The month of May is chock-a-block with good things. Mothers Day… OK, I lied, I’m not a fan of this manufactured day of worship. Every single day should be mother’s day in my book. What’s this once a year malarkey? About this time in May there’s usually a hint of sunscreen in the air. It’s the official kick-off to outdoor grill season and you can smell the first tendrils of summer. May is also flowers on full tilt and that blossomy, fresh cut grass scent in the air. The sunsets are later, the days are longer, which leads into Memorial Day, where we honor those who have served and fallen. This day is always more than just a chance to eat wieners and burgers. It’s a time to reflect on the service and sacrifice that is the strong backbone of this country, the reason we enjoy freedoms so many others do not. I’m not going to get all sappy here, but its important to reflect, especially those of us not in military families, about the very small percentage of our population that serves today and what we owe our military families when they come home in need of our assistance as they transition back to civilian life. There are many wonderful organizations that stand ready to assist our veterans and families. Bob and I are proud that the Bob Woodruff Foundation helps connect veterans to resources that include mental health, re-employment, support for the caregiver or so many other areas. You can show your gratitude this Memorial Day for our service members and make a donation at bobwoodrufffoundation.org-donate. And lastly, this month’s featured independent book store is Scattered Books (scatteredbooks.com) in Chappaqua, New York. They setup a table of great reads to support the Irvington PTSA when I spoke there a few weeks ago. This shout out is for all of the indie book store owners who pack the back of the SUV and head to some good cause or fundraiser, give a percentage to the event and promote books and authors everywhere! Memoir: Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith and Resilience by Allison Pataki Full disclosure, I’m connected to this book not just because I know and love this author, but I wrote the forward. Allison Pataki and I are twinned both in friendship and experience. When my husband Bob was injured in Iraq in 2006, I lived through many of the same emotions and experiences that she describes in this honest, gorgeous and sometimes gut-wrenching book. An established, best-selling novelist, Pataki is a beautiful writer. But this book is a departure for her, intensely personal, part memoir, love story, diary and a manual of the grief/gratitude seesaw that comes with any hard journey. The story begins when Allison’s 30-year old husband Dave has a stroke on an airplane as they are headed to a “babymoon” in Hawaii. In one instant, the happily pregnant couple’s lives took a very different direction than the one they had planned. In the absence of being able to do anything else, Allison did the one thing she knew would save her. She opened her laptop and began to write letters to him. “Dear Dave,” she began, retelling the story of their life, the things she wanted to say to him, the ending she wanted for them both. The book flips back and forth from their first meeting in college to the present, where their future together hangs in the balance. There is faith, friendship, the true north of family and more than a dash of miraculous. The result is this brilliant, engrossing and ultimately hopeful book. Oh, and spoiler alert, expect a happy ending. Memoir: The Seasons of My Mother- A Memoir of Love, Family and Flowers by Marcia Gay Harden Few bonds are as deep, meaningful and yes, fraught, as the one between mother and daughter. This wonderfully warm and insightful memoir is a love story from a daughter. It is also a shot across the bow at the demon Alzheimers, the thief who steals the past and present from our loved ones and as it steals them from us. Oscar-award winning actress Harden uses the metaphor of seasons to organize her life and relationship with her mother, a proud Navy officer’s wife who raised her children all around the world. While stationed in Japan, her mother discovers “Ikebana,” the Japanese art of flower arranging. It becomes both her escape and creative outlet while logging the long, sometimes interminable hours raising young children. What makes this memoir so poignant, especially as a daughter whose father passed from Alzheimers, is that you are immediately confronted with the stark, angry fact that this disease has stolen the seasons of her mother’s life. Harden deftly criss-crosses back and forth in time retelling her story, largely through the intersections with her mother. This beautifully rendered portrait of mother and daughter oozes with love, a dash of regret, nostalgia and devotion. The book is the gift of a daughter restoring her mother’s memory and honoring her incredibly rich life. This passage touched me, “Memory becomes an adventurous companion, and is our GPS confirming our place on our life map. At some point these stories become vessels that transcend time and space. They are handed down to our children, and our children’s children, and so become the atoms that bind our past, present and future…At least, if Mom could remember, she would feel pride at what an amazing mother she was and what a brilliant star navigator.” Non-Fiction: Birds of a Feather – A True Story of Hope and the Healing Power of Animals by Lorin Lindner Animal lovers understand the benefits of owning a pet, the unconditional love that can sometimes be inconsistent in our human offspring. If you want to care your pet take a look at la weekly offers a range of CBD oil for pets, click to read more about how to treat our little furry. In the past decade of war, we’ve seen how service dogs and horses […]