This book is writ­ten in turns by moth­er Sheila and daugh­ter Per­ri as a col­lec­tion of fond mem­o­ries, which includes dis­cus­sion of the women’s very dif­fer­ent philoso­phies of house­keep­ing and rais­ing chil­dren while bal­anc­ing those respon­si­bil­i­ties with achiev­ing suc­cess­ful and ful­fill­ing careers. It is also a love let­ter to their husband/​father, who has recent­ly passed away unexpectedly. 

Both women are pub­lished authors: Per­ri is a prac­tic­ing pedi­a­tri­cian, and Sheila is an Eng­lish pro­fes­sor. As a par­ent myself, I find it inter­est­ing to read how one pedi­a­tri­cian rais­es her own chil­dren. The chap­ters have amus­ing names (eg. ​“The Shoes on the Stair­case;” ​“Wait­ing for Godot’s Golf Cart”), fore­telling the humor­ous anec­dotes with­in. The women speak to us in turns, some­times cor­rect­ing or crit­i­ciz­ing the oth­er, which makes the read­er feel like a voyeur in an inti­mate con­ver­sa­tion. Although the women’s opin­ions are repeat­ed through­out the book, their reflec­tions on life make for easy read­ing and I want­ed to jump right into their dia­logue. I enjoyed read­ing about the fam­i­ly dynam­ics and Perri’s and Sheila’s exot­ic trav­els together.