Reading Not Bartlett’s is like dipping into a box of exquisite but varied Godiva chocolates: smooth and satisfying, but without the calories.
Author Elise Lupkin offers a tantalizing menu to feed the soul: collected wit and wisdom ranging from Family, Happiness, and Melancholy to Art, Taste, and Style. And let’s not forget dogs, gardens, and other pleasures of life.
When I first read “We cannot help the birds of sadness from flying over our heads, but we need not let them build nests in our hair,” I thought it was a fine example of positive thinking. When I read it weeks later, my mother was dying, and the entire family/friend dynamics, which always offers color and challenge in such circumstances, cast a whole new light on the phrase.