I'm a daily fan of Amy Dickinson's advice column -- she's the Dear Abby/Ann Landers of our generation with a no-nonsense approach that often asks the advice seeker to take a look at him/herself in addition to the problem. She also offers book suggestions for perspective which I love. This memoir provides good insight into the life experiences that have made her so wise. Raised by her mother after her charming, but noncommittal father did a runner, she shares childhood experiences that have become more relevant after her return to the town she grew up in (Freeville, NY) in recent years. There she re-establishes ties with her mother, sister, aunts and cousins and falls in love with and marries Bruno, whom she knew slightly in high school. That part is a little schmoopy and self-indulgent but overall it is a strong story of going back to roots, blending families, making choices to live simply and intentionally. A cousin remarks "We abide" which Amy riffs on: "To abide means to stand with someone, to suffer alongside someone. But it also means to live somewhere, and for me, abiding meant to live in that tender and tenuous place of knowing but not knowing. Knowing what would happen but not how it would happen. Knowing it would all end, but not what that ending would be like or how it would feel." 138 ( )

When I picked this up I didn't realize it was the second memoir columnist Amy Dickinson had written (The Mighty Queens of Freeville was the first) and that one might have been more like what I was expecting. This was more a collection of essays about current aspects of the author's life ranging from returning home, remarriage and blended families, to loss and grief. I was disappointed there wasn't more than just the one essay about her life as an advice columnist, the essay that shares its title with this book. ( )

Dickinson, Amy. Strangers Tend To Tell Me Things. 7 CDs. unabridged. 9hrs. Hachette Audio. ISBN 9781478912514. $30.00.

Amy Dickinson pulls the curtain back on her personal life and treats readers to a glimpse inside the life of the woman behind the world famous daily "Ask Amy" advice column. Finding it easier to give advice then it is to take it, Dickinson relates a deeply personal memoir about love, loss, and coming home to her quaint town of Freeville, New York (see her previous bestseller "The Mighty Queens of Freeville"). Poignant, emotional, funny, and relatable, "Ask Amy" writes a moving memoir that will appeal to anyone whose ever suffered through divorce, middle age, child rearing, aging parents, falling in love, and more. To err is human and Amy makes mistakes and hilarious mishaps (which she gleefully relates) so that her readers don't have to. Narrated by Amy herself, who brings poise, laughter, and personal experience to the telling of her story. For fans of women's relationships and memoirs. - Erin Cataldi, Johnson Co. Public Library, Franklin, IN ( )