Ruminations about the power of 12 of life's essential phrases and the difficulty in learning to say them out loud.Corrigan (Glitter and Glue, 2013, etc.) may be a bestselling author, but she doesn't always know the right thing to say, especially when it comes to the ones she loves most. In the collection's titular essay, the author struggles to communicate with her teenage daughter until a childhood friend encourages her to do less talking and more listening, a strategy she implements when her father is diagnosed with terminal cancer. In "I Know," Corrigan's experience volunteering at a camp for children who have lost someone to cancer reminds her how comforting physical companyrather than apologycan be during times of tragedy and loss. "I Was Wrong," the funniest entry in the collection, uses a dog, an unflushed toilet, and a parental meltdown to highlight the power and near-impossible difficulty of admitting personal fault. In the deeply affecting entry "Onward," moving on from tragedy takes on a new weight. With heartfelt humor and penetrating insight, Corrigan uses the pain, anguish, failure, and occasional successes in her life to explore the vital connection between the words we say and the relationships we develop, both with the people around us and ourselves. Punctuated with her signature warmth and unflinching honesty, her introspective musings gush with empathy for every partner, parent, child, or friend who has said the wrong thing at the wrong time. At times laugh-out-loud funny but overwhelmingly bittersweet, this brief book spans time and experience to drive home a seemingly simple but significant message: finding the right words is a lifelong journey. Other phrases include "I Love You" and "No Words at All."Moving and deeply personal, Corrigan's portraits of love and loss urge readers to speak more carefully and hold on tighter to the people they love. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In this brisk and moving memoir, Corrigan (The Middle Place) explores the language and terrain of intimacy, delving into some of the most difficult and significant things people say to one another. In 12 brief essays, Corrigan describes the ways in which phrases such as "tell me more" and "I know" have shaped her closest relationships. In the title essay, Corrigan slowly raises the stakes, with masterly results (when her sixth-grade daughter calls to talk of an incident in school, Corrigan simply says, "Tell me about it," rather than something more accusative, and her daughter divulges everything). She also contemplates the many meanings of "I love you" (to a sibling, it could be "Even though we hardly agree about a thing, including who should be president... I love you") and writes about how the phrase "I know" offers the salve of empathy when no other words will do. At the heart of the memoir is Corrigan's examination of her friendship with Liz, who died from ovarian cancer. "Every important conversation I have, for the rest of my life, will have a little bit to do with her," Corrigan writes. At one point, she considers the truth that sometimes only silence can properly evoke. The essays are impactful, and Corrigan offers solid wisdom throughout. (Jan. 2018) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Could it be that the simplest phrases sometimes hold the most complexity? In her fourth book, Corrigan (Glitter and Glue, 2014) explores this assertion in 12 essays, each of which is named for a phrase that has proven itself to be essential. While some phrases are expected (I Love You), others are more of a surprise; Tell Me More follows Corrigan as she learns new ways to listen, while No Words at All considers the times when language fails us. Corrigan's family and friends play a central role in the essays; readers of her memoir The Middle Place (2008) will immediately recognize Greenie, the much-loved father she lost to cancer. Though humor is an essential part of her voice, Corrigan is at her best when she tempers her self-deprecation with weightier topics. Onward, especially, shows her ability to mix the mundane and the momentous; in a letter to a dear friend who has died, Corrigan recounts how they've all tried to move on not with grand actions or resolutions but with the small, daily triumphs and struggles that define life itself.--Winterroth, Amanda Copyright 2018 Booklist

Best seller Corrigan (Middle Place) asserts in her latest work that there are 12 hard statements that everyone needs to say more. She presents them via stories from her life, resulting in a book that is part memoir and part self-improvement. By using personal, sometimes intimate stories she instantly builds a bond with listeners and demonstrates exactly when and how to incorporate these statements into daily life. From the title essay to "I Was Wrong" and "No," through saying nothing at all, which for many will be the hardest, listeners will be inspired to look at their own lives and replicate these powerful declarations. Listeners will enjoy the personality Corrigan brings through her warm and welcoming narration. VERDICT Recommended for libraries where lighter self-improvement and parenting books are popular. ["A user's manual to tough conversations": Memoir 10/20/17 review of the Random hc.]-Donna Bachowski, Orange Cty. Lib. Syst., Orlando, FL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

the man who made the movies By Vanda Krefft. (Harper, $40.) Krefft has written the first major biography of William Fox, the movie mogul whose life story is the archetypical rags-toriches tale - a boy who worked in a sweatshop on the Lower East Side eventually creates an entertainment empire, phone By Will Self. (Grove Press, $27.) The final novel in Self's massive Umbrella Trilogy exploring technology and psychopathology, this book is set in London and Iraq and tells the story of two men, a psychiatrist losing his own mind and a mysterious MI-6 agent. MY TWENTIETH CENTURY EVENING AND OTHER SMALL BREAKTHROUGHS: THE NOBEL lecture By Kazuo fshiguro. (Knopf, $16.95.) This is the lecture that the most recent Nobel laureate gave in Sweden in early December, looking at his own evolution as a writer and his thoughts on what a new generation of authors must do to keep literature relevant to our lives, in days to come By Avraham Burg. (Nation Books, $28.) The former speaker of Israel's Knesset gives his own take on his country's history and the quagmire it now finds itself in as Zionism and Jewish identity evolve to meet the new realities of the 21st century, tell me more By Kelly Corrigan. (Random House, $26.) Corrigan unpacks 12 essential phrases, from "I don't know" to "I love you," that, as she puts it, "turn the wheel of life." & Noteworthy "The last time I read personal history by Katharine Graham was in 2015, after almost nine years of working for The Washington Post, her newspaper. What struck me most then, though, was her description of her young adulthood in the nation's capital, and the 'legions of young men in Washington who grouped together to live in houses.' Katharine Meyer and Philip L. Graham met at a group-house party in D.C.! I had suffered through so many myself, and mostly what I got were in-person recitations of funny things people had said on Twitter. I'm reading her book for a third time now, after being predictably charmed by the new movie 'The Post.' It is remarkable to watch Meryl Streep, as Graham, decide to publish the Pentagon Papers, then read that decision rendered in Graham's own words. By the time you reach that point in the book, she has talked candidly about pregnancy loss, personal friendships with several presidents, her husband's suicide - and the way she made history in a job she was never really expected to have. Maybe that would have been too long a movie, but it's worth treating yourself to the source material." RACHEL DRY, EDITOR OF SUNDAY REVIEW, ON WHAT SHE'S READING.