Ann Hood

I enjoy reading books about books written by people who love books. So I absolutely devoured this slim little book of essays, Ann Hood's MORNINGSTAR: GROWING UP WITH BOOKS (2021). Her essays offer a window into her life as a girl and a young woman. Hood was an early and voracious reader, though she grew up in a home without books. At seven, she was already reading LITTLE WOMEN, and weeping at the sad parts. Libraries were magical places to her, filled with riches. (To me too, Ann.) The ten show more pieces here touch on authors and books I loved myself - modern masters and classics like: John Updike (RABBIT, RUN), Dalton Trumbo (JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN), Herman Wouk (MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR), Sylvia Path (THE BELL JAR), and John Steinbeck (THE GRAPES OF WRATH). And a few bestselling wrters nearly forgotten, like Harold Robbins, whose books were barracks favorites my first time around in the Army. And, like Hood, I found A STONE FOR DANNY FISHER to be one of his best (adapted to the screen as KING CREOLE, with Elvis Presley). And the smarmy poetry of Rod McKeon was also a favorite for my wife and me in the early days of our marriage. I had several of his books and albums, and we would often fall asleep to his BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS or LISTEN TO THE WARM. And Robert Rimmer's once scandalous THE HARRAD EXPERIMENT and Alex Comfort's THE JOY OF SEX even show up, the former playing an important part in Hood's sex education.

In talking about these books, we learn much about Hood as a person and a writer - a kind of mini-memoir, which was immensely enjoyable. This is generally true of books about books, and I was immediately reminded of similar books by NPR's Maureen Corrigan, LEAVE ME ALONE, I'M READING, and Anne Fadiman's EX LIBRIS.

Bottom line: I loved this little book. LOVED IT! My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

This was a treat from beginning to end, as Ann Hood wrote about a handful of books that were important to her in her youth. So much of her experience was mine as well, although I figured out from the context that I was about 4 years ahead of her in age, and a couple more in schooling (due to my starting young and skipping a grade along the way). Like Hood, I read Marjorie Morningstar at a young age and loved her; I was intrigued and baffled by what I know now were relatively tame and vague show more sex scenes in that and other novels; I remember the CBS evening news in the background (although it's Richard C. Hottelet, not Walter Cronkite, who speaks in my mind); I remember Johnny Got His Gun making the rounds of older schoolmates, particularly boys who might be drafted and sent to Viet Nam, although I never read it myself; I used to choose books from the library shelves for their size, because nothing was better than getting lost for days and days in a sprawling 600+ page story that covered two or three generations; I was drawn to books that took place "out there" somewhere, China, or Russia, or Africa, or even California. All of these shared experiences with reading made this is one of the better "books about books" that I have read in a while. Your mileage may vary, if you are of a different age, and these particular books are not part of your history in the same way.
Reviewed in 2017 show less

Books about books are nirvana for readers. And this book is one of the next best things to heaven. I could barely put it down.
Ava thought her twenty-five-year marriage to Jim was strong. Then she sees a text on his phone from another woman, a woman Jim claims to be in love with, and her life begins to completely unravel.
For years, Ava has wanted to join the book club at her local library, but membership is held to ten members, and there is a waiting list. However, the librarian is one of show more Ava’s best friends. She knows that Ava needs the group, so she bumps her to the top of the list.
The book club picks books based on a theme for the year. Each member gets to pick a book based on that theme. The theme for the upcoming year is “The Book That Matters Most.” Each member is to pick the book that has changed his/her life, the book that has had a substantial impact on his/her life.
Hood’s story is broken into chapters, each with an epigraph from that month’s book and the theme for the chapter. The titles range from The Great Gatsby to Pride and Prejudice, from The Catcher in the Rye to Anna Karenina.
Ava’s life is complicated by her rebellious, just-out-of-rehab daughter, Maggie, who has gone to study in Florence. Along with Ava’s story, Maggie also has a section in each chapter that tells of her decent into addiction at the hands of a much older man whom she follows to France.
As Ava tried to come to terms with her new life, a retired detective shows up at her door, wanting desperately to put to the bed, at last, the tragic events of Ava’s childhood that have haunted her.
Ever since I first read this book’s title, I’ve been trying to determine which book matters the most to me in my life. Two of the strongest runners are Jonathan Hull’s Losing Julia or Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind (the book version, not the movie version). But if I had to name just one, could I say, “All of them?”
I loved The Book That Matters Most. I give it 6 out of 5 stars. show less

I was expecting some sweet recipes and stories from this one, but instead found heartfelt grief mixed with the restorative nature of comfort food and conversation. Hood shares her very honest reflections of struggling through divorce, the death of a sibling and a child, and so much more as she feeds the people she loves and delights in new culinary discoveries. I can’t wait to read more from the author.