Elizabeth Hanson
Reading with Patrick chronicles a student-teacher relationship in the Mississippi Delta
In 2004, after graduating from Harvard, 22-year-old Michelle Kuo takes a position as a Teach for America volunteer in the Mississippi Delta town of Helena, Arkansas, described by Mark Twain in 1883 as “the...
Mother speaks to the universal challenge of caring for elders
Through sixty-six short but engaging chapters (originally published in weekly installments in the 'Yomiuri Shimbun' newspaper), we follow Mitsuki as she deals with her mother’s final illness and death. Though set in present-day Tokyo, the narrative speaks to adult children in every corner of the planet who have been responsible for an aging parent—the decisions on what kind and how much treatment to offer, how to pay for the care, how to share responsibility with siblings, how to negotiate with doctors, nurses, and nursing homes, and how to maintain some semblance of sanity amid the emotional confusion and stress.