Three Books About Unusual Families

~ Laura

I just ordered three books from Amazaon about unusual families. 

Priscilla Gilman's The Anti-Romantic Child: A Memoir of Unexpected Joy. 

 

Andrew Solmon's Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

Bruce Feiler's The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More

Published by Laura

5 thoughts on “Three Books About Unusual Families”

  1. I’m reading Far from the Tree now — so far, and about half way done, so good. I really great book, thoughtful, opening my understanding to a lot of things.

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  2. OK, this is a snark comments which I am going to justify as a way to try out the new comments. I felt that throughout The Anti-Romantic Child, despite her obvious intelligence and sincerity, Priscilla Gilman really, really wanted everyone to know how *special* she was. She had very special parents and a special career at Yale and then a special child – special in ways different than she expected, but special, damnit! special – and then a very special divorce.

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  3. I haven’t read the book, but there’s a class of women writers who give off the “special” vibes you describe, pathologically, sometimes, but in milder forms, too. The first such personality I encountered was Melanie Thernstrom (who wrote a book in college about her best friends murder that was all about Melanie, and not the victim and then on a similar article about surrogacy). The eat, pray, love woman strikes me that way, too, and the one who wrote about plastic surgery in the NY Times. And, the pathological version in Elizabeth Wurtzel. The non-pathological version in Gretchen Rubin.

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  4. I’ve read and enjoyed the second two books. Bruce Feiler kind of annoyed me, but his advice seemed very sound and researched-based (it was sort of like Nurture Shock for families.) He’s wrong about being anti-date night though.

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