If you read only one book I ever blog about. Please choose The Middle Place a biography by Kelly Corrigan. It is the most inspiring, uplifting & at the same time, heart wrenching book I have read in a very long time.
The Middle Place refers to that "place" that so many of us find ourselves in. That "place" where you are still your parent's child, but at the same time you are a parent to your own children. That place where you want to go to your parent's house when bad stuff happens at the same time your kids are wanting to crawl into bed with you.
"It's a giant Venn diagram where you are the only member of both sets."And The Middle Place is a horrible place to be when you & your beloved father are both diagnosed with Cancer within weeks of each other. And on opposite sides of the country, no less.
Kelly Corrigan has written a funny memoir. She takes the time to really introduce us to her family. To her father, "Greenie" , to her mother, Mary & to her two older brothers, GT & Booker. She goes back & forth between the memories of her childhood & the realities of now. She tells us what it was like to grow up in an Irish-Catholic family with brothers who are as devoted to sports as they are to their sister. Like so many other people in this world, myself included, our families shape us into the people we are today. And that is never more evident than when a crisis hits & your world is rocked.
With the support of her wonderful husband, Edward, & her two daughters, Georgia & Claire, Kelly fights the Breast Cancer. And she fights for her Dad's bladder cancer, all the way across the country.
I laughed. I cried. I wanted to go & drink wine with Kelly. And watch Greenie's Lacrosse team. Even though I desperately love my family, I wanted to be a part of the Corrigan family. In Kelly's world, The Middle Place isn't a bad place to be.
If you would like to meet Kelly, check out her website http://www.kellycorrigan.com/ but please, be sure to pick up her book. I predict that it will win the B&N 2009 Discover New Writers Award for Non-Fiction. It will be a great injustice if she doesn't win.
Charlotte...been meaning to write and let you know I *LOVED* this book. Like you, I wanted to find Kelly and go out for coffee or a drink. I would have killed to have a father like hers. Thanks yet again for recommended another great book.
Post a Comment