Books

Paper Trail by Ellen Goodman

In this rich and savvy collection of commentaries on the events, people and issues that shape and define our world, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and New York Times bestselling author Ellen Goodman cuts to the heart of the stories and controversies that helped to define our times.

In a voice both reasoned and impassioned, she makes sense of the cultural debates that have captured our attention and sometimes become national obsessions. She wrestles with the close-to-the-bone issues of abortion, working mothers and gay marriage, the struggles for civil liberties and equal rights, and the moral complexity of assisted suicide and biotech babies. As she wends through the era of the Clinton scandals and the “amBushing” of America, the dot-com boom and bust, the horrors of September 11 and the War on Terrorism, Goodman pauses to celebrate some of our lost icons, including Jackie Onassis, Princess Diana and Doctor Spock. She reminds us as well of the fleeting fame of such instant celebrities as Elian Gonzalez and Lorena Bobbitt.

I Know Just What You Mean by Ellen Goodman & Patricia O’Brien

In their New York Times Best-Selling book, Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman and novelist-journalist Patricia O’Brien provide a thoughtful, deeply personal look at the enduring bonds of friendship between women. Friends for twenty-seven years, they have served as confessors and advisers to each other during romantic, career, and child-raising crises, and have shopped together, laughed together, and enjoyed a bond unlike any other.

Drawing on interviews with numerous women, the authors take readers into the heart of “the place where women do the work of their lives, the growing, the understanding, the reflection,” and illuminate both the fragility and strength of relationships that are irreplaceable lifelines.

Keeping in Touch by Ellen Goodman

In a collection of her syndicated columns Goodman takes on a panorama of topics, from such personal observations as the predations of a bluejay in her back yard to a series of considerations on issues raised by the “Baby M” case.

Often reflecting on the roles and status of women in the workplace or at home, Goodman speaks in a consistently well-reasoned voice; she’s impassioned but not blinkered, serious, not sober, and never glib when she’s funnyReliably witty and original, Goodman proves to have both punch and staying power in these short essays.

Value Judgments by Ellen Goodman

True to her book’s title, Boston Globe syndicated columnist Goodman makes many value judgments in this collection of some 130 columns. She advocates lifting the ban on gays in the military; gives credence to Anita Hill’s sexual harassment charges against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas; and lashes Woody Allen for failure to distinguish right from wrong in having an affair with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter.

Goodman’s pithy style and keen insights inform her essays on money and marriage, race relations, overpopulation, teaching children about sex, and urban squirrels as exemplars of adaptability and flat-out nerve.

At Large by Ellen Goodman

Sensible, funny, intelligent – unique in her ability to connect our personal lives to public issues. Ellen continues to write about those things that really matter to us: our children and our families, our relationships and the quality of our life, now and in the future.

Close to Home by Ellen Goodman

Close to Home features selections from three-and-a-half years of Ellen Goodman’s syndicated columns. More than 100 columns – the shrewd, funny, and sentimental – are brought together in this body of work.

Goodman’s pithy style and keen insights inform her essays on money and marriage, race relations, overpopulation, teaching children about sex, and urban squirrels as exemplars of adaptability and flat-out nerve.