Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin. A story about growing up in Brooklyn in the late 1940s and 1950s. Fascinating how much the world changed in just that short period of time. The book follows her childhood in relationship to the various playing seasons of the old Brooklyn Dodgers and talks about how her childhood ended when the Dodgers moved to LA. A rare memoir about a HAPPY childhood, and yet poignant because the way of life she grew up with is long gone never to return. Some fascinating discussions about what it was like being a child during the beginnings of the Cold War, McCarthyism, and all the other fears that entered the world after the end of WW2. I also loved the way she described her neighborhood as one big happy family with all the kids playing safely and happily at any house on the street, the neighborhood markets, etc. I can't imagine in this day and age any parents feeling safe letting their children wander the streets the way that kids could back then.

Oh, I loved that book! It's one of my keepers.

Bill Bryson has a new memoir out called "The Life and TImes of the Thunderbolt Kid" that reminded me a lot of Goodwin's book. He grew up in Iowa in the '50s. I found it at the library; it was a really charming book.