Customer Comments

In 1996, Naseem Rakha was assigned by NPR to cover the first execution in 34 years of a death row inmate in Oregon. Rakha's research in order to write a story to be aired the day of the execution was the beginning of her examination of the death penalty. Eventually, it led her to write a novel based on the Oregon execution and others. Written with the integrity of a journalist and the literary skill of a storyteller, the book delves deep into the complexities of crime, punishment, and forgiveness and provides its own healing power.

With a literary journalist's skill and a father's compassion, David Sheff lets readers in to a heartbreaking and hopeful story. Sheff holds nothing back as he writes of his initial denial of his young son's drug use and the ups and downs of the years that followed. For anyone who's walked this same path, Beautiful Boy will be a comfort. For those who haven't, it will offer insight and understanding into the complexities of addiction. It took courage for Sheff and his family to lay out this journey for others to read, and it takes courage to read it. I cried, cheered, worried, and wondered along with them. Now I want to read the son's version; he's written two memoirs of his own - Tweak and We All Fall Down.

Elizabeth Austen’s "Every Dress a Decision" is a moving, thought-provoking, and insightful collection of poems. I have to force myself to not race on to the next poem as soon as I finish the one I'm reading - they're all so good I can't wait to see what's next. Yet, each poem has such substance that I'm equally tempted to go back and read again the one I've just finished; when I do, I find more layers of meaning. In Austen’s voice I hear my own and that of other women; men who read will tap into the hearts and minds of the women they love.