Nothing to Fear

“…technically, we’re all dying,” says Julie McFadden in her fascinating book, “Nothing to Fear.”  But we don’t want to think about death. The idea that we and our loved ones will die is scary. But by refusing to think and talk about death and dying, we can cause unnecessary suffering for ourselves and those we love.

By Fran Withrow 10.2024

Love and Its Twin

I don’t think I have ever read a book quite like Margaret Renkl’s “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss.” Her beautiful essays alternate between autobiographical memories and observations about nature with unflinching honesty. Families are flawed yet cherished.

By Fran Withrow 09.2024

Stitching Together Lives from Fabric

When my neighbor Ruthie came over and saw the handmade quilt hanging in my hall, she said, “Fran, I have a great book you need to read.” That weekend I tore through “Quilt of Souls,” a memoir by Phyllis Biffle Elmore, and it is indeed a great book.

By Fran Withrow 08.2024

Master James

It has been decades since I last read “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain. I barely remembered the story of young Huck Finn and the enslaved Jim, who sail down the Mississippi River in the mid-1800’s. But I recalled enough to eagerly want to read “James,” Percival Everett’s incredible retelling of Huck and Finn’s experiences, told from Jim’s point of view. 

By Fran Withrow 07.2024

 “Walk Ride Paddle: A Life Outside”

Walk. Ride. Paddle. Senator Tim Kaine did all these things throughout the state of Virginia from 2019 to 2021 to celebrate turning sixty and being a public servant for twenty-five years. In his endearing book by the same name, Kaine uses this experience to learn more about himself, the state of Virginia, and the people whom he serves.

By Fran Withrow 06.2024

“Alfie & Me”

Safina’s book, “Alfie & Me,” is the author’s chronicle of how he rescued Alfie, a screech owl, from near death and nursed her back to health. But this thoughtful book is not just about an adorable owl and how she learns to take her place in the wild. Safina uses his experience with this owl as a basis for discussions about how humans interact with nature and what that means for the future of our planet.

By Fran Withrow 05.2024

“The Women”

In 1966, after her brother Finley is killed in the Vietnam War, twenty-year-old Frankie McGrath decides to volunteer as an Army nurse and, despite the disapproval of her parents, heads off to the battlefield.

By Fran Withrow 04.2024

Blazing Trails

I love reading about hikers who explore trails I might never see, describing their beauty and the experience of being out in nature. So when Charles McGuigan told me about “On Trails,” I rushed out to pick up a copy at the library.

By Fran Withrow 03.2024

Doing the Right Damn Thing

As a child, Will Harris delighted in exploring the woods near his farm, and “knew how everything was and how it all fit together.” His family farmed the land in Bluffton, Georgia, for decades, and Harris grew up to became the fourth generation owner of what is now called White Oak Pastures.

By Fran Withrow 02.2024 

Where the Wild Things Are Right In Your Backyard

Nancy Lawson, author of “The Humane Gardener,” has written a thoughtful new book about how you can appreciate and nurture the natural world in your own back yard. In “Wildscape,” Lawson says, “Studies show that being around nature makes us smarter, happier and kinder.” Boy, does the world need that.

By Fran Withrow 12.2023

Paved with Good Intentions

We sure do adore our roads, unless we are inconvenienced by them. Traffic jams, construction blockages, and poorly maintained expressways will have us tapping our feet in frustration and peeking at our phones. The world is criss-crossed with roads and more are being built all the time. But there is a downside to our love affair with roads, and it is a doozy.

By Fran Withrow 11.2023

True Love

“Fran, you just have to read this book,” said my friend Nancy, thrusting her copy of “Foster” into my hands. I nodded assent, tucked it into my bag and went on about my morning.

Later that afternoon, I opened her book and fell in. I gulped it all in one sitting and then started over again. Each time I was swept away by the gentle lyricism of this short, sweet novel that is now part of the school syllabus in Ireland, where its author, Claire Keegan resides. And I can certainly see why.

By Fran Withrow 10.2023

Finding Joy on Spaceship Earth

Most of us focus on the everyday things of life: fixing meals, getting kids off to school, going to work. The yard needs to be mowed, we have to buy groceries, the next door neighbor is annoying, and the laundry never gets caught up. 

If we do stop to take a breath, it is only to read emails, scroll through social media, and peruse the never-ending dismal news about climate change and politics. There is grief everywhere.

By Fran Withrow 09.2023

A Boy’s Harrowing Journey To the United States

In 1999, when Javier Zamora was nine years old, his grandfather gave him into the care of a “coyote,” Don Dago, who would help Zamora and other immigrants travel from El Salvador to the United States so Zamora could be reunited with his parents. The trip was supposed to take a couple of weeks.

By Fran Withrow 08.2023

Bleach Drinking, Laser Lights, And Other Quack Cures

Our current healthcare system isn’t perfect, and some people are so disillusioned with it they are willing to seek medical answers outside the system. And there are scores of practitioners of “medical freedom” just waiting to take people’s money and send these sufferers their own version of the “One True Cure.”

By Fran Withrow 07.2023

The Richmond Theatre Fire Rekindled

“The House is on Fire,” is Rachel Beanland’s fictionalized account of the real life Richmond theatre fire of 1811. This fire, which occurred at the site of the current Monumental Church on East Broad Street, was at the time the worst calamity ever in the United States. Seventy-two people of the six hundred or so patrons who packed the building died, and scores more were injured.

By Fran Withrow 06.2023

Knitting Your Life

Are you a knitter? If so, were you an SLFHM (She Learned From Her Mom)? Peggy Orenstein learned to knit from her mom at age eleven, so when Covid-19 turned her world upside down, she decided to knit a sweater “from scratch,” first shearing a sheep, then carding, spinning and dyeing the wool before knitting what she calls “the world’s ugliest sweater.” I found her sweater endearing, though, precisely because it wasn’t perfect.

By Fran Withrow 05.2023

The Great Escape

Many enslaved people bravely attempted to escape to freedom during America’s long and terrible history of slavery. Most of their stories are lost to the annals of time, but not all of them, fortunately. One of the more fascinating true stories is “Master Slave Husband Wife,” which chronicles the 1848 escape from slavery of Ellen Craft and her husband William.

By Fran Withrow 04.2023

How Awe Transforms Us

“Awe is the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don’t understand.” So Dacher Keltner explains in his thoughtful book, “Awe,” which looks deeply at this emotion through the lens of science and shares how becoming aware of awe can change your life for the better. 

By Fran Withrow 03.2023

Tweedledum and Tweedledumber

Andy Borowitz is an American author and comedian whose new book reveals how our country’s politicians have become dumb and dumber in the last fifty years. “Profiles in Ignorance” made me laugh—but also feel alarmed—as it traces the slippery slope leading from our more intelligent leaders to the “nightmare” of Donald Trump.

By Fran Withrow 01.2023

Racism in America: A Heavy Boulder

Andre Henry is a Black activist, artist, and writer. In his book, “All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep,” Henry shares how his close white friends and family do not truly understand how racism undergirds the foundation of our country. The heartbreaking ways his white friends dismiss racism eventually leads him, with grief and reluctance, to drop them from his life.

By Fran Withrow 12.2022

The Murder of a Teenaged Bride

I was captivated last year when I read Maggie O’Farrell’s book, “Hamnet,” a fictional account of the short life of William Shakespeare’s son. Now she is out with another story from the same time period: “The Marriage Portrait.”

By Fran Withrow 11.2022

Seeing the Forest For the Trees

Lyndsie Bourgon’s book, “Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods,” is a real eye-opener. Bourgon traveled along the west coast of North and Central America to focus on the problem of timber poaching.

By Fran Withrow 10.2022

“Yonder”: Another Chapter In America’s Shameful Past

A book that keeps me up at night and consumes my thoughts during the day is one I want to share with you. “Yonder” is just such a book. Author Jabari Asim has added a compelling fictional account of the dark era of slavery to the growing assemblage of novels set during that time period.

By Fran Withrow 09.2022

Learning to Love Like a Dog

I was a little worried that “A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home” would be yet another sweet story of a dog who changes the life of their family but dies in the end. I would read, clutching my box of tissues, while swearing never to open another book like it. 

By Fran Withrow 08.2022

The Brave Mary Lumpkin Changed the World

Almost a year ago, I reviewed Sadeqa Johnson’s  “Yellow Wife,” a story inspired by Mary Lumpkin. Lumpkin was the enslaved concubine of the owner of Richmond’s most notorious slave jail. So when I heard that Kristen Green, author of “Something Must be Done About Prince Edward County” had published a non-fiction book about Lumpkin, I couldn’t wait to read it.

By Fran Withrow 07.2022

The Transformative Power of Being in Love

“The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion is one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. Didion’s account of her life after the sudden death of her husband is extraordinary. 

By Fran Withrow 06.2022

“The Sign for Home” Is Sublime

Arlo is a DeafBlind Jehovah’s Witness who lives with a strict and controlling uncle, Brother Birch. Arlo is isolated and lonely, and has blocked out his past, as it is one of heartache, mystery, and loss.

By Fran Withrow 05.2022

The Fullness of Our Precious Days

Ann Patchett, the prolific writer whose previous books include “Bel Canto,” “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage,” and “Truth and Beauty,” is out with a new offering. “These Precious Days” is a collection of essays, all just as thoughtful and profound as you would expect from this gifted author.

By Fran Withrow 04.2022

Documenting Jim Crow on Leather

Winfred Rembert was born in Georgia in 1946 and his mother quickly gave him to her aunt to raise. Rembert grew up during the Jim Crow era, got involved in a Civil Rights demonstration in 1967 and stole a car to get away from two white police officers.

By Fran Withrow 03.2022

Truth Cannot Be Silenced

Kate Moore, author of the absorbing “The Radium Girls,” has written another satisfying book about a little known feminist, and it is equally as compelling. “The Woman They Could Not Silence” tells the story of the courageous feminist Elizabeth Packard, and after reading this book, I think her name deserves to be better known.

By Fran Withrow 1.2022

Sweet Water in The Deep South

I picked up “The Sweetness of Water” because of the exquisite title, then became spellbound by the beauty of the writing. Lyrical and haunting, Nathan Harris has written a tale about the South just after the Emancipation Proclamation with understated power, pulling the reader into the story with an accomplished hand.

By Fran Withrow 12.2021

Reconsidering the “Throne”

When was the last time you talked about your toilet? For most of us, bathrooms and body waste are not typical conversation topics. However, perhaps they should be. Chelsea Ward, in her book, “Pipe Dreams,” has no hesitation about discussing the worldwide sanitation system (or lack thereof) with candor, humor, and insight, and what she shares is worth your attention. You might be as surprised as I was at what you learn.

By Fran Withrow 11.2021

Life Among the Stars

Are you curious about astronauts? Do you wonder about what it takes to be one, and how it feels to be free from gravity? What’s it like to be at the International Space Station for an extended period of time? How do astronauts manage toileting, bathing, and eating? Do they get along with colleagues from other countries?

By Fran Withrow 10.2021

The Overground Railroad

When I was small, my family would drive from West Virginia to New England to visit our cousins. Sitting in the back seat of the station wagon with my squirmy siblings, I never worried that gas station owners might refuse us service, that we might be unable to find a restroom we would be allowed to use, or that we would not be welcome in any restaurant we wanted to patronize.

By Fran Withrow 09.2021

Novel Inspired by Lumpkin’s Jail

In 2016, Sadeqa Johnson, new to Richmond, walked with her family along the Richmond Slave Trail. She became fascinated by the story of Robert Lumpkin and his infamous jail where enslaved people were bought and sold.

By Fran Withrow 08.2021

On the Nature of Oak Trees

I’m a big fan of Doug Tallamy, a University of Delaware professor who advocates for native plants and protection for local wildlife like nobody else. I previously reviewed his book, “Nature’s Best Hope,” in which he explains how we can support biodiversity by what we plant right in our own back yards. I appreciate his congenial, positive approach to promoting environmental causes and his commitment to conservation.

By Fran Withrow 07.2021

Children Under Fire: An American Crisis

Tyshaun, age nine, is good friends with Ava, age eight. Tyshaun lives just outside of Washington, D.C., while Ava lives in South Carolina. They connect via video often, even though their backgrounds are different, because they share one critical commonality: they both live with the aftermath of gun violence.

By Fran Withrow 06.2021

Three Not-So-Weird Sisters

I had witches on my mind, having just finished Alice Hoffman’s “Magic Lessons,” when I received “The Once and Future Witches.” I couldn’t wait to dive in.

It took me a while to get into this book, but when I finally did, oh, dear reader! This story tossed me on its back and away we flew on one of the grandest adventures I’ve experienced in quite a while.

By Fran Withrow 05.2021

The Magic of Love

Alice Hoffman’s genre is magical realism, and she is so adept at it one half suspects it is all true. This is certainly the case with her latest novel, “Magic Lessons,” which is set in the 1600’s during the Salem witch trials.

By Fran Withrow 04.2021

Searching for the Gold Bug

“Miss Benson’s Beetle” came to me at just the right time. I was ripe and ready for a story that was bursting with heart, and this charming novel by Rachel Joyce, author of “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,” fit the bill perfectly.

By Fran Withrow 03.2021

Nobody’s Child: A Tragedy, a Trial, and a History of the Insanity Defense 

Dorothy Dunn (not her real name) certainly seems guilty. There on the floor lies her three-year old grandson, dead. Did he fall or did Dunn kill him? Raymie has been dead for three days, is malnourished, has bruises on his head and body, and bears ligature marks around his ankle. Did Dunn abuse and then murder her grandson? If so, was Dunn insane at the time?

By Fran Withrow 02.2021

Unbreakable Bonds Forged In Bondage

“White Chrysanthemum” is the gripping story of two girls living through the Japanese occupation of Korea in 1943. Hana, her sister Emi, and their parents make their home on a small island off the coast of Korea. The children are warned to avoid the Japanese who control the area, but one day Hana notices a Japanese soldier about to find little Emi, who sits on the shore while Hana and her mother are diving for fish.

By Fran Withrow 12.2020

Bittersweet Hilarity

The juxtaposition of “hilarious” and “depression” in “The Hilarious World of Depression” was so jarring to me I just had to read and find out more. And while author John Moe did have me laughing as he describes his lifelong battle with this illness, the bigger takeaway is how important it is for those struggling with depression to feel they can open up about their mental state and not be stigmatized for it.

By Fran Withrow 11.2020

Home of the Brave: Real Stories of Courage

In “After the Last Border,” author Jessica Goudeau shares the real life accounts of two women who seek to escape civil war, persecution, and violence in their home countries. It is a riveting story that mesmerized me for days and interrupted my sleep. I could not stop thinking about people whose daily lives are fraught with such danger.

By Fran Withrow 10.2020 

Conservation Starts In Your Own Back Yards

It’s easy to get discouraged these days, what with the pandemic, the ongoing struggle for racial equality, and the political scene. So it was with reluctance that I started “Nature’s Best Hope,” because reading about the decline of wildlife populations on top of everything else makes me want to hide and eat chocolate.

By Fran Withrow 09.2020

Remembrance of Things Past and Present

“Remembrance” is the story of four strong Black women, each with a special power that will ultimately connect them to one other and to Remembrance, a safe haven for Black people who have escaped from slavery.

By Fran Withrow 08.2020

Lush Hopes in Dire Times

Deep Creek is “Pam Houston’s exquisite collection of essays centered around her ranch in Colorado.”

By Fran Withrow 07.2020

Mother Ocean: The Last Frontier

The current pandemic knocked my brain so off kilter that for several weeks I could not comprehend what I was reading. Night after night I perused the same five pages or so. But at last I found a book so compelling I was forced to pay attention: “The Outlaw Ocean.”

By Fran Withrow 06.2020

Daily Dose from the Poetry Pharmacy

Dealing with hardships can be tough, and while there are many ways to tackle difficulty, William Sieghart has one novel suggestion: read a poem.

By Fran Withrow 04.2020

 One Life Shy of a Cat

After I finished “The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna,” I turned to the beginning again, wanting to refresh my memory for this review.

By Fran Withrow 01.2020

One Woman’s Fight for Trans Justice

Sarah McBride is a transgender woman who is taking the world by storm.

By Fran Withrow 11.2019