The latest from psychologist and prolific essayist Slater (The $60,000 Dog: My Life with Animals) is a slender, lyrically voiced collection of her essays, written over time, comprising personal experiences with sex, self-esteem, parenting, mental illness, and childhood family dysfunction. Slater's digressive style is one of her hallmarks, as is the confessional, glass-half-full deliverance of her travails and triumphs as a wife, mother, psychologist, foster child, and cancer survivor. Many of these vignettes are bold and entertaining; some of her indulgences, such as outing publicly her lack of interest in marital sex ("I have been gripped by sex the same as the trap grips the ferret's leg and he has to bite off his limb to set himself free. What kind of fun is this?") and the details of her affair while engaged to be married, teeter precariously between too much information and bad taste. Any shortcomings are assuaged by giving readers access to keen observations of nature and human nature, and her accumulated wisdom, which provide a compelling, highly relatable narrative. The more uplifting passages depict moments of newfound personal and spiritual enlightenment, such as when she discovered a relationship between mood and self-neglect, and that her depression lessened when her physical appearance improved. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Psychologist Slater has gained many fans over the years with her intensely personal writing and now rewards them with this extraordinary essay collection about the domestic perils she has navigated, from the time her chemist husband literally caught on fire and jolted them out of a marital malaise to her lifelong struggle with mental illness. Her sheer bravado and willingness to lay every aspect of her personal life bare are hallmarks of her writing style and are on full display in each of these pieces. A search for a lost libido, a depression-induced descent into hygiene lapses and self-described frumpiness, a gut-wrenching decision to abort a pregnancy her mental state cannot endure it's all here, and the author's willingness to take readers into these darker places of her life and relationships is not only admirable but lends itself to surprisingly addictive reading. A brilliant example of the resonant power of women's writing, Slater's emotional revelations will strike chords in readers unable to turn away from these difficult but sincere domestic truths. Slater's candid collection has huge book-group appeal.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2010 Booklist