Visiting Life: Women Doing Time on the Outside

This one was one of those books: you know, the ones that you read a review about in the paper, then feel like you have to check out because it might make a cultural contribution to society, and then it sits on your shelf for two weeks until you know you have to return it. Usually when I come across an item like this, I read the first few pages to make sure I don't really want to read it before I bring it back. I read those first few pages, and boy, was I hooked. This is Bridget Kinsella's memoir of her life as the girlfriend of a convicted murderer. She's a bigwig in the publishing world, and she met him while trying to help him get his work published. She swore up and down that she wouldn't get involved with a convict, but as their relationship deepened, her love for him became inevitable. I soared through the story, finishing the book in a day and bringing it back on time. Kinsella writes like a novelist, but the story is true. I got lost in the narrative and felt thoroughly moved by the time it was done. I highly recommend it, not for its contribution to society, necessarily, but for the true, if rough, beauty of Kinsella's story.