It. Goes. So. Fast.

This new memoir by NPR’s All Things Considered host, Mary Louise Kelly, resonated with me on so many levels.

Kelly chronicles the last year of her life before sending her older son to college, but she also includes stories from her past, both personal and professional. As a working mom about to send my own kid to college and as someone who constantly struggles to balance work with parenthood, I felt validated and comforted listening to this book.

Kelly is a thoughtful storyteller, and I loved her narration of the audiobook in that voice that is so familiar to me… show more.

I don’t even think I was through the first chapter before I cried over this book.

Mary Louise Kelly writes frankly and poignantly about the nature of time as it pertains to raising children. She does not apologize for being good at her job, nor for the essential part of herself who needs to be immersed in it.

At the same time, she is unsparingly vulnerable about the tradeoffs: the times, good and bad, she has missed with her kids. As a writer who couldn’t stop writing to be a full-time parent if I tried, Kelly’s words resonated with me… show more.