The Miss Dennis School of Writing and Other Lessons from A Woman's Life

July 29, 1996
In this collection of her essays and columns, Pulitzer Prize-winning Baltimore Sun journalist Steinbach seeks to "rescue from insignificance some of the small events that make up a life." These pieces thus explore, with quiet grace, the unexpected pleasures that are gleaned from an appreciation of the "ordinary"--a sleeping cat, a blooming garden, a well-cooked meal. Such familiar--even ostensibly mundane--details of our lives, Steinbach maintains, play a far more important part in shaping our identities and our sense of our relationship to the world than do the "exotic encounters" or momentous events to which we attach much significance. Alternately poignant and humorous, sedately contemplative and bristling with emotional energy, Steinbach's various musings on the daily rhythms of her own moods and experiences transform "everyday life" into a rich and meaningful journey. Author tour.

August 1, 1996
Steinbach, a columnist and feature writer for the Baltimore Sun and 1985 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, presents in her first book an open, honest, charming, and witty collection of personal essays. Focusing on the familiar, Steinbach relates private thoughts and remembrances of people who influenced her, the loss of loved ones, childhood follies and fantasies, the ever-present continuing lessons from her deceased mother and grandmother, her single motherhood and relationship with two grown sons, romance, fashion, growing up, and parenthood. These essays reveal the influence of time and experience on memory, imagination, and reflection. Steinbach offers an inspirational book that will appeal primarily to women over 30 who will identify with the type of experiences and memories she describes. Recommended for public libraries and comprehensive women's studies collections.--Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, N.J.

September 15, 1996
Longtime "Baltimore Sun" columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Steinbach's first book is a collection of essays and columns. Divided thematically by subjects such as "Women and Men," "Raising Children," and "Growing Up," the divorced, working mother of two sons displays a gentle wit and an open mind. As with any collection of newspaper columns, this is better sampled than read straight through. Since Steinbach is more concerned with life's milestones and vagaries than with current affairs, topicality is not a problem, but readers are sure to become familiar with her favorite themes--her worldly aunt Claire, who lived in hotels; her admiration for the great writer E. B. White; her spiritual connection to gardening; and how much she loved and misses her mother. Like any skillful writer, she can make you laugh, and she can make you cry, and she sometimes does both, all within the limitations of a column format. Certain to be requested wherever the columnist is popular. ((Reviewed Sept. 15, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)