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

Comfort: A Journey Through Grief by Ann Hood

★★★★ ½

In 2002 acclaimed author, Ann Hood, lost her 5 year old daughter to a rare strain of strep that was in the blood. One day she was playing and enjoying time with her daughter – 36 hours later her daughter would die. This is the memoir of her tragic loss and her dealings with it over a few year period.

This memoir struck home. No parent wants to lose their child, regardless of age or situation; it’s a parent’s worst nightmare. show more This was a short and quick read for me. Very well done and to the point, Ann Hood throws her feelings out there about faith (or lack of it), the emptiness in her home and her life, the depression and grief, the breakdowns, the struggle to continue. I just nodded throughout this book. It was as if she was throwing out MY emotions for the world to see. It was...well...a comfort, just as the title says. It is a beautiful memoir, regardless of whether one is a parent or not. One may relate to it and even if they can’t they may have the sense to give their loved ones that extra hug and extra “I love you” because life and those in it are a beautiful, and sometimes tragic, thing.

A line that particularly touched me – “Time doesn’t heal, I had learned, it just keeps moving. And it takes us with it.” 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.