A. and I were looking online for an audio kid book to read last night. Over winter break we worked ourselves through Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight series. Last month we finished her young adult novel, The Host. Of course, as they came out, we read, or rather, listened to Jim Dale‘s reading of the Harry Potter series. So, now what to read? Half of what makes an audio book good is the actors or authors who read it. But then, A. and I got distracted.

A. noticed my little read book was number 25 on Amazon.com‘s bestseller list and number 12 on its hot new releases. Wow! As I mentioned in a previous post, I am one of the many, many contributes from around the world whose first period story apears in this collection. I say wow because it’s an anthology of creative non-fiction on first period stories. Wow!  Here’s a review from The New York Times by Abigail Zuger, MD:

The book’s great beauty is that these themes are left unexplored. No one draws a moral (see, everyone thinks she’s different!), or offers up the poet’s lament that all life’s landmarks spell a step to death. The reader is left alone to absorb it all in privacy.

Another review:

I started reading MLRB last night and could not put it down!

And another:

And while the stories themselves are compelling, I think it is that openness that is the book’s greatest strength. Because it invites and encourages women and girls to share their stories with each other, and most especially celebrates talk between mothers and daughters. It has the potential to open up a dialogue that might have seemed a bit uncomfortable or even daunting, and to ease the way into even more difficult conversations that will need to come later.

And one more:

The engaging and humorous anecdotes effortlessly connect the reader and authors on a very personal level; more importantly, the theme of the book creates a strong message that transcends age, culture, ethnicity, religion, or any background.