How to Walk Away by Katherine Center

HOW TO WALK AWAY by Katherine Center is the perfect holiday/vacation read for fans of JoJo Moyes and other women’s fiction and romance authors. This is an inspirational, feel good book despite a tragic accident which totally changes the life course for a twenty-eight year old woman, Margaret Jacobsen.  The story focuses realistically on the extremely difficult and emotional year she then experiences. Author Katherine Center had clearly researched spinal injuries and therapy options. Readers will learn about the help and support that Margaret/Maggie receives from family, including her once estranged sister, Kit, and from healthcare workers like nurse Nina and physical therapist Ian. Their advice, (e.g., “When you don’t know what to do for yourself, do something for somebody else.”) is at times difficult to accept, but propels her forward.

There are very sad moments and many truly happy ones such that in the end Maggie wisely says, “I would never tell you that the life you wanted couldn’t have been exactly as great as you planned. But you have to live the life you have. You have to find inspiration in the struggle, and pull joy out of the hardship.”  Randy Pausch famously expressed that sentiment in his Last Lecture:  “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” HOW TO WALK AWAY will touch your heart and remind you to savor the joy in small moments; this title received a starred review from Booklist and appeared on the May 2018 Indie Next List of recommendations from independent booksellers.

Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be by Frank Bruni

Students at New Trier have been reading a recent op-ed piece by New York Times columnist Frank Bruni called "How to Survive the College Admissions Madness." He begins with a story about Peter Hart, a New Trier grad, and that same story which involves resilience in the face of rejection appears in Bruni's recently published book, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania. It's a highly readable, thought-provoking book with chapters titled "Throwing Darts," "Beyond the Comfort Zone," and "Strangled with Ivy." 

Bruni directly addresses high school students, stating “You’re going to get into a college that’s more than able to provide a superb education to anyone who insists on one and who takes firm charge of his or her time there.  But your chances of getting into the school of your dreams are slim.”  He is even more brutally honest in his comments to parents: “if you’re a parent who’s pushing your kids relentlessly and narrowly toward one of the most prized schools in the country and think that you’re doing them a favor, you’re not. You’re in all probability setting them up for heartbreak, and you’re imparting a questionable set of values.”

We have ordered multiple copies and anticipate a great deal of interest and high demand for this book which profiles many successful business and political leaders, noting that their undergraduate schools do not seem to fit a particular pattern. Bruni also reviews acceptance rate changes over time, quotes from numerous interviews and shares outcome from relevant studies.  

In his excellent review (“Gilding the Sheepskin”) of Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, Daniel Askt of The Wall Street Journal says that Bruni’s work is a “useful book that misses a larger opportunity to explore what the college admissions process says about America today.”  I agree and I hope that Bruni, who is a very entertaining writer, expands upon his research. He may need to move out of his own comfort zone, however.  If you are curious, look at another new book that does talk about opportunity, social class, and inequality: Robert Putnam’s Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis which I have reviewed elsewhere.  

By the way, Bruni’s op-ed piece mentioned above concludes by quoting a letter that parents wrote to their son, “your worth as a person, a student, and our son is not diminished or influenced in the least by what these colleges have decided.” At New Trier, we talk about the match to be made, not a prize to be won – all thoughts to share as our students face a different type of March madness.

NEW 3/30:  Frank Bruni will speak on Thursday, April 9 at 7pm at New Trier High School -- Northfield Campus, Cornog Auditorium.  This program is sponsored by FAN (Family Action Network) and promoted by The Bookstall which says, "[Bruni] speaks about his new book giving students and their parents a new perspective on the college admissions process and a path out of the anxiety it can provoke. Students and parents are encouraged to attend."