Bomb Shelter

November 1, 2021

In Where the Children Take Us, CNN anchor Asher celebrates the strength of her first-generation British Nigerian mother, who overcame grief when her husband was killed in a South London car accident to raise four accomplished children, including Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (125,000-copy first printing). Multi-award-winning novelist Morton writes about his fierce and irrepressible educator mother, Tasha, from whom he spent a lifetime carefully cushioning himself and who still proves a handful when he must intervene as caregiver as she grows older (75,000-copy first printing). Author of the laugh-out-loud best seller I Miss You When I Blink, self-professed worrywart Philpott practically built a Bomb Shelter to protect her children, then realized during the crisis that unfolded after she found her teenage son unconscious on the floor that she couldn't control everything (100,000-copy first printing). Forever Boy, Swenson's account of raising a son with severe autism, should attract a big audience--and not just because of the subject's importance; Swenson's blog/Facebook page Finding Cooper's Voice has 655,000 followers, and her TODAY-featured video, "The Last Time It's Going To Be Okay," has been viewed over 30 million times (75,000-copy first printing). Expanding on a 2018 USA TODAY story that has had more than 1.5 million page views, Trujillo examines the aftermath of her mother's suicide in Stepping Back from the Ledge, explaining that she had to face deep sorrows in her mother's life and her own.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 20, 2021
Philpott (I Miss You When I Blink) explores life’s pleasures and uncertainties in this wry if meandering collection of essays. She searches for meaning in the noteworthy and the mundane, sleekly juxtaposing lamentations about her herniated discs (an injury caused by “too many years hunched over a laptop”) with deeply affecting reflections on such life-altering experiences as her son’s first seizure. She also humorously investigates her own contradictory nature, as a person who’s both immensely anxious and overly cheerful: “Am I here to tell you we’re all going to die? Yes. Am I here to give you a pep talk along the way? Also yes!” Occasionally, though, she wanders down a winding path of tangential thoughts and unrelated asides; for instance, the surprising news that her dad worked at Raven Rock, a secret underground military bunker, zigzags her to the moment when she learned, after two decades of living with her husband, that he could juggle. While the scattershot narration can distract, Philpott draws readers back in with her philosophical and witty musings—from wondering about her place in the universe to remembering a family dog that would only eat to the music of Kanye West. Rambling tendencies aside, this quirky work has a lot of heart.

February 1, 2022
Essays on the challenges of midlife parenting and other terrors of human existence. "Every joy, every loved one, every little thing I got attached to, every purpose I held dear--each one was another stick of dynamite, strapped to the rest. The longer I lived, the more I loved, the larger this combustible bundle grew," writes Philpott in her second collection. "I walked around constantly in awe of my good fortune and also aware that it could all blow up in an instant, flipping me head over heels into the air, vaporizing everything." In this follow-up to I Miss You When I Blink, the author returns with her trademark blend of crippling anxiety and determined optimism. Early on, Philpott recounts her terror when her teenage son had a grand mal seizure. Concerns about his health create energy and suspense at first, then dissipate, overwhelmed by all the many other things she is worried about. Foremost among them is anxiety about her future empty nest. "Sometimes when I thought about the children leaving," she writes, "I had a primal urge to swallow them whole, just absorb them back into my body and keep them with me forever." Philpott is clearly aware that she gets carried away sometimes--"I had it undeservedly and nonsensically good as a parent. What gave me the right to existential fear when so little actually threatened my existence or the existence of my loved ones?"--but she is unable to stop herself. In some essays, the author takes a break from her anxiety to joke about her difficulties with cooking, shopping, the NextDoor app, etc., but worry is never far away, because every moment of happiness and satisfaction comes with the specter of its opposite. "I am obsessed with death because I am in love with life....I'm sad because I'm so happy," writes the author at the end. First-world problems are still problems. Philpott offers camaraderie for those who face them.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2022
"All I want to do is take care of everyone I love," laments Philpott in a moment of profound crisis. Stuck in an airport during a blizzard, desperate to return to her husband and children for Christmas, shell-shocked after her father's emergency triple-bypass surgery, and reeling from her teenage son's recent epilepsy diagnosis, all illusions of safety and control slip away. "Nobody," she concludes, "can ever get everyone they love under their wing." Like her critically acclaimed I Miss You When I Blink (2019), Philpott's latest is a memoir of beautifully written, loosely linked essays in which she frankly and often humorously details the pitfalls of her anxiety. The fragility of life overwhelms her, but she pushes back on those who ridicule overprotective parents and compulsive worriers, pointing out that nobody survives without some amount of care and protection. She asks, "Did someone, somewhere, at least for a little while, worry about you too?" Philpott's eloquent investigation of parenting and family offers pleasure and comfort to anyone who has ever worried about someone they love.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 11, 2022

Philpott's collection of personal essays outlines what happens when worry becomes reality. She wanted to always be there to help her family when needed. When she and her husband find their teenage son seizing on the bathroom floor one morning, she learns that, while the situation is scary, she can get through it. These essays detail different parts of her life; many of them return to the day of the seizure, but there are tales of humor and heart even in relation to crisis. The title story details how she learned as an adult that her father used to work for a government agency that built bomb shelters; another essay tells how she and her husband cared for turtles living in their backyard. Readers of Philpott's other works (I Miss You When I Blink) will appreciate this more serious dive into her life, and readers of autobiographies in general will find entertainment here. VERDICT Philpott gives words to feelings of worry that many readers can likely relate to, and she gives readers hope, not by offering solutions, but by telling them that they are not alone.--Natalie Browning

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.