Like a Hallmark movie, Dinners with Ruth is an engaging and entertaining story, with episodes of great pathos. It is an upbeat, easy-to-read gift book, which is undoubtedly what its publisher intended.
Helen Epstein
Book Excerpt: Helen Epstein’s “Getting Through It: My Year of Cancer During Covid”
Just after Covid arrived in North America, journalist Helen Epstein was diagnosed with endometrial cancer — one of a predicted 66,570 new cases of cancer of the uterine body in the United States in 2021.
Book Review: “In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss” — A Brave and Heartrending Story
This is a profoundly disturbing memoir about a subject that hits close to home for many readers.
Book Review: “All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days” — Innovative History of a Female Anti-Nazi Resistance Leader
What holds this wildly ambitious book together and drives the narrative is Rebecca Donner’s unwavering, partisan voice.
Book Review: Sarah Ruhl’s “Smile: The Story of a Face”
This is the voice of a wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, patient, and author who wrote a memoir on her own terms. I can’t wait for Sarah Ruhl’s next play.
Book Review: “Mike Nichols: A Life” — Portrait of a Protean Artist
This nearly 600-page text is a closely detailed, comprehensive portrait by a biographer riveted, as many of us are, by his charismatic subject.
Book Review: “Franci’s War” — A Very Relevant Holocaust Memoir
Here we have the story of a young Czech woman who could not only take a piece of fabric and shape it into a gorgeous dress, but could also take her experiences during WWII and shape them into a compelling memoir.
Theater Review: “Curve of Departure” — A Wonderfully Provocative Comedy
Playwright Rachel Bonds has written an often-hilarious script which nonetheless deals with such serious and widespread issues as spousal and child abandonment, drug addiction, the right to death with dignity, and same-sex adoption of children.
Theater Review: “On the Exhale” — Wild, Angry, and Powerful
On the Exhale is one of the most powerful and uncompromising one-person shows I’ve ever seen.
Theater Review: “The Children” — Scientists Under Pressure
The production strikes a fine balance between comedy and seriousness, public and private concerns, bringing a complex and compelling play to vibrant life.