My friend Amy from LeShallowGal (one of my favorite blogs) recently recommended a book to me: Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven, by Susan Richards Shreve. Shreve is a Washington, DC-based writer and I've seen reviews and displays of this book around, but hadn't really focused on it. Sounds like it's a compelling history lesson combined with a poignant coming-of-age story – what more could you want?
Shreve is a novelist who has approached her story with a reporter’s eye. She has done her research on polio and Warm Springs, weaving the history of this once-dread disease unobtrusively into her own. But it is the due diligence she has done on her own young self — re-examining the girl she was from the perspective of the woman she has become (“the truth of this story is in the way I see it now”) and fitting that girl back into a time and a place a half-century gone — that distinguishes Warm Springs from so many of the vertical-pronoun bores arriving at bookstores these days.
You can hear or watch Susan Shreve talking to WGBH about Warm Springs here.
Interesting: Susan Shreve is the mother of Porter Shreve, whose book Drives Like A Dream I reviewed here.
Posted on August 9, 2008 by gayle.	This entry was posted in Memoir, Non-Fiction and tagged "Warm Springs", Susan Shreve. Bookmark the permalink.
I am reading this now after seeing it here–just got it from the library yesterday. I stopped by Warm Springs a few weeks ago, but was unable to visit–too late in the day. So i was excited to see this book! I hope to get back and visit the Little White House and the Springs soon. I am loving the book–great writing and wonderful voice!
Just checking in! I finished this one last night and it was a wonderful memoir. I gave it to my 12 year old daughter to read. Another great book–thanks, Gayle!