Teg G. reviewed on 3/18/2015

Do you know how a musical genius can always be recognized by his music? Mozart is always Mozart, Beethoven always Beethoven.

Barbara Holland had a real talent in all her books for using ordinary words in ordinary ways that yet allowed her irrepressible personality to shine through.

And this 2005 personal memoir written just 5 years before her death at 77 may be her best book of all.

She is droll, merry, ironic, complicated, iconoclastic, and highly intelligent all at once. And out of the blue, she will toss off an observation or have an insight that is both startlingly profound and yet totally unique.

Here's just one small example of her style: "Mother, dismayed by any conflict, even among the cats, never punished, never raised her voice, but she did take to wandering around the house with a dazed look and a small glass of whiskey in her hand."

Barbara Holland was the real deal. And it shines through here.

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