Böcker av Betsy Lerner

After a lifetime of defining herself against her mother, Betsy unexpectedly returns to her childhood home of New Haven. No sooner does she cross state lines than old patterns reemerge, old conflicts flare. Everything her mother says feels like a referendum on her life: her hair, her frayed jeans, throwing away money on Starbucks, and why does she always have to wear black! All the entrenched mother-daughter behaviors return full force. The generation gap seems wider than ever. Enter the Bridge Ladies, a small band of five women who have been playing cards with her mother, Roz, on Mondays for more than fifty-five years?still clad in matching outfits, heels, their hair done, and still serving luncheon on linen, china, and silver. After Roz had some surgery, each one visited with a meal. Betsy admired their loyalty. She knew if she ever got sick her friends would probably send her texts: Feel better! Miss you! Facebook was great, but it wouldn't deliver a pot roast. Tentatively at first, Betsy joins the Monday bridge group, and eventually learns to play the game that ?well acquaints you with your deficits.? Over time, she gets to know the ladies and, most surprisingly, her mother. Bridge becomes a metaphor for crossing the emotional divide. Darkly funny and deeply moving, The Bridge Ladies is an unforgettable story of the hard-won but never-too-late bond that can be rekindled between mothers and daughters.

For the past fifty years, Monday afternoons in New Haven have always been the same: Roz, Rhoda, Bea, Jackie and Bette - the Bridge Ladies. A card table with four folding chairs (and one dummy seat). A plate of homemade cookies or brownies on the kitchen counter somewhere, largely untouched. And once they begin the game, hours of silence, punctuated only by the sound of cards being plucked up or snapped down. As a child, Betsy Lerner thought the Bridge Ladies were fascinatingly chic, with their frosted hair-dos and shiny nylons. To the teenage Betsy, they seemed hopelessly square. As an adult, working in New York City, they were a relic of her past. But when her husband accepted a job in New Haven, she found herself right back where she started.Suddenly, the Bridge Ladies came hurtling back, their Monday lunch and Bridge Club still ongoing. They had accepted their lot in life and were, mostly, grateful. They didn't talk about their problems, much less those involving sex, relationships, or their children. On paper, they were unremarkable, even dull. But once Betsy started really looking at them, she realized that they were anything but.Wildly perceptive and, in turns, hilarious and fearlessly vulnerable, Lerner's memoir is required reading for anyone who has ever had a mother. And it teaches us an important lesson: Facebook may connect us across the world, but social media can't deliver a pot roast and it won't dry your tears.

No one is better qualifed to help with the writing process than a passionate editor with years of experience. Betsy Lerner, one of the most admired of American book editors, is such a one - and in this book she shares her editorial wisdom and provides a unique insider's understanding of the publishing process. From her long experience working with successful writers and discovering new voices, Betsy Lerner looks at different writer personality types; addresses the concerns of writers just getting started as well as those stalled mid-career; and describes the publishing process from the thrill of acquisition to the agony of the remainder table. Written with insight, humour and great common sense, this is the ultimate survival kit for writers everywhere.