For today's #NewTitleTuesday pick, we turn our attention to the nonfiction section with Mary Laura Philpott's BOMB SHELTER: LOVE, TIME AND OTHER EXPLOSIVES. Philpott, an essayist who some critics call a spiritual successor to Nora Ephron or Erma Bombeck and who wrote 2019's I MISS YOU WHEN I BLINK, writes a fresh, funny, and insightful collection of new essays that speak to everyday life, motherhood, and the anxiety-ridden moment that many Americans are going through.
I mentioned "anxiety-ridden" - Philpott, a parent with young children, is constantly worried about them, as all mothers are on some level. Not only is she worried about the physical dangers of the world around them, but also of the emotional dangers as well. However, she's also in constant amazement at the joys that life and children can bring, so she's in this push-pull of anxiety and wonder that provides fertile grounds for her essays. One of her children has epilepsy (which was a main subject of her previous book) and she describes the feeling of powerlessness of knowing a seizure is coming but not knowing exactly when or how intense or long-lasting it will be. This is something that all parents share - the feeling that good things - and bad - will happen, but not knowing when it will happen and how things will turn out.
Philpott, who has written essays for a slew of magazines, including O the Oprah Magazine, the Atlantic, and the Washington Post, writes in a chatty conversational style that draws the reader into a bubble. Accessible but not pretentious, she writes about identifiable topics but puts a unique spin on things that leave the reader both nodding in agreement yet wondering why they hadn't thought that of that before.
Whether you're filled with optimism or terrified of the future - maybe both - place this one on your holds list.
Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time!