I have had the great pleasure of knowing Rebecca Steinitz for a while now, although we have yet to have the even greater pleasure of meeting in person, despite a flurry of text messages last winter in NYC that nearly had us getting together on the Upper West Side, somewhere near Gray’s Papaya I do believe. Today, Rebecca has a fantastic interview in Between the Lines, about reading, her books (check out her color coded shelving system that will make you woozy with envy) and yes, This Lovely Life. Head on over, read and comment and share the joy of an avid book reader and lover. Thank you, Rebecca!
Rebecca’s shelves. Aren’t they amazing?
Cross-posted at Speak Softly.
Many years ago, when still a high school senior, I visited New Haven with my mom to have an interview and tour the campus of Yale University. After the interview, my mom and I called my dad to tell him it had gone well and that I loved the school. Over the phone, my dad started singing, “Boola boola.”
These are the kinds of events we have as children that make us remember our parents: the times we made them proud. I was admitted to Yale that fall and managed to make it out intact, with my B.A. in Literature. I don’t write much about my college experience in This Lovely Life, but it is absolutely the case that experience of being an intellectual, among the brightest of my generation, informed the way I wrote about being a mother to a disabled child, many years later.
This month, the Yale Alumni Magazine ran a lovely review of my book, one that brings my time at Yale, and the experience I describe in This Lovely Life wonderfully, beautifully full circle. And, yes, it made my dad proud, all over again.
I’ve now been part of several book clubs discussing This Lovely Life, all of which have been richly rewarding talks about faith, medicine, spirituality, and motherhood. If you’re considering adopting the book for a book club, I’m available in person if the situation is local to Southern California, or by Skype if you’re further afield. I can pop in at the beginning of the discussion to read a bit from the book and introduce the story, or at the end of the talk to answer questions and continue the conversation. To learn more, just send an email and I’d be happy to respond.
This coming week I’ll be appearing at The Loft in Minneapolis, at the annual Mother Words reading series, along with Kate Hopper and Kate St. Vincent Vogl, author of Lost and Found: A Memoir of Mothers. This promises to be a terrific event, and both Kates are fabulous writers with whom I am delighted to read. Find us there on Thursday, September 24th at 7 pm.
That same weekend finds me in Chicago, reading at the Women and Children First Bookstore on Sunday, September 26th at 4:30. Those Chicagoans in the know recognized WCF as one of the pre-eminent local independent bookstores and I’m thrilled be standing at the podium there.
Thanks to Laurie Tarkan for her effective and important piece in Tuesday’s New York Times, For Parents on NICU, Trauma May Last. Tarkan takes a long hard look at an undernoticed phenonmenon among NICU parents, and what she turns up will surely resonate with many readers.
Tomorrow, look for me at my favorite local independent bookstore, Vroman’s, on Colorado Boulevard in my hometown of Pasadena. As always, I hope to see you there!
I had the sincere pleasure of speaking with my good friend Andrew Tonkovich on his show Bibliocracy last week. You can have a listen here. Andrew asks great questions, and allows room for several readings from the book.
Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the creme de la creme of conferences for writers. I’ll be here for ten days, meeting, reading, and just plain talking books. The view from my window, in idyllic Vermont:
See you all on the flip side!
This week I’m heading north to read at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers on Wednesday, August 5th. Then it’s on to San Francisco where I’ll be appearing on ABC-TV’s View From the Bay on Thursday, August 6th at 3 pm, followed by a reading at Book Passage Corte Madera that night at 7 pm. If you’re in the area, please consider coming out!
Over the weekend, a front page interview by Katharine Mieszkowski on Salon garnered quite a bit of response and attention. Reader letters commented on the controversy of resuscitating our twins against our wishes, with voices expressing both outrage at the doctors, and our determination. The piece was the most read story for several days, and has been picked up by various other news and media outlets, including Emily Bazelon at Double X.
That same weekend brought a review in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle. In the review, Susanna Sonnenberg writes,
I might say that “This Lovely Life” is an indictment of our health care system (Forman has an excellent ear for doctors’ hostility and inadvertent cruelty), or a passionate treatise on mother love, and certainly you could read the book for confirmation of both, but I don’t think the author cares to make those judgments. She is neither apologetic nor unapologetic: She writes more for a fierce private truth than for any published effect. It is our good fortune to witness a beautiful heart beating out its own epic.
I’ll be in San Francisco next week, reading at Book Passage Corte Madera Thursday, August 6th at 7 pm, and appearing on ABC-TV’s View From the Bay at three that same afternoon. If you’re in the area, please do stop by.
I had the great pleasure of doing an interview with BlogHer columnist Shannon Des Roches Rosa last week. Please head on over to read the Q&A. Shannon asks important and probing questions about disability, personhood, and coping with grief.
Over at The Rumpus, Grace Talusan has posted a lovely, thoughtful review of the book. And today Literally Booked posted a remarkable, insightful and truly humbling review, calling the book a “heartrending story from the depths of parenting.” Thank you, Astarte.
October 5, 2009 11:21 am | 
