I heard about LESSONS FROM THE BORDERLANDS from writer Molly Gloss (The Hearts of Horses), who praised the book highly and said it deserved a wide readership. She was right. Husted's stories of her poverty-stricken childhood in Idaho and subsequent struggles to improve her own life situation are beautifully written, and I mean writing that pulls you into her life and makes you care. I could relate to Husted's continued attempts to "fit in" even after she'd graduated from college and, later, grad school. She always felt like the poor cousin, unworthy somehow to partake of a better life. In that respect, her essays are about class, about the unofficial and not often discussed "caste system" in America. She illustrates this with examples of her discomfort - and sometimes even mistreatment - in restaurants, stores and other public settings. With all the recent talk of the shrinking, or even disappearing, middle class in America, Husted's own stories ring true. I thought too of Paul Fussell's book, Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. I don't know if Husted has ever read that book, but here is her own homespun version, her personal experiences, as well as those of many of her students in public schools and community colleges over the years, which all serve to show the painful struggles for upward social mobility which continue to this day.

But LESSONS is also a moving memoir of family. And Lynch-Husted's family had as much dysfunction and as many family skeletons as any. But I was particularly touched by her reminiscences of her mother, "who at 88 is still my best teacher." My own mother is now 95, and like Bette's, has always been my best teacher. And like Bette's mother, mine has always loved to read. My mother's sight has begun to fail, but she still reads, more slowly and with some difficulty. And, like Bette, I always ask her, "What are you reading?" Mom is in a nursing home now, which is always hard. I worry about her happiness, her quality of life. And so I understand the importance of the reassurance Bette got from her own mother, who said, about a book she was reading: "Don't worry - I'm okay ... I'm just savoring this one. I don't want it to end."

That's how I felt about this special book, LESSONS FROM THE BORDERLANDS. I'll say it again. This is simply beautiful writing. Husted's mom must be proud. I'm passing it along to my own mother soon, to read - and savor. Thank you, Bette, for telling your story.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER