Living, Loving, Coping With a Teen

When my daughter turned 13, I practically got sympathy cards from my friends. Everyone seemed to think that I was in for six years of roller-coaster emotions—and mostly negative ones at that. “They get nice again about 20,” an experienced friend said. My daughter is 14 and a half now, and I have to say, so far so good. We've had our share of disagreements, but it's not been horrible. In fact, most of the time, she’s delightful. I like spending time with her and it's mutual. (And I did just double-check this with her ...

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A Quick Tour of ‘Four Kitchens’

When I moved to Mauritania, a country located in the Sahara Desert, I wasn't prepared to be served boiled intestines or goat's head on a bed of couscous, the tongue arranged just so, but I did my best. Just between you, me and the Internet, sometimes I fake chewed and fake swallowed, but at least I tried to be polite and eat whatever I was served. So I was amused and offended when I had Mauritanian friends for a nice, normal spaghetti dinner and watched them leave it after one bite.

“We don't like it,” they said ...

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5 Minutes for Books: The Difficulties of Motherhood in ‘Black Milk’

I'm sitting in Haifa's apartment when the talk turns to male-female roles. “It's hard for women,” she sighs. “Those mens (sic) get everything they want. We have to give up so much, to take care of houses and children. My art, my ideas...” she sighs again and lets the sentence trail off.

Read the last 5 Minutes for Books on Bonding Over Beauty. 

Haifa is an Iraqi refugee in her mid-60s. Her husband is a renowned artist, famous in his own country and region. Haifa feels that she has lost much of herself and promotes only her ...

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5 Minutes for Books: It’s All Relative

It’s nearly Memorial Day. My three teenage children have a long weekend, and I, for one, am looking forward to them doing a lot of chores and yard work. Because that is totally a normal thing to expect your family to do when you’re working and they’re not, right?

Read 5 Minutes for Books' Disney vacation recommendations. 

It helps that I literally hold the keys to their freedom and can cajole/bribe them into at least doing the dishes and vacuuming. I’m also giving them fuel for the stories they will tell later in life to ...

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5 Minutes for Books: Sampling French Life with ‘Bonjour Happiness’

During the year we spent in France, my husband and I said repeatedly how much we admired the French philosophy of life. We felt we fit in; we matched. We watched our new friends effortlessly balance the demands of work, family and home—and spend their weekends relaxing because that was a priority.

Did you read the last 5 Minutes for Books at Kirkus? 

Every Sunday morning we would see families walking through the park, a patisserie box bound up with string swinging from the papa’s hand on their way to the grandparents for a big Sunday dinner. We ...

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