I finished the book, “Life Reimagined,” joined The Lift’s book club discussion beside the Truckee River, and left both maybe a little wiser.
Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s study of midlife ended maybe a little triumphantly for me. Too many pretty bows tied, medical issues overcome, later life marriage a bit ideal, athletic goals achieved, and long-needed job change realized to boot. An Instagram post.
There was personal struggle, to be sure, and pain. Some friendships lost, aging mother in her 90s, a broken collarbone and painful vocal chord condition, tough stories about others.
But my feeling at the end tilted more toward Hallmark than my current reading tastes favor. Triumph works just fine, though. I mean, what was I expecting, “Get off my lawn”?
Dianna Douglas
Dianna Douglas has produced NPR s signature news pieces from across the nation and around the world. In the spring of 2010 she spent five weeks embedded with the US Army in Kandahar. Her work with the Special Forces in Meiwan Province, the Military Police in Kandahar City, and the recently-arrived 101st Airborne Division in Zhari document the small victories and overwhelming challenges of the American mission in Afghanistan.
In 2005, she spent a month in New Orleans covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and has returned frequently to the Gulf Coast in the years since to witness the recovery. She completed two tours in Iraq as the bureau chief and producer for NPR in Baghdad, and was part of the team that won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the American occupation and its effects on Iraq. She also produced two series with NPR s Barbara Bradley Hagerty one on the science of spirituality and one on polygamy among Muslim Americans bot