extraordinary book. I can only describe it this way: Kelly Corrigan is somehow morphing into Anna Quinlan in the best possible way. She is brave. She is wise. She is courageous. She is thoughtful and charming in that way you want all girlfriends to be. She just gets better with age. She tries to make sense of the fact that while you are busy raising teenagers and dogs, your parents will die and some of your friends will die, too. A breast cancer survivor, Corrigan lost her beloved father and close friend Liz around the same time. As a tribute to these two incredibly special people in her life, she launches into a list of 12 of the hardest phrases she has learned to say which include “I don’t know, “I was wrong,” and simply “No.” There is something so heartbreaking and sane about this book that I couldn’t wait to make it my book selection this week. If you are thinking about your next book, and considering Kelly Corrigan’s latest, please do not walk but run. She is a “Beth” to me. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Still Me” by Jojo Moyes

Sometimes when my daughter is using the restroom, I hop into her power wheelchair and take a spin around my apartment. Of course she does not like this because it is like a girlfriend borrowing your best dress and parading around town in it. But I like to do it because I think it is important to see what it is like be her. To get a glimpse into the life of someone else is to give yourself some perspective on your own life. This is the theme of Jojo Moyes new book “Still Me,” the third in the series of books featuring the ever-charming Louisa Clark. In the first book “Me Before You,” (LLP Week #20) Louisa is hired as the caregiver for an affluent handicapped man named Will Traynor and the experience changes her life forever. In this new book we follow Louisa to New York City where she gets a job working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger wife, Agnes. Basically, Louisa steps into the glamorous life of a super rich Manhattan couple and discovers that despite their wealth, they have secretes just like everyone else. This, of course, is the same world Will once lived in before his accident, and it brings her great comfort to see it up close, on the heels of her grief. I have read the two books before this on in the series, and it is essential to read them in order because they do build upon each other. We get to see Louisa grow, mature, make mistakes and learn from her experiences. I know some people might think Moyes is a “chick lit” novelist (a term I don’t love but I see it used so often I thought it would hold meaning here) but there is something so much more significant to her books. They personify the real heart and soul that we are all craving in our own lives. The fact that she wraps them all up into this lovely heroine named Louisa Clark is just about perfect. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food by Jan Chozen Bays

I had surgery on my gums in February. Let’s be honest, nobody likes to have dental surgery.  But as the weeks and then days lead up to my appointment, I because almost giddy with excitement. My brain filled with the magical thinking that as the result of having stitches in my mouth for two weeks, my weight would suddenly drop down to the dream weight I once was in 1994 when I had the stomach flu. The surgery went well, and that night I began a diet of soup and tea. As I sipped and slurped my way through each meal , I felt a sense of superiority, as if I would never need to eat solid food again. However, within only a few days, I started eating pretzels on the other side of my mouth, away from the stitches. I was both happy and disappointed in my crafty mastication. Pretzels then proved to be the gateway food to other things like rice cakes, taco chips, nuts and then the crack of all snack foods – Wheat Thins. I quickly fell back into my old habit of unconscious eating. “Mindful Eating” by doctor and meditation teacher Jan Chozen Bays is a wonderful book about how you can teach yourself to eat with pointed purpose again. She talks about diet trends that came and went, cultural food differences and even the habit we now all have carrying around water bottles, perhaps needlessly. She offers not only insights into how to eat better, but also tips on how to slow down. She suggests using chops sticks or eating with your non-dominate hand in an effort to slow down. This thoughtful self-help book paints a very practical picture. We all just need to take a breath, slow down and eat more deliberately. Smell. Taste. Think. Feel. Unfortunately, that there are no short cuts when it comes to diet and exercise. The goal is to learn to balance the two in a perfect equilibrium, by being more mindful. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“The Housekeeper and the Professor” by Yoko Ogawa

Not to long ago, my friend Beth handed me this book. I take Beth’s recommendations quite seriously because seven years ago she introduced me to my husband, Jeff. So clearly she knows what I like. When she handed me “The Housekeeper and the Professor” by Yoko Ogawa she said, “I would like the book back when you are done.” In this day and age of kindles, ipads and cyber/audio books, when someone asks for an actual book back, that is saying a lot. That means Beth intends to keep it in her personal home library. So I took the book with me to Ixtapa, Mexico, when I went in November with my husband. It was the perfect size for travel because it is about as slender as an as old TV Guide. Once on the plane I opened the book and on the first page I saw that not only Beth’s name was written in the obligatory owner’s spot but also her mother’s name, Sari, was written there, too. So this meant not only that Beth enjoyed the book but also that Sari (a voracious reader) also liked it and passed it around. “The Housekeeper and the Professor” is a delightful story about a single mother who comes to clean the house of a brilliant mathematician and baseball fan who is losing his memory, literally over and over again. A best-seller and movie in Japan, this book chronicles the tragedy of a man who was in a car accident and, as a result, has only 80 minutes worth of short-term memory. His long-term memory is holding him prisoner in the year 1975, prior to the accident. The housekeeper, and mother of a 10-year-old son, is hired by the gentleman’s sister-in-law to cook and clean for him. However, the housekeeper cannot help but grow closer to the professor who wears notes on his suit such as “my memory is only 80 minutes long.” The plot demonstrates how the three of them learn to become a family, despite the professor’s disability. The author has written 20 other books, and if this charming writing style is any indication of her other work, I am excited to read more. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Between Them: Remembering My Parents” by Richard Ford

Today would have been my parents’ 55th wedding anniversary, and yet it remains my mother’s birthday, too. So there is still reason to celebrate despite this now bittersweet date. I wrote two published books, and literally hundreds of speeches, newspaper and magazine articles with my dad. I used to think he wouldn’t speak to me unless I had a pen in my hand. I am now writing a memoir with my mom about her extraordinary life. Writing about and with my parents is one of the ways I am able to connect with them the best. “Between Them: Remembering My Parents” is Richard Ford’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book about his own mother and father. His mother Edna married his father Parker, a traveling salesman, in 1928. However, she didn’t give birth to Richard until 1944. He details their lives on the road, traveling through the south together, until Edna settled down to raise her new baby boy. This slender yet powerful book is composed of only two short stories, written 30 years apart. Ford wrote the first part recently and it is about his dad who died in 1960 when the author was just 16. He wrote the second part, about his mother immediately after she died in 1981. His father died quickly from a sudden heart attack while his mother died slowly of cancer. Through the two short stories he seeks to understand what their lives were like before they had him, and after welcoming him into the world. Ford, well known for his fiction, proves that he has the gift of being a non-fiction writer as well. When author Cheryl Strayed reviewed this book for “The New York Times” last year, she called it  “A remarkable story about two unremarkable people we would never have know, but for him. Which he couldn’t have written, but for them. “ Happy Birthday to Barbara Sue Wells. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.

“Born To Run” by Bruce Springsteen

I am a chameleon when it comes to music. I gravitate toward the music that my partner likes. My husband Jeff likes Phish and Phil Lesh, and so do I. Paul liked the Velvet Underground and Nirvana, and so did I. Bill liked James Taylor and Carly Simon, and so did I. But rock and roll for me all started with the music of my high school boyfriend Doug. The music wafting from the Blaupunkt radio in his grey BMW 2002 was usually Jackson Browne or Bruce Springsteen. I remember how I felt when he would pick me up at the Westlake School for Girls, and we would drive out of the parking lot blasting Springsteen. I felt, for maybe the only time in my life, cool. Springsteen has that effect on people. You feel excited, soulful and part of the experience. “Born To Run” by Bruce Springsteen is the story of how a boy from Freehold, New Jersey, who never wanted to hold down a 9-5 job became a poetic rock legend. The book, which apparently took him more than seven years to write, is very honest and extremely illuminating. He chronicles his life on stage with the E Street Band and off stage with his wife Patti and three children. One son is a radio producer, the middle son a firefighter and the daughter an equestrian show jumping champion. He talks about struggles, triumphs and everything in between. I listened to all 18 hours and 16 minutes of Bruce telling me his story in my car driving back and forth between San Francisco and San Rafael.  I have to say listening to Springsteen made my commute exceptional. P.S. Jeff added that he doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed for just liking Phish and Lesh. He also likes the Beatles, the Allmans, The Bee Gees, The 5th Dimension, Elvis, Dylan, Diana Ross, the Eagles, Clapton and Johnny Cash, too. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.