I Like Books

I'm giving it a five because it's a great addition to local Boston history records insofar as it's a description of everyday life in a small part of the city.

But the fact that Hofstra calls herself the writer of the book, when she is clearly the editor of her grandmother's writing shows that this self-published book, good in so many ways, did not go through the usual vetting process that traditionally published books do. Hofstra indicates that she found her grandmother's writing, and the book is presented in first person as a series of autobiographical stories by Edwina. The only thing to be assumed is that Hofstra assembled and edited the writings, which are actually quite good. Nonetheless, this is editing not authorship, at least as I understand it.

Additionally, an editor should make sure she knows the place name spellings of streets and cities when editing a non-fiction local history/biography. One glaring error and another smaller one were annoying.

Finally, the subtitle is poetic but doesn't make sense. At least, it's superfluous. Sorry. Most bios are actually written by adults. It seems silly to say,"A Memoir of Childhood Through the Eyes of a Woman." Of course, it is.

On the other hand, Edwina herself writes charmingly, and produces a touching portrait of life in her neighbhorhood and about being raised by an amazing single mother. Life was certainly different back then in some ways. It's worth reading. Too bad it hasn't been found by a traditional publisher. And, too bad that most traditional publishers are probably not interested in such a niche market. This is one of the places that self-publishing is very useful and good.