The Parent’s Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents by William Martin is a wonderful meditation on parenthood. Put so simply and clearly are the foundations for a mindful approach to parenting. This is a book to keep nearby to read and re-read any time you need to regain your center as a parent, and as a reminder what a noble and beautiful undertaking parenting is.

Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book, The Lacuna, is her most magnificent work to date. This novel, written mostly in diary-style format, has so many layers, so much to offer. Kingsolver intertwines politics, love, history, and art in the intimate story of Harrison Shepherd, as told through his journal writings and the posthumous reflections of his stenographer, Violet Brown. Shepherd is the unlikely confidant of controversial and intriguing figures of the time, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky, and it is in their company that he comes into his own, realizing the gift he possesses as a writer. The parallels between the mood of the country at the time of WWII and ensuing McCarthy era, as depicted in The Lacuna, and the current mood of a vocal and angry minority of tea partiers, are both revealing and frightening. Don’t be deterred by the somewhat slow and dense beginning of the book. You will want to take your time with this one, letting the fullness of it seep in.