The Ruby Mirror is a lively, humorous and poignant collection of personal essays in which Lisa Williams Kline explores topics that preoccupy us for our entire lives -- religion, marriage, divorce, interfaith marriage, raising children, caring for elderly parents, and our own mortality.
Lisa Williams Kline's work has appeared in Literary Mama, Skirt, Sasee, Carolina Woman, moonShine review, The Press 53 Awards Anthology, and Idol Talk, among others. She is the author of a short story collection called Take Me (Main Street Rag), and ten novels for young readers. She lives in Davidson with her veterinarian husband, a cat who can open doors, and a sweet chihuahua who hardly ever barks. They treasure frequent visits with their grown daughters and their husbands.
The essays in The Ruby Mirror shimmer with tenderness, joy and the love of family. Lisa Williams Kline addresses the complexities of interfaith marriage, depression and aging parents, all while balancing humor with poignant realism. Readers will fall in love with this collection and the author!
--Ann Campanella, author of Celiac Mom
In The Ruby Mirror, Lisa Williams Kline asks the question "So as I look back over our life ..., what do I see?" My answer: a life full of rich, deep relationships starting in childhood to the selfless caring of her parents through their deaths. I see a wife and devoted husband who support and love intensely. I see the tender raising of two daughters under the umbrella of a warm heart.
--Gilda Morina Syverson, author of My Father's Daughter, From Rome to Sicily
Early in The Ruby Mirror, Lisa Kline puts words to the miracle that this book is. She writes that she is proud to be from her grandmother's family of storytellers. That's exactly who Lisa is: a superb storyteller. With humor, honesty, and compassion, she reveals the deepest truths about family connections and the power of love in its infinite variety. Once I started reading, I had no choice but to follow where these delightful essays led me.
-- Judy Goldman, author of Child: A Memoir
In her essay collection, THE RUBY MIRROR, Lisa Kline paints a bracingly honest portrait of a life well-lived. This is a writer at the top of her game, writing intimately and with an unfailing generosity of spirit about coming of age in the south, interfaith marriage, the challenges and transcendent joy of family, and the long shadow of mortality. Whether describing an unsettling encounter in the maternity ward with her ex-husband or dissecting the uncanny prophecies of her mother, Lisa Kline looks at the world around her and misses nothing. THE RUBY MIRROR is like catching up with an old friend who is telling you what really happened. Pure joy.
--Richard Dresser, author of It Happened Here
