"Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents--her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father--and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child's transition to caregiver."--

Druckerman asserts that there are stages to becoming a grown-up: First, you definitely aren't one. Then you pretend to be one. Then you are sure that there are no grown-ups. And then finally, maybe one day in your forties, you just are one. It's not all-knowing, omnipotent and large; it's humble, solid and small. But at long last, it feels like you. And you think, just then, that this is the best age of all. Explore the challenges of being fortysomething,...