Anna Quindlen made me laugh and made me think in her delightful, thoughtful collection of essays, "Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake." She writes about her life, but has such a way with words that her life is a lot like my life (and yours) even though she's an East Coast Barnard grad, and we're about to move to the Ozarks!

She is assessing what it means to age in this collection, all the while thinking back to the phases of her life. There is so much wisdom in these 182 pages. It's like spending an afternoon just talking with someone who knows you really well.

She calls upon her experiences as a working mom and as one of the first women to benefit from the women's movement. She writes about parenting, and what has changed. She writes about her children, each one beautiful, each one so different, and how she wasn't even sure she ever wanted to have kids.

Quindlen has a love story here with a lovely husband, but it is also a love story of being human, being a woman.

This would be a wonderful Mother's Day present.