Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the
editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On
sale today, the quiet, piercing
novel...
The
Grief of Others
By Leah Hager Cohen
The premise: Successful, smart, golden mom Ricky Ryrie gives birth to a baby who, due to a neurological condition, lives for only 57 hours.
What kept us reading, even though we were crying: The author has a wise and thorough understanding of how families grieve—both individually and as a group. As Ricky later describes on a drive home, having witnessed a two-car wreck, "It wasn't as if accidents frightened her more now. It was that they made her feel more tired, as if by possessing a fuller understanding of the complexities of loss, she could not help experiencing more particularly the losses of others."
The side character you'll long to pick up off the page and hug: Biscuit, the young daughter of Ricky, whose confused, numinous imagination tries to make sense of what is happening to her family. A window into her mind, as she looks at the fire in the fireplace on the night the baby is born: "The false embers glowed like a tiny city half-hidden in the grate. In that city was a building, in that building was a room, there her mother lay in a bed with nurses bustling softly around it."
The one chapter you absolutely must read, even if you don't buy the book and only go to the bookstore and flip through it: The prologue, pages one through four.
The message behind the novel, as written by the author in a nonfiction essay about her real-life miscarriage: "Isn't it a funny and fine thing to realize: that being whole nearly always requires not just the tending of ourselves but the tending of our bonds with others?"
Read More
18 new books to read this month
The short story collection for every woman who was once a girl
By Leah Hager Cohen
The premise: Successful, smart, golden mom Ricky Ryrie gives birth to a baby who, due to a neurological condition, lives for only 57 hours.
What kept us reading, even though we were crying: The author has a wise and thorough understanding of how families grieve—both individually and as a group. As Ricky later describes on a drive home, having witnessed a two-car wreck, "It wasn't as if accidents frightened her more now. It was that they made her feel more tired, as if by possessing a fuller understanding of the complexities of loss, she could not help experiencing more particularly the losses of others."
The side character you'll long to pick up off the page and hug: Biscuit, the young daughter of Ricky, whose confused, numinous imagination tries to make sense of what is happening to her family. A window into her mind, as she looks at the fire in the fireplace on the night the baby is born: "The false embers glowed like a tiny city half-hidden in the grate. In that city was a building, in that building was a room, there her mother lay in a bed with nurses bustling softly around it."
The one chapter you absolutely must read, even if you don't buy the book and only go to the bookstore and flip through it: The prologue, pages one through four.
The message behind the novel, as written by the author in a nonfiction essay about her real-life miscarriage: "Isn't it a funny and fine thing to realize: that being whole nearly always requires not just the tending of ourselves but the tending of our bonds with others?"
Read More
18 new books to read this month
The short story collection for every woman who was once a girl
Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.
* Did young Ernest Hemingway give a porcupine a "wack with an ax?" Vanity Fair shares a treasure trove of the writer’s delightful early correspondence with his parents and childhood friends. (Vanity Fair)
* Watch this: Louis C.K.'s affectionate remembrance of George Carlin, the man who inspired him to become a comedian. (The Daily What/NYPL.org, language NSFW)
* For boys who like bikes, the Barbour Steve McQueen collection. (Barbour)
* Need a place to stay in L.A.? Rent Conan O’Brian’s studio for a night (and it’s cheap, too). (Airbnb)
* "Studies have shown that men who can easily lift heavy objects make better listeners." Over at McSweeney's, "Jenna, Take Me Back, I'm Newly Muscular" is good for a laugh. (McSweeney's)
* "But the power people take from others is nothing next to the power that comes with simple self-acceptance, with being comfortable in your (changing) skin. It’s not just Survival of the Fit-ins. There’s room for something new."—Joss Whedon's advice to teenagers starting high school. (Rookie)
| Photo: The Pennsylvania State University Library |
* Did young Ernest Hemingway give a porcupine a "wack with an ax?" Vanity Fair shares a treasure trove of the writer’s delightful early correspondence with his parents and childhood friends. (Vanity Fair)
* Watch this: Louis C.K.'s affectionate remembrance of George Carlin, the man who inspired him to become a comedian. (The Daily What/NYPL.org, language NSFW)
* For boys who like bikes, the Barbour Steve McQueen collection. (Barbour)
* Need a place to stay in L.A.? Rent Conan O’Brian’s studio for a night (and it’s cheap, too). (Airbnb)
* "Studies have shown that men who can easily lift heavy objects make better listeners." Over at McSweeney's, "Jenna, Take Me Back, I'm Newly Muscular" is good for a laugh. (McSweeney's)
* "But the power people take from others is nothing next to the power that comes with simple self-acceptance, with being comfortable in your (changing) skin. It’s not just Survival of the Fit-ins. There’s room for something new."—Joss Whedon's advice to teenagers starting high school. (Rookie)
What would it take to change your life for the better? It may be less than you think—we’ve got mini-makeovers to help you upgrade everything from your workout to your weekend. #22: Some follow-up suggestions for couldn't-put-it-down books you've already read.
Follow Freedom, Jonathan Franzen's stunner about life as we know it, with Julia Glass's Three Junes, another great American novel. Or try A Small Hotel, Robert Olen Butler's shorter but no less encompassing tale of love and loss.
6 more terrific reading suggestions
Keep Reading
30 days of makeovers
18 books to pick up this month
What's on Christina Ricci's bookshelf?
 |
6 more terrific reading suggestions
Keep Reading
30 days of makeovers
18 books to pick up this month
What's on Christina Ricci's bookshelf?
Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale today, the short story collection...
Blueprints for
Building Better Girls
By Elissa Schappell
Elissa Schappell is not for the fainthearted. In this
collection of eight revelatory, risky stories, we meet the girls that all
mothers fear their daughter might become—or, to varying degrees, the girls we
might have become ourselves. One turns to hate to cover her vulnerability,
while another suffers from an eating disorder, in some part due to her mother's all-consuming embrace. The most shocking story follows a college coed through
her days of binge drinking and blacking out during a relentless parade of frat
house parties. Surprisingly, it's also the most moving. Schappell has the ability—and the
guts—to cut straight through the "girls gone wild" images that inevitably throb to mind (ouch) and show us the tender and often hopeful human beings that live inside these women-to-be.
In one upsetting scene, a group of angry, male bar patrons chases the coed and her friends across a deserted parking lot. As she jumps into a car to escape, the coed feels her mother's treasured strand of pearls break and must leave those pearls rolling hopelessly across the asphalt—save for one, about which she wonders if she has any right to even keep. "Maybe some farm kid walking down the street would find it..." she says. "And then they'd think that maybe the world wasn't as ugly as they thought it was. Maybe there was magic in it after all."
In one upsetting scene, a group of angry, male bar patrons chases the coed and her friends across a deserted parking lot. As she jumps into a car to escape, the coed feels her mother's treasured strand of pearls break and must leave those pearls rolling hopelessly across the asphalt—save for one, about which she wonders if she has any right to even keep. "Maybe some farm kid walking down the street would find it..." she says. "And then they'd think that maybe the world wasn't as ugly as they thought it was. Maybe there was magic in it after all."
A rule for us all: There is always magic in a gift from your mother. Always.
Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.
* In 1989 a 7-year-old girl sent Roald Dahl "a dream in a bottle" she'd made with oil, colored water and glitter. He wrote back. (Twitter via Letters of Note)
* Speaking of children's literature, where's Waldo? (Guardian.co.uk)
* An ode to Steve Jobs' most influential innovation of all: Business casual attire. (The Smart Set)
* Bummed you won't get to see Venus Williams compete in the U.S. Open? Get to know Ryan Harrison, the 19-year-old Grantland calls the next John McEnroe. (Grantland)
* "Let’s put it this way: My legs are gone, but I’m still going to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle one day, and I’m still going to see my son grow up, and probably get into trouble." — New York Times photographer Joao Silva, who lost his legs after stepping on a landmine in Afghanistan, in a speech he gave in early August. The whole thing is worth a read. (Lens Blog)
* In 1989 a 7-year-old girl sent Roald Dahl "a dream in a bottle" she'd made with oil, colored water and glitter. He wrote back. (Twitter via Letters of Note)* Speaking of children's literature, where's Waldo? (Guardian.co.uk)
* An ode to Steve Jobs' most influential innovation of all: Business casual attire. (The Smart Set)
* Bummed you won't get to see Venus Williams compete in the U.S. Open? Get to know Ryan Harrison, the 19-year-old Grantland calls the next John McEnroe. (Grantland)
* "Let’s put it this way: My legs are gone, but I’m still going to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle one day, and I’m still going to see my son grow up, and probably get into trouble." — New York Times photographer Joao Silva, who lost his legs after stepping on a landmine in Afghanistan, in a speech he gave in early August. The whole thing is worth a read. (Lens Blog)
Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale
The heart-breaking setup: Pregnant, motherless, 14-year-old Esch lives with her 3 brothers in the hardscrabble deep country of Mississippi.
today, the novel:
By Jesmyn Ward
The heart-breaking setup: Pregnant, motherless, 14-year-old Esch lives with her 3 brothers in the hardscrabble deep country of Mississippi.
The plot twist: Hurricane Katrina is gathering steam off the Gulf of Mexico—while the family fails to prepare for its arrival, focusing instead of a new batch of pit bulls that may (or may not) bring them $800.
The true-life irony: Even in a time of impending disaster, we still care about the ordinary things: why the person we love doesn't love us back, why we still miss those who we have lost, and if (and when?) we will ever grow up and be the person we want to be.
The hard-to-face Southern poverty we all should know about: dog fights, squirrel hunting, black kids in white schools, warm sugar juice, dinners of raw Top Ramen noodles and "potted meat."
The natural Southern beauty we all need to see: "Bits of sunlight bite through the tops of the pines that murmur once and twice and are quiet...A rabbits sits, watching us as we make the halfway mark about the circle of the field...It twitches its ears, stares at us in profile, one large black eye like a wet marble in its face, wide and glazed as if it seeing something supernatural."
Read more:
| Photo: Thinkstock |
I am not the kind of person who hangs up on her mother. But I sometimes pretend the stove is on fire and drop the phone and run off screaming. Now, I can just stay on the line; knowing the ending actually improves a person’s enjoyment of a film or book. A recent study by researchers from the University of California at San Diego, Reuters reported, gave reader stories by John Updike, Roald Dahl, and Agatha Christie, only with two versions—the original, and another with a "spoiling paragraph" inserted in the text.
The verdict: readers preferred the amended stories. My kids of course could have explain this to me—without words even. One look at their bewitched, glazed expressions as they watched Dinosaur Train, the underwater episode, for the millionth time proves the whole entire theory. (Just to increase your enjoyment: the little fish without any names do get eaten by the big friendly dinosaurs).
From now on, I will enjoy my mother's plot references, as long as my mother does not find out that I am enjoying them, at which point either I will be compelled to admit or she will be compelled to point out that—like our long hot endless childhoods visits to Civil War battlefields—this is officially for my own good.
Read More:
At last: a proved route to wisdom.
The back-from-vacation ah-ha moment!
Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale today, the lovely and wholly original novel...
By Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The idea that caused us to swoon: When it comes to feelings, let flowers do the talking—a practice that dates back to the Victorian age when each kind of flora represented an emotion. For example, a yellow rose is just another word for infidelity.
The story you've never heard before: A young woman raised in foster homes goes from marigold (grief) and lavender (distrust) to pink rose (pure love), due to the attentions of a San Francisco florist and a young, sensitive—okay, dashing—flower farmer.
The extra bonus: The descriptions of food will propel you instantly to the nearest farmers' market. Expect rare steak in a sauce of "exotic mushrooms, red potatoes, and turnips" and plenty of blackberry cobbler with cream.
The painful question: If you grow up without love—or parents, or a home—can you find a way to give love to those who try, one day, to love you?
Read More
Imagine a world where four courageous yet completely ornery older people—Granny, Frank the Fixer, Madge the Merciless, and Emile the Organizer—take on the evils of today's society, battling nefarious financial planners and knocking out health insurance company representatives. This is the inspired, much-needed idea behind Coot Avengers, a comic book now being funded on Kickstarter. (Technically, the project has already reached its $2,500 goal, but we advise donating anyway—just for the free-with-donation gift comic entitled Everything I Know About Wall Street, I Learned From My Cat.)
The geniuses behind the mature, laugh-lined superheroes are Kay Wood (age 60), Michael Silverstein (age 70) and Doris Lane Grey (age 72) who got together one afternoon for pastries, only to begin discussing getting older and dealing with various bureaucratic agencies. Silverstein in particular was in the middle of a nasty battle with an insurance agent over who was going to pay for a colonoscopy. "People our age are in a daily fight with government agencies, city hall, and even private employers who don't want to hire anybody over 50," says Wood.
Soon the three had pooled their artistic resources to try something new for all of them—a comic, populated with characters who are "feisty, wise, and when circumstances demand, intimidating."
"The project has been so enlightening," says Silverstein, "to be able to have a medium that allow you to focus attention on these issues—not beat people over the head with them—but present them in a really poignant, fun way." His particular comic alter-ego, he claims, is Frank the Fixer: "a tall, slender, gawky guy who doesn't like to take a lot of guff from people."
The fact that originators of the Coot Avengers are seemingly as feisty and wise are their characters is not that much of a surprise, but one tidbit on their website did wow us: Some 44 million Baby Boomers will be eligible for Social Security between now and 2029. With those kind of numbers, you have to wonder if that particular group needs a superhero—given that the last time they stood up for something, it was for the end of the Vietnam War.
Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.
* Earlier this month, an 89-year-old barber named Aaron Biber, found the
shop he'd owned for 41 years destroyed by London's rioters. Last
Wednesday, a group of advertising interns set up a website to help him
repair the shop. Within a week, visitors to the site had contributed nearly $60,000—enough to keep Aaron cutting. The kindness of strangers really never gets old. (Keep Aaron Cutting)
* Put this On, a web fashion series for men, visits the corduroy appreciation club and checks in with Gay Talese, one of the few dandies so dandy he has his own style of lapel. (Put this On)
* Relive the crushes of your youth in this slideshow of '80s athletes with their girlfriends and wives. For every Mike Tyson and Robin Givens, there's a couple that reminds us true love can span several decades—and survive the worst of mullets. (Sports Illustrated)
* Male superheroes get Wonder Woman-ized. (Bleeding Cool)
* "Fear only has as much power as we give it space."—Bright's Passage author Josh Ritter tells us what he knows for sure. (Oprah.com)
| Aaron Biber Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty Images |
* Put this On, a web fashion series for men, visits the corduroy appreciation club and checks in with Gay Talese, one of the few dandies so dandy he has his own style of lapel. (Put this On)
* Relive the crushes of your youth in this slideshow of '80s athletes with their girlfriends and wives. For every Mike Tyson and Robin Givens, there's a couple that reminds us true love can span several decades—and survive the worst of mullets. (Sports Illustrated)
* Male superheroes get Wonder Woman-ized. (Bleeding Cool)
* "Fear only has as much power as we give it space."—Bright's Passage author Josh Ritter tells us what he knows for sure. (Oprah.com)
Advertisement
about Life Lift
The Oprah blog is a place where you can find engaging news coverage, fresh inspiration, and the straight talk you've come to count on. A place that
provides the tools you need to make a change—if not in the world—then at
least in your little corner of it. It's a place that will raise your energy, lower your blood pressure and
occasionally make you laugh—in short, a place of possibility.
topics
Advertisement
Advertisement
contributors
archived posts
