Where Nebraska Center for the Book board members share their thoughts about the books they are reading. This month’s review is by Amy Mather, Partnerships Manager at Omaha Public Library.
Review of Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks.
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Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks is a deeply personal memoir chronicling the sudden death of her husband, journalist Tony Horwitz, on Memorial Day 2019.
As a longtime fan of Brooks’s fiction—and of memoirs more broadly—I chose to listen to the audiobook, narrated by the author herself. That choice feels especially meaningful here. Brooks’s narration places you directly at her side as she unpacks the shock of loss, navigates the practical demands of daily life, and struggles to carve out space to properly mourn. Interwoven with her grief are memories of how she and Horwitz met, their years reporting together as foreign correspondents in the Middle East, and her own path toward becoming a novelist.
Reflective, intimate, and heartbreaking, Memorial Days is a powerful meditation on love, loss, and remembrance. Readers who cherish literary memoirs will find this a moving and unforgettable listen.