Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I am in a hotel room in Baltimore, the morning after speechifying at a girls’ school a few miles away. I wake to receive a text from my eldest son, who is about to become a father. I am about to become a grandmother. #2 The baby is the homunculus, the small human dreamed up by alchemists hundreds of years ago. He is the beginning of his own story, but he is also a plotline in a larger one, a branch on an enormous tree. #3 Grandparents know the day-to-day, while grandparents wonder between times of togetherness. It’s one difference, but there are many. Grandparents never wonder what their children are doing, while parents often wonder what their grandchildren are doing. #4 I feel a sense of great responsibility with Arthur, but being an old hand has its benefits. I know how to handle a crying baby, and I prefer to do that rather than stand by and watch while someone else delivers one.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Anna Quindlen presents a “swift and compelling paean to the joys of books” (Booklist). “Like the columns she used to write for the New York Times, [How Reading Changed My Life] is tart, smart, full of quirky insights, lapidary, and a pleasure to read.”—Publishers Weekly “Reading has always been my home, my sustenance, my great invincible companion. . . . Yet of all the many things in which we recognize universal comfort—God, sex, food, family, friends—reading seems to be the one in which the comfort is most undersung, at least publicly, although it was really all I thought of, or felt, when I was eating up book after book, running away from home while sitting in a chair, traveling around the world and yet never leaving the room. . . . I read because I loved it more than any activity on earth.”—from How Reading Changed My Life

“[Quindlen] serves up generous portions of her wise, commonsensical, irresistibly quotable take on life.”—NPR This edition includes an exclusive conversation between Meryl Streep and Anna Quindlen. In this irresistible memoir, Anna Quindlen writes about a woman’s life, from childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age. Considering—and celebrating—everything from marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, parenting, faith, loss, to all the stuff in our closets, and more, Quindlen says for us here what we may wish we could have said ourselves. As she did in her beloved New York Times columns, and in A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen uses her past, present, and future to explore what matters most to women at different ages. Quindlen talks about: Marriage: “A safety net of small white lies can be the bedrock of a successful marriage. You wouldn’t believe how cheaply I can do a kitchen renovation.” Girlfriends: “Ask any woman how she makes it through the day, and she may mention her calendar, her to-do lists, her babysitter. But if you push her on how she really makes it through her day, she will mention her girlfriends. ” Our bodies: “I’ve finally recognized my body for what it is: a personality-delivery system, designed expressly to carry my character from place to place, now and in the years to come.” Parenting: “Being a parent is not transactional. We do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it-forward endeavor: We are good parents not so they will be loving enough to stay with us but so they will be strong enough to leave us.” Candid, funny, and moving, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is filled with the sharp insights and revealing observations that have long confirmed Quindlen’s status as America’s laureate of real life.

The summary of Nanaville – Adventures in Grandparenting presented here include a short review of the book at the start followed by quick overview of main points and a list of important take-aways at the end of the summary. The Summary of This year's edition of Nanaville serves as a travel guide to the metaphorical city of grandmotherhood. Being a grandma is a wonderful experience, but it is in no way comparable to being a parent. Being a mother is a life-changing privilege. It may be challenging, but if you want to be the best granny you can be to your grandchildren, you need to break the habits you developed while you were pregnant and raising children. This book is an absolute necessity for anyone who is new to "Nanaville," as it is crammed with helpful advice on grandmotherhood gleaned from personal experience. Nanaville summary includes the key points and important takeaways from the book Nanaville by Anna Quindlen. Disclaimer: 1. This summary is meant to preview and not to substitute the original book. 2. We recommend, for in-depth study purchase the excellent original book. 3. In this summary key points are rewritten and recreated and no part/text is directly taken or copied from original book. 4. If original author/publisher wants us to remove this summary, please contact us at [email protected].

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A bighearted book of wisdom, wit, and insight, celebrating the love and joy of being a grandmother, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and #1 bestselling author “This tender book should be required reading for grandparents everywhere.”—Booklist (starred review) “I am changing his diaper, he is kicking and complaining, his exhausted father has gone to the kitchen for a glass of water, his exhausted mother is prone on the couch. He weighs little more than a large sack of flour and yet he has laid waste to the living room: swaddles on the chair, a nursing pillow on the sofa, a car seat, a stroller. No one cares about order, he is our order, we revolve around him. And as I try to get in the creases of his thighs with a wipe, I look at his, let’s be honest, largely formless face and unfocused eyes and fall in love with him. Look at him and think, well, that’s taken care of, I will do anything for you as long as we both shall live, world without end, amen.” Before blogs even existed, Anna Quindlen became a go-to writer on the joys and challenges of family, motherhood, and modern life, in her nationally syndicated column. Now she’s taking the next step and going full nana in the pages of this lively, beautiful, and moving book about being a grandmother. Quindlen offers thoughtful and telling observations about her new role, no longer mother and decision-maker but secondary character and support to the parents of her grandson. She writes, “Where I once led, I have to learn to follow.” Eventually a close friend provides words to live by: “Did they ask you?” Candid, funny, frank, and illuminating, this is the perfect gift for new parents and grandparents. With the same insights Quindlen brought to motherhood in Living Out Loud and to growing older in Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, this new nana uses her own experiences to illuminate those of many others.

Summary of Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen | Includes Analysis Preview: Miller's Valley is a coming-of-age story set in a fictional town in Pennsylvania. There, Mimi Miller and her family live under the constant threat of flooding from severe rainstorms and from the government, which hopes to turn the town into a reservoir. As her family falls apart and the town moves slowly towards its inevitable demise, the protagonist begins her life as a successful young adult. Mimi lives in Miller's Valley with her parents, Buddy and Miriam; her older brother, Tommy, and her aunt Ruth, who resides in a second house on the same property. Mimi's oldest brother, Eddie, ten years her senior, has already left home. When she's not at school, Mimi passes the time selling ears of corn with the help of her best friends, LaRhonda and Donald. At home, she spends a lot of time visiting Aunt Ruth, who's a shut-in. Sisters Ruth and Miriam have an antagonistic relationship... PLEASE NOTE: This is summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary of Miller's Valley: Summary of the Book Important People Character Analysis Analysis of the Themes and Author's Style About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen | Summary & Analysis Preview: Miller’s Valley is a coming-of-age story set in a fictional town in Pennsylvania. There, Mimi Miller and her family live under the constant threat of flooding from severe rainstorms and from the government, which hopes to turn the town into a reservoir. As her family falls apart and the town moves slowly towards its inevitable demise, the protagonist begins her life as a successful young adult. Mimi lives in Miller’s Valley with her parents, Buddy and Miriam; her older brother, Tommy, and her aunt Ruth, who resides in a second house on the same property. Mimi’s oldest brother, Eddie, ten years her senior, has already left home. When she’s not at school, Mimi passes the time selling ears of corn with the help of her best friends, LaRhonda and Donald. At home, she spends a lot of time visiting Aunt Ruth, who’s a shut-in. Sisters Ruth and Miriam have an antagonistic relationship… PLEASE NOTE: This is summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary of Miller’s Valley: Summary of the Book Important People Character Analysis Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.