As Lisa mentioned, memoir has just been moved to the fiction room. Because of that, I’ve found myself moving memoirs up in my current reading stack. Just published at the end of April, Anna Quindlen’s new memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake was the first one I’ve picked up.
Anna Quindlen is no stranger to the fiction room. She has a list of titles that are both fiction and nonfiction. She started off as a reporter for the New York Post in 1974. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. In 1995 she quit her journalism career to become a full time novelist. I am thankful for her transition into the novel world.
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is a book of Anna Quindlen’s observations through life. Her knowledge on life as a woman is broken up into chapters. The variety of topics include: girlfriends, parenting, faith, marriage and solitude. The chapters are full of observations, thoughts, and a variety of emotions. Some happy, some sad, some nostalgic. They are all emotions that we have felt at one time or another. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is written in a way that makes it easy to pick up as you are able. You don’t have to sit and read the whole thing all the way through but you might just want to.
On parenting, she says “Being a parent is not transactional. we do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it forward endeavor: we are good parents not so they will be loving enough to stay with us but so they will be strong enough to leave us.”
My mother has said something similar to me many times. Of course that doesn’t make things any easier when we are saying goodbye after a good visit. While reading through parts of this book, I have thought to myself “my mother should read this.” Sunday is Mother’s Day. I’ve got my gift in hand. -Quinn
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