"The difficulties and despairs through which she has passed have left Nancy Mairs with unique and moving stories to convey, as well as with a strong voice to tell them."--New York Times Book Review "These striking essays by Nancy Mairs are so touching and heartbreakingly honest that one often has to put the book down and rest emotionally before reading on. . . . Readable and compelling, written with intimacy . . . and a swagger." --San Francisco Chronicle "The lugubriousness and self-pity which one might expect to surround these subjects is absent. The prose is cool and the wit as dry as sundown in Mairs' Arizona desert, the jokes as witty as the bright pink flowers on my spiny cactus." --Women's Review of Books