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For Book Lovers
I don't review books I don't like!
*****= An all-time favorite
**** = Outstanding
***
= Above average
**
= Enjoyable
*
= Good, with reservations
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***Life's Work
Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom
by Lisa Belkin
Reviewed August 24, 2004.
Simon & Schuster, New York, 2002. 221 pages.
This is a collection of essays from the “Life’s Work” column in The
New York Times. I’m always interested in how people struggle to
balance life and work. I enjoyed these columns, only reading one or
two a day to give me time to think them over.
I like this paragraph from the introduction: “This book is the
story of how I gave up on straight lines; how I learned to zig and zag,
to leapfrog and jump backward. It’s also the story of how I gave up
on balance and decided to settle for a close approximation of sanity, instead.
(Disclaimer: I have not actually attained sanity yet, but am ever
hopeful.)”
She says later, “If there’s a theme to this entire book, that’s it.
My own life’s choices don’t represent a solution, because no choice is a
solution so much as a new packet of complications.” She’s able to look
at different ways different people approach the problem of balancing life
and work without condemning other people’s solutions.
This is a funny and insightful look at working, parenting, loving, and
living, that will appeal to many more people than work-at-home moms.
Copyright © 2004 Sondra Eklund.
All rights reserved.
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Book Reviews
by Sondra Eklund