“Like all humans, my mind is wired to look for the story in any situation. Where’s the beginning, the middle, the twist, the end? And what’s the moral?”
I’m Betty Martin with "Martin’s Must Reads" and that’s a quote from Mary Laura Philpott’s newest book Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and other Explosives. This is a memoir of sorts with each chapter a view into some aspect of herself or her family.
The opening chapter relates a story of when she was dancing in the ocean at nine years old completely oblivious to the danger of a school of sting rays surrounding her. The rest of the chapters revolve around her adult life i.e. the time her teenage son had his first epileptic seizure, or when her her physician father revealed that he was on the Presidential bunker team, a description of where her mind goes when she is meditating, her first time ever spatchcocking a turkey, how she mentally prepared to send her son off to college and Frank, the turtle that lives on their property and regularly knocks at their door.
The Washington Post hailed Philpott as “Nora Ephron, Erma Bombeck, Jean Kerr, and Laurie Collin all rolled into one.” The flyleaf says this book “tackles the big questions of life, death, and existential fear...with joy, candor and stubborn hope.” This is a book that may prompt you to document your own family stories.
If you’re looking for a book that may remind you of your own life, touch your heart and inspire you, then you must read Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott.
