Showing posts with label Aging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aging. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

An Appetite for Miracles

Kemp, Laekan Zea. An Appetite for Miracles. 2023. 448p. ISBN 9780316461733.


Danna knows she's a little on the chunky side ... actually, a lot on the chunky side. She loves food. She loves to cook it, and she loves to eat it. Her mother is always after her to lose some weight, and she closely monitors what Danna eats. Danna wishes her mother would just accept her as she is, not as she could be. The family has bigger problems anyway. Danna's grandfather, who lives with them, suffers from Alzheimer, and he is gradually forgetting more and more as the disease progresses. It's becoming difficult to keep hum safe.

Raúl loves to play music, and his favorite thing is to play guitar for the elderly. It helps them remember their lives' happy events and memories. And it lets Raúl forget that his mother has been in prison for the last two years. Raúl and his uncle travel to old folks' homes, and also play in people's homes. This is how he ends up at Danna's house, and a spark is lit between the two of them.

When Danna comes across a journal he wrote in his youth about the places he visited with his wife and the wonderful foods they ate, Danna decides she will prepare those dishes, with the hope that it will spark a memory and help slow her grandfather's descent into a deeper state of Alzheimer. Raúl, meanwhile, is dealing with his mother being released early from prison. The two years she was gone were rough, but now she's a changed person, and not necessarily for the better. 

As Raúl and Danna navigates the waters of a budding relationship while dealing with dramatic family issues, can they rely on each other to get through these changes?

Friday, January 20, 2023

I Feel Bad About My Neck, and other Thoughts on Being a Woman

Ephron, Nora. I Feel Bad About My Neck, and other Thoughts on Being a Woman. 2006. 139p. ISBN 9780307264558.
Nora Ephron brought us famous movies like When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. A famous writer, Nora started her career as a journalist before transitioning into a writer and director. Over the years, Nora accumulated experiences that became fodder for her movies and books. In I Feel Bad About My Neck, Ephron explores what it means to age as a woman, in often poignant language, but always with a hilarious bent.

Looking back at her life, Ephron considers times that were significant and that an outside influence on her. She talks about her time as John F. Kennedy's intern. She discusses her disappointment at Bill Clinton's presidency. She explores the love she has for her apartment, until rent was raised to $12,000 a month. She talks about her children. Through it all, Ephron showcases the same humor that made her a famous writer and movie director.

Though younger readers will not relate to most of the topics Ephron explores in this book, they will not be able to say they weren't forewarned about some of the pitfalls of aging!