Anyone who’s read Anna Quindlen’s Pulitzer Prize winning op-eds, or wildly popular columns in the New York Times knows that she doesn’t hold back from pointed commentary on topics from politics to parenting. In the mid-nineties, Quindlen left the Times to write – so far -- ten best-selling non-fiction books and four novels, including One True Thing, which was adapted into a film starring Meryl Streep. Quindlen returned to print journalism in 1999. For a decade, her “Last Word” columns for Newsweek criticized America’s increasingly materialistic, fast-paced and politically divided lifestyle.
Quindlen’s new memoir, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, is a candid, personal exploration middle age, and the blessings and curses of finding the balance between her career and her relationships with her parents and children. Quindlen stepped to the podium in front of a full house at the Music Hallin Portsmouth to read from her new book, and share some of her inspiration for writing about her own life this time around.
