From the Iowa Writer's Workshop graduate comes a suspense thriller complete with hot topics like abortion and infidelity . . . but really it's not as "soap opera" sounding as that just made it seem.

Brundage's writing is very in tune and is like a shortcut into the minds of normal people.

A little controversial in topic and politics, but another great Robin Cook read. It took me just a few days to take this book down . . . a little far fetched, as some of his are, but I'm still hooked.

For pro-choicers who want to do more, pro-choicers who aren't really sure what the big deal is and on the fencers.

GET IT NOW.

Set against the backdrop of the battle for abortion rights, this timely but stilted novel features a perfect yuppie couple. Michael Knowles is a successful OB-GYN and his wife, Annie, is a popular journalism professor; they have two precious kids and a big home in upstate New York. But once Michael accepts a position at the only abortion clinic in town, the already heavy strain that his doctor's schedule puts on their marriage sends Annie into the arms of a colleague, notorious painter Simon Haas. Meanwhile, Michael receives increasingly hostile threats from creepy antiabortion activists, suggesting that one, or both, of the Knowles are targets of a vicious terror campaign. The painter's young wife, Lydia, as a menacing, tormented Bible-thumper scarred by a harsh, loveless upbringing, is the enigma that fuels examination of what happens when we are drawn to the very things that promise to destroy us. But the lessons here are heavy-handed and the characterizations mechanical. The bad guys wear mirrored sunglasses as they force Michael off the road; the good guys wear jackets emblazoned with angel's wings; and the dialogue is awkward. The Knowles' marriage takes a number of dark, twisted turns, but the lack of character nuance and depth blunt Brundage's stab at psychological suspense.

Before reading this book, I really didn't know much about the Supreme Court and nothing about Harry Blackmun, so I learned a lot from this very readable biography. If I had any interest in law or the justice system I would have been even more interested.
He seems like he was a very honorable, thoughtful man and it seems easy to have a large amount of respect for him. However, it was written by an obvious admirer and so I wonder what his detractors would have to say.
I think it was good for me to learn more about the history of Roe vs. Wade and the legal thinking behind it, especially as these things come back up for legal debate.

This book is less of an analysis of adoption and more of a collection of stories of women who gave up children for adoption due to family and societal pressures. Most of the book was truly heart wrenching, and it definitely gave the story of a group of women that I didn't even know existed.
I also learned a lot about adoption and the entire adoption process in America. I had no idea about most of it, and it definitely made me feel that I would support any legislation for open records of adopted children.
I do think the book may have been a bit biased in that it was a collection of interviews of women who had given up children for adoption, and their stories were all painful. It may well be that all adoption experiences are painful, but it could also be that the women who would be willing to do an interview are the women who have been carrying that pain around all this time- maybe there were a significant number of women who weren't traumatized but they wouldn't feel compelled to tell their story.