Some Assembly Required, by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott

Anne Lamott fans: if you’re expecting a reprise of the gritty Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year, this isn’t it. But read on. There’s plenty in Some Assembly Required to appreciate. Lamott’s ongoing story is also a reminder that if you are in a hard place, community is what might save you—sometimes from yourself.

The premise of the book is simple. When your only child unexpectedly becomes a father, how do you let him build a life as an adult without trying to control everything? Lamott is about to find out. Anne’s son, Sam, is 19 years old and his girlfriend, Amy, is 20 when their son, Jax, is born. As Lamott says, “They’re both a little young, but who asked me?”

Lamott, 55, who has chronicled her faith journey in Traveling Mercies and Grace (Eventually), finds that being a grandmother is a date with her own mortality. After Jax is born she reflects, “It’s unimaginable that we were all so perfect and lovely once, as opposed to our current conditions—awful, slightly scaly, plumping up, and in decay.” It is also a time to reassess her need to control and to be the center of the universe and to learn to manage her anxiety.