Leftie aka Closet Romance Reader

After all the hemming and hawing, I decided to finally finish this book... Now, in my mind, how do I critique a book that is meant to be a tribute to a mother? I guess I don't. I'd just leave that to the pros who do this for a living...

On a more personal note, I can talk about this book on so many levels. Is it the love of books I should focus on? Should I highlight Mrs. Schwalbe's feats? What about the parent-child relationship?... I've read the other GR reviews where some people mentioned that they are not able to relate as you can sense, when you read the book, that Mr. Schwalbe's family inhabits a more privileged strata of North American society. Regardless, I know anyone who's lost a loved one to cancer the way Mr. Schwalbe did can appreciate the opportunity that he had to connect with his mother and did something they both truly enjoyed, ie, reading, before she passed away (The book talked about how it almost feels impolite in our society now when we say s/he died. I guess I just proved that). The books they covered ran a gamut of genres. For a reader myself, whether I've read the books they covered or not, that totally spoke to me (now TBR'ing some of the books I'm unfamiliar with). And as a woman, as preachy as this may sound, feminist or not, women of my generation or my mother's or the ones after mine should certainly thank women like Mrs. Schwalbe who despite being born in a less progressive era, carried on the torch, so to speak, of the women before her, and continued to show what women are capable of doing...

A touching memoir, indeed...