Anna Quindlen

The acclaimed New York Times columnist and author of Living Out Loud now gives readers a superb novel about an Irish-Italian family in the late 1960s. Quindlen's sharp eye for the way we live, her intelligence and humor have won her an enormous following, and this coming-of-age tale of an entire generation will delight readers of any era.

A daughter Ellen, gives up her job and boyfriend to take care of her dying mother. Her father, a gifted professor of an English department, is more occupied with having his life running as smoothly as possible than caring for his wife. Living at home, Ellen discovers many new aspects to her parents' personalities, a father who is human despite his imperfections and a mother who loves her family passionately. When her mother finally dies Ellen is suspected...

To write about herself, Keaton realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives. And so, in a remarkable act of creation, she not only reveals herself to readers, she also lets them meet in intimate detail her mother. More than just the autobiography of a legendary actress, this a book about a very American family with very American dreams.

What is your favorite poem? That is the question students from two fifth-grade classes at a New York grade school asked famous people to whom they had written. Their idea, the students explained, was to put together a book that would benefit the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. The students were also studying poems in class and wanted to know if anybody still, in fact, read and gained insight from poetry. Touched by this appeal

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