Review of That Librarian, by Amanda Jones

Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

That Librarian

The Fight Against Book Banning in America

by Amanda Jones

Bloomsbury, 2024. 269 pages.
Review written February 22, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

That Librarian is Amanda Jones’ own story about speaking up against censorship in a meeting of her local public library board – and then relentlessly being hounded and harassed online afterward. She is a middle school librarian herself, and has won multiple awards for her work. And that fueled the flame of defamation, slander, and even death threats – the bullies said that because she’s against book bans, that makes her a purveyor of pornography to children.

I’d like to think that this is a problem mainly in red states. And, yes, the county where I work as a librarian consistently votes blue. But in view of things that have happened in the first month of the new administration, I have to take seriously this paragraph from page 5 of Project 2025:

Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual
liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.

No, I don’t believe in giving pornography to children, and neither does Amanda Jones. But they’re defining pornography as any book that acknowledges that transgender people exist. Anything that portrays same-sex couples as having loving relationships. And if you allow those books – books that resonate with citizens in our communities, books about the loving families that reside there, books that help the marginalized feel seen – the bullies label you as a sex offender – which is what they did to Amanda Jones.

Her original speech at the library board meeting didn’t mention any specific books, nor were any mentioned by the library board – but because she spoke up against book banning, she was accused of being a danger to children and wanting to put books about sex into the hands of children. This about someone who has devoted her life to serving children.

Amanda made the difficult choice to sue the main instigators for defamation. The initial case was dismissed on the grounds that she’s a “public figure,” which seems silly, since she spoke in that meeting as a parent and as a member of the community. And I just looked up on google, and after two appeals, the Louisiana Supreme Court vacated the lower court’s decision, so her case will go forward. She’s not even suing them for damages. All she’s asking for is $1 and an apology – because you don’t get to make up lies about someone and try to destroy their life.

So all that is good news, and this book gives visibility to the more and more pervasive problem of people trying to restrict their public library’s collections to only books that they think are okay. Yes, there are books in the public library that I wouldn’t give to my own children when they were young. But that doesn’t mean I should keep your children from reading them. Here’s how Amanda Jones puts it:

Freedom and parental rights are a rallying cry, but the same people who say this are trying to take away the rights of young adult readers, their parents, and others. The people who say they are for small government are pushing governmental control over what we the people have access to, and not just children. We should ALL want the freedom to read what we want to read and have access to reading materials from a variety of viewpoints. Protecting our libraries is exactly how we do that. The attack on librarians and libraries is shameful and something everyone should fear. Once they destroy our libraries and schools, what will be next? Where will it end? We must continue to speak up. That’s all we can really do. We must stand up for what is right and good, regardless of what is said about us. The book banners, the people who attacked me for daring to disagree with them, wanted to silence me. I didn’t let them. I did the opposite. For the past year, I have agreed to almost every interview requested of me to help spread the word across the nation about what is happening in our libraries and to librarians. It has been exhausting, but necessary. I will continue to speak out when asked. We have to not just for the sake of libraries but for real freedom. Everyone who can needs to speak out on behalfof those who cannot. People who are rational need to take a stand against the irrational. We must do so with grace and truth, never stooping to the tactics the pro-censors use. We are the real patriots.

I do highly recommend this book to everyone to help understand those who are attacking public libraries and our first amendment rights. There’s a chapter at the end about what you can do in your own community to support your own libraries.

Thank you, Amanda Jones, for speaking up for the freedom to read!

No one on the right side of history has ever been on the side of censorship and hiding books.

bloomsbury.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Calculus of Friendship, by Steven Strogatz

Mathematical, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

The Calculus of Friendship

What a Teacher and a Student Learned about Life While Corresponding about Math

by Steven Strogatz

Princeton University Press, 2009. 166 pages.
Review written September 9, 2021, from a book ordered via Amazon.com
Starred Review

This book is the story of the correspondence the author – a professor of Mathematics at Cornell University – carried on with his high school calculus teacher for over thirty years.

Here’s how he introduces the book:

For the past thirty years I’ve been corresponding with my high school calculus teacher, Mr. Don Joffray. During that time, he went from the prime of his career to retirement, competed in whitewater kayak at the international level, and lost a son. I matured from teenage math geek to Ivy League professor, suffered the sudden death of a parent, and blundered into a marriage destined to fail.

What’s remarkable is not that any of this took place – such ups and downs are to be expected in three decades of life – but rather that so little of it is discussed in the letters. Instead, our correspondence, and our friendship itself, is based almost entirely on a shared love of calculus.

It never occurred to me how peculiar this is until Carole (I’m happily remarried now) teased me about it. “You’ve been writing to him for thirty years? You must know everything about each other.” Not really, I said. We just write about math problems. “That is such a guy thing,” she said, shaking her head.

This Prologue is more honest than the subtitle. This is a book about awesome insights into and about calculus – clever, insightful, and challenging problems – and the beauty of math. It doesn’t say a whole lot about life lessons – and yet their friendship and personalities do shine through.

And there’s some lovely mathematics here, well-explained – at least I think so. I am sad to say that in many places, the math went over my head. I’m a former math major with a master’s degree in math who taught college math for ten years – but I didn’t remember things about infinite series and infinite integrals and other things discussed here. And I’m a little appalled with myself that I didn’t have the desire to go look up what I didn’t understand.

I am, however, wishing that this book existed when I was a young hot-shot calculus student. It would have showed me that math is not a finite subject and that even lofty math professors still find plenty of ideas to play with, going far beyond textbooks.

And yes, there are some lovely insights about the friendship between a teacher and his student. The correspondence began when Steven Strogatz started sending interesting math problems to his former teacher and then explained them. He shares an insight at the back of the book about what his teacher gave him:

He let me teach him.

Before I had any students, he was my student.

Somehow, he knew that’s what I needed most. And he let me, and encouraged me, and helped me. Like all great teachers do.

Hmmm. I do know of a young math major who just started at Virginia Tech. I think he’d be among the ideal audience for this book – reading about how, for those who love it, math never runs out of fascinating beauty.

Oh, and full disclosure: I was disposed to like this book because the author found my mathematical knitting posts and talked about them on Twitter. So now I’m happy to promote his book – both things are about the beauty of math.

stevenstrogatz.com
press.princeton.edu

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Review of In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson

Audiobooks, History, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

In the Garden of Beasts

Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin

by Erik Larson
read by Stephen Hoye

Random House Audio, 2011. 12 hours, 53 minutes.
Review written January 8, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’m not sure where I noticed the suggestion, but I do know that somewhere I saw the suggestion that I read this book about the rise of Hitler in order to gain insights about the rise of Donald Trump. Even though the book is 14 years old, there was still a wait for the audio. Now that I’ve read the book in that context, let’s just say that I was not reassured.

This is the story of William Dodd, the American ambassador to Nazi Germany in 1933 through 1937, just after Hitler became chancellor to Germany. Dodd was an academic, not the usual wealthy donor to get an ambassadorship, but newly-elected FDR was having trouble finding someone willing to go. Dodd brought along both his adult children, and the book gives extra attention to his daughter Martha, who had affairs with a wide assortment of men, including the first head of the Gestapo and a Russian Communist.

The chilling part of this book is how so many people simply didn’t take Hitler seriously. They believed him when he’d earnestly lie to their faces and claim he would put a stop to any harassment the people might do to American citizens or Jews. When I think about World War II, I think about the years after America entered the war, and had no idea how early Dachau was built, and that international visitors toured it, saw the prisoners in “protective custody” and said they were well-treated.

Of course, it was mostly unsettling. At first Dodd and his family didn’t believe the Jews were actually being mistreated, except for isolated incidents. And nobody really thought Hitler’s regime would last long. And Hitler improved unemployment! And inflation! And he found people to blame. Roused up national pride. While the main concern from America’s president was that Germany would repay its debts to American banks. (I always forget how soon after World War I Hitler rose to power. Not even fifteen years later.)

The author doesn’t take a grand overarching view of history. He shows us what it was like for one family, transplanted from America to Berlin. He heavily uses descriptions from their writings and keeps their viewpoint – which is all the more poignant, knowing what we know now.

I hated the way they shut their eyes to the threat from Hitler – as I continue to shut my eyes to the parallels I saw. Humans don’t want to believe that bad things are coming. I am still very much hoping this book is simply a fascinating in-depth look at the history of the lead-up to a madman taking power in one country and causing the upheaval of the world. May any parallels simply be products of wild imagination.

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Review of A Well-Trained Wife, by Tia Levings

Biography, Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

A Well-Trained Wife

My Escape from Christian Patriarchy

by Tia Levings

St. Martin’s Press, 2024. 289 pages.
Review written October 18, 2024, from my own copy, purchased from Amazon.com
Starred Review

A Well-Trained Wife is a memoir from Tia Levings about her life in Christian fundamentalism, her abusive marriage, and how she finally got the courage to leave. Here’s an excerpt from the Prologue:

Allan screamed every night at the demons in the walls. He clutched at my neck as often as he tore his hair seeing those fiery red eyes. He swore he’d kill me. Or he’d take the kids “forever.” Finally, I begged him to see a doctor. I called him “unwell,” too afraid to call it insanity.

The church called Allan’s demons spiritual warfare. Seeing demons pointed to spiritual truth, not illness. Allan didn’t need medicine – I needed correction. They told me to submit more. Go to church more. And anyway, Allan refused doctors. That settled that.

And I was supposed to turn the other cheek. Divorce wasn’t allowed any more than doctors. Now, my long hair hid the scars resulting from my vows to love, honor, and obey. “Till death do us part” could mean by his hand, but who cared?

The Prologue tells us where the story is going, and then Tia’s story shows us how she got there. She starts out with her background in a fundamentalist church and her earnest desire to please God – as well as the boy her friend introduced her to who tried to molest her. And then guilt for that, and plenty of teaching about how a woman’s role is to get married and please her husband and have his babies. One of her best friends in high school was a guy she was afraid was gay – and believed that meant he’d go to hell if it were true.

And then she meets Allan. He is also looking for the woman God has for him. And he moves quickly. Tia relates their story with all the red flags that she didn’t realize were red flags at the time. They get married and get involved in increasingly more conservative churches. Both of them get discipled by people who tell them that Allan needs to be the one in control – complete with “disciplining” Tia and not letting her post anything online he hasn’t approved.

Tia’s story includes five kids and the excruciating story of an infant who gets heart surgery – and then passes away when only nine weeks old. Through it all, her husband is controlling and abusive – and Tia keeps thinking that if she does better, is more obedient, more pleasant, she can change things for them.

Until finally she realizes her life and her children’s lives are in danger, and she escapes in the night.

Tia Levings tells her story well. There’s lots of detail so we understand where she is coming from, and she speaks with compassion for her past self who went through so much and just wanted to please God. She talks about the many lifelines who helped her gain perspective, helped her even think about leaving, and helped her get her feet on the ground after she did leave.

I like these words of perspective in one of the later chapters:

But that’s the thing about puritanical high-control religion. All those God-rules had numbed the entire human experience. The good and the bad, the joy and the pain. The rules said there wasn’t more and I was wrong to thirst for it. Now here was reality, offering me drink.

And of course the book makes me reflect. Because I grew up in a conservative Christian home. I have described it before as not as extreme as those who were home schooled and deep into Bill Gothard’s teachings. We weren’t as extreme as what she describes here.

But then I think, hold on, the only reason my parents weren’t as extreme is that the churches they attended weren’t quite that extreme. But I attended Bill Gothard’s “Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts” many times. I think the only reason we didn’t go to the Advanced seminar (and maybe my oldest brother did?) was that it wasn’t happening nearby, and we’d never pay for plane flights.

I was third of thirteen children. We went to church twice on Sundays and on Wednesday nights as well. We went to Christian schools. Or at least we older kids did – the later kids were homeschooled. I went to a Christian university and married a young man I met there who had his own notebook from Bill Gothard’s Advanced Seminar.

I’ve long told myself that we had a good marriage for many years – until my husband let chronic resentment get in and had an affair and left me. But this book made me wonder how much I was fooling myself. I had wanted to be a stay-at-home Mom, but we couldn’t afford that and I worked part-time for most of the time we were married – and felt a little resentful about that. I happily followed his job around the country and the world – but I wonder if there would have been a better way to approach it. And of course, I knew absolutely nothing about sex when I got married. I always thought it was beautiful to learn together – but well, this book made me think more about those kids hurrying into marriage and thinking they knew “God’s right way” to do things. I’m just not sure I was any more clear-eyed than Tia was.

All that is to say that this book is compelling and well-written. And it made me think about what makes a good marriage – and that it’s perhaps not as clear-cut as my pastors used to try to make me believe.

I love this statement on the very last page:

I have a new spiritual practice now. One that is fluid and deeply private. There are no gurus or holy books of rules. My mycorrhizal network underground communicates through poetry, gratitude, compassion, reality, and supreme love. I’m a tree rooted to the deep with arms reaching for the sky. I’m a woman. A mother writer artist hiker friend, but more than any role. I am not half of another. Nor the completion of their aching soul. I don’t owe anyone my body or service. Training is for dogs. I’m a human soul on a journey home and I belong to me.

That makes me believe that Tia Levings is going to go on to live a good and joyful life. Not a perfect one, but a rich and lovely one, with plenty of joys and sorrows. And I believe that I am doing so, too.

Thank you for sharing your story, Tia! Here’s to a life free of rules but full of love and joy.

tialevings.com

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Review of Say More, by Jen Psaki

Audiobooks, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Say More

Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World

by Jen Psaki
read by the Author

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 5 hours, 55 minutes.
Review written September 23, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This book isn’t so much a tell-all as it is a self-help book on how to be a better communicator, peppered with super interesting anecdotes from the author’s years working in the halls of power.

Now, I didn’t read the book for the communication tips, fervently hoping that my days of public speaking are behind me, but I did still pick up some good tips for general communication, such as facing up to your mistakes sooner rather than later, and what to do when a communist dictator starts negative propaganda about you. (Okay, I definitely hope I’ll never need that tip.)

Still, reading this for the stories will definitely carry you through. There were lots of interesting glimpses into the characters of her particularly famous bosses John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. But there were also heartwarming stories involving her husband and kids, as well as stories from her path to those high-profile jobs. The stories are entertaining and interesting, and you get plenty of examples as to why her communication principles will help you in every aspect of your life.

I like reading books by political figures that show me their heart for public service. Here’s one more example of a young woman doing her bit to do good things in the world – and the audiobook ended up being uplifting and inspiring.

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Review of The Truths We Hold, by Kamala Harris

Audiobooks, Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

The Truths We Hold

My American Journey

by Kamala Harris
read by the Author

Penguin Audio, January 2019. 9 hours, 26 minutes.
Review written October 1, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I have a history of becoming a fan of female politicians after I read their books. It worked for Elizabeth Warren and Katie Porter, and now for Kamala Harris. In all three cases, their writing reveals a heart for public service that can’t be faked. Instead of contempt and disdain for those who get left behind in America, for whatever reason, these leaders ooze empathy and understanding – and a determination to call to account the powerful forces that messed up the lives of ordinary Americans.

In Kamala Harris’s case, her fight against the big banks was especially impressive. Yes, I’d heard about that as a political line. But getting the full story – how all fifty state attorneys general were meeting just after she’d been elected to that office in California, and they were prepared to settle for $2 billion and immunity for the banks against further prosecution – was truly impressive. She initiated a full investigation, met with actual people who’d been defrauded and lost their homes, and eventually got a settlement ten times bigger that went much further toward helping the people who’d been harmed.

Her life story helps the reader understand all that empathy. She was brought up by a single mother who was a cancer researcher but eventually died of cancer. Her mother purchased a home when Kamala was in high school, and was tremendously proud of that achievement, which gave Kamala all the more compassion for the folks who lost their homes during the recession.

This book was written in 2018 in the middle of Donald Trump’s presidency, so it was a politically different world than what’s out there now, but I did especially like the ending of the book, all about policy changes we need to have happen — and all of that grounded in compassion and empathy for ordinary Americans.

I haven’t heard her lately saying anything about Universal Basic Income and Medicare for All, but I love that those things are on her radar. (She mentions a pilot program happening with UBI, and there’s much discussion about how the healthcare system is broken, but we mustn’t go back to a time when people could be denied healthcare for having preexisting conditions.) Actually I appreciate that she’s politically savvy enough to go for changes that are politically possible, but will still help ordinary Americans.

I put this audiobook on hold as soon as Harris got the nomination, and my hold finally came in. Even though it was written six years ago, it showed me the heart of this smart and dynamic politician and made me trust that she truly is working to make lives better for ordinary Americans and to bring those who would harm them to account.

kamalaharris.com

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Review of The Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan

Audiobooks, Musings, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

by Amy Tan
read by the Author

Books on Tape, 2024. 6 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written August 20, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This book is what the title suggests – the story of the birds who came to Amy Tan’s backyard, since 2016, when she took a class on nature journaling and started paying attention.

The nature journaling class was also about sketching birds – saying you notice better when you draw the birds. The audiobook is supposed to have an accompanying pdf, but I wasn’t sure how to access it, so I’ve put a hold on the book to glance through the pictures she drew.

And this book is excerpts from her nature journal, telling about her visitors, as she got to know them. Mind you, Amy Tan has a bird-friendly garden and a green roof on a home overlooking the San Francisco Bay. And she has multiple feeders out for different kinds of birds – in fact, some of the fun in these chronicles is her quest for feeders that are squirrel proof and scrub jay proof.

The book was a little repetitive in spots, I think because it was a journal. Occasionally she’d refer back to something that had happened before as if we hadn’t just heard about that in the earlier part of the journal. But that didn’t really detract from the meditative writing, all about noticing her visitors.

I listened to almost all of this book while obsessively doing a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and it was soothing and comforting, making me feel like I was observing nature while I was actually doing a puzzle and thinking about nature.

I am lucky – I live in a second-floor condo. My downstairs neighbor puts out and fills a bird feeder, so I can sit out on my balcony and be on the level of the birds lining up for the feeder. Although the book didn’t convince me to try sketching the birds, it did make me want to notice a little better, pay attention, and enjoy the visitors here.

So – this is a book about bird-watching. In the author’s backyard. In the hands of a skilled author, that turns out to be a delightful and interesting topic.

amytan.net

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Review of Making It So, by Patrick Stewart, read by the Author

Audiobooks, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Making It So

by Patrick Stewart
read by the Author

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 18 hours, 50 minutes.
Review written August 16, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I have no idea what took me so long to get this audiobook listened to, except maybe that since it came out in October 2023 when I was busy reading for the Morris Award, I may not have put it on hold, and then forgot when that reading was done. Anyway, I finally made up for lost time – and what a treat!

Understand that I’m a big Star Trek: Next Generation fan. My then-husband and I watched the show avidly, beginning some time in the third season, I believe. And on one of our car trips from Illinois to Phoenix, Arizona, for Christmas in the early 1990s, we listened to an audiobook on cassettes of Patrick Stewart reading Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. That was in the days before I even listened to audiobooks, but that one had my rapt attention.

So when I learned that he’d written an audiobook and reads it himself, you better believe I wanted to listen to it! 19 hours of listening to Patrick Stewart’s voice? Yes, please!

So it was fun to learn that the accent I know and love is not the one he was born with. He grew up very poor in Yorkshire, and learned the “BBC” accent in theater school. Everything about his childhood was fascinating. He had an abusive father, yet both his parents supported him going to theater school, and he got a scholarship from the local community to attend. He blames Margaret Thatcher for the fact that such scholarships aren’t available to young aspiring actors today.

Of course, my favorite parts were him talking about acting on Star Trek: Next Generation. He barely knew what Star Trek was when he was suggested for the part, though his kids had avidly watched the original series and were duly impressed.

My least favorite parts were learning about him cheating on his first two wives, and I was prepared to be judgmental when I learned his third wife is younger than his son. But then I thought – wait a second, someone my age or younger is married to Patrick Stewart? Okay, I can believe that she’s in love with him. And why would he mind marrying a much younger woman? He kept mentioning her throughout the book, and is clearly happy and in love and still happily working in theater, always striving to accomplish more – and I can only be happy for him.

He’s lived – and is still living – a rich, full, and interesting life. It was a delight to get a window into all that he’s experienced.

The audiobook ended with an excerpt from A Christmas Carol. Made me want to listen to that audiobook all over again.

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Review of The Woman They Could Not Silence, by Kate Moore

Audiobooks, History, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

The Woman They Could Not Silence

One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear

by Kate Moore
read by the Author

Blackstone Publishing, 2021. 14 hours, 37 minutes.
Review written August 1, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

This book is both fascinating and horrifying. It’s the story of Elizabeth Packard, whose husband had her locked up in an insane asylum for three years beginning in 1860. It’s about her fight for her freedom, for custody of her children, and ultimately to reform laws and the treatment of the “insane.”

The story was hard to listen to, because Elizabeth was locked up basically because she developed religious views that disagreed with her pastor husband. And she was too vocal about them. Everything he did was completely legal, and he was able to have her committed to an asylum on his say-so. Even more horrifying was the later corroboration from the superintendent of the facility that he was convinced she was insane, because he based that assurance completely on her opinions, which he did not agree with.

Or another example of her obvious insanity was that she was angry with her husband – the same man who’d put her in the insane asylum when she was completely sane. Because it’s not “womanly” to hate your husband.

The book also told about the horrors of the asylum. At first, Elizabeth was in the best ward, but as punishment for speaking up, she got moved to a much worse situation and witnessed much abuse and many horrible things. Any letters she received or sent were confiscated. And she never had any idea how long she would be incarcerated.

Eventually, she was able to get a trial. The way the doctors used her ideas as proof that she was insane was chilling to me. It reminded me of present-day people telling transgender folks they are “confused” – indeed the book included a postscript about modern women being called insane or crazy for their political views.

After she was free, Elizabeth Packard went on to work to change the laws – so that women couldn’t be incarcerated on the word of their husbands, so that insane asylums had to be independently inspected, and many other issues. She was free, but she used her powerful voice to help the many others she’d seen who had been victims of the current system.

Not realizing the narrator was the author, I wondered why they picked a narrator with a British accent, but as usual I very much enjoyed listening to that accent. With the one bothersome detail that she didn’t pronounce “Packard” the way Americans do, putting more of an emphasis on the second syllable. But that was easily overlooked, as I enjoyed everything else about her reading. The book was obviously scrupulously researched – using Elizabeth’s own writings and other contemporary writings and reports to put together the whole story.

It was wonderful to learn about this true American hero, as well as sobering to learn the situation women could find themselves in only 160 years ago.

kate-moore.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Brave In-Between, by Amy Low

Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

The Brave In-Between

Notes from the Last Room

by Amy Low

Hachette Books, 2024. 210 pages.
Review written June 26, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy.
Starred Review

First, great big thanks to my friend Suzanne for passing this Advance Reader Copy on to me. She knew I would like it, and she was absolutely correct. She knew I’d appreciate a memoir about divorce and picking up the pieces with a background of Christian faith.

This memoir is about those things – a husband’s betrayal and trying to build her life again, with the help of her faith – but it’s also about living in the “Last Room” – which is literally the last room of life. The book tells about the author’s diagnosis with Stage IV colon cancer and four years of treatment, with no expectation of a cure. For years, she hasn’t been expecting to live long, and this changes your perspective.

She begins the book with her husband taking tender care of her after surgery – when they were already divorced. Then she backs up and tells about the betrayal and all that followed. And then the doctor appointment when her life changed. And then what that means for dating, for time with her children, for her career, and how she thinks about life in general.

And she frames all of this with Philippians 4:8 — “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” In the prologue she explains that in the last room she uses those intentions as spotlights to bring clarity to the chaos, and I love the way she weaves them and thoughts about them into her story.

I was riveted by this book and Amy Low’s story — and I was also uplifted. The book isn’t heavy on Christian content, but it’s there, and indeed her reflections on these values from Philippians make the story one of light and not of despair.

amylow.substack.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/brave_in_between.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?