Camille Peri

A compelling biography and literary history of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife. I knew nothing about Fannie Van de Grift, and now I don't understand why. Every bit larger than life as other women who pushed the boundaries of feminity like Annie Oakley or Amelia Earhart, Fannie seems too headstrong and talented to live a merely ordinary life. A great read told an enjoyable clip, without bogging down in the details of how it's meticulous research was done.

This is a great collection of books about mothering with a bad title---I avoided it for years as I thought it was going to be about how much better THINKING mothers are than us regular dumb by the seat of the pants mothers, but it really wasn't---it was just an interesting thoughtful collection of interesting essays about many, many aspects of being a mother.

lack of enthusiasm may be due to mood of the moment - find myself wanting to read (or reread) Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde rather than story of how it came to be written

I got about halfway through. It was...depressing.