I relish personal essays especially when I can connect so deeply to one as I did with Bomb Shelter. Anything Mary Laura Philpott writes I will devour happily and this book exceeded all my expectations. I wanted to binge it all in one sitting but try to pace myself to relish it...I ended up binging it and will buy the audio to enjoy it at a slower pace now.
Philpott so generously discusses all of her worries, her joys and well, pretty much life - in this incredible memoir. Triggered by her son's seizure and the ramifications that will now follow she digs into dealing with mortality- her own and those she loves as well as looking at the potential "loss" once her sons graduate and move away from home. Her worries and anxiety are such a familiar ones to many moms along with that feeling that if you just love them enough all will be ok.
I can't recommend this beautiful book enough. While I was thrilled to be gifted this ARC, I have purchased my own copy for my bookshelf and I will eagerly recommend it to my fellow readers!
Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It takes some bravery to expose yourself like Philpott does in her books, and the rawness and realness of all that she is going through is appreciated by this reader.

The author’s feelings are palpable. Philpott makes every word count, and whether or not you’ve experienced the same or similar situations, her writing makes you feel as much as she does. Reading her essays with their mix of fears and wisdom made me feel connected to the author.

There are plenty of relatable takeaways from Bomb Shelter: Take the good with the bad. Try to show more love than worry when dealing with your kids. You won’t stop worrying, but they need your love more than your anxiety.

“The problem with worry is that the scope is infinite."

Philpott made me wonder if my grown children will ever realize how much they took control of my life. Do they know the joy they brought? Do they know the sense of powerlessness they brought? I wanted to be Boudica and protect them from everything. I wanted them to not worry because I was there to take care of them. However, as the author points out, we really don’t have much control over our kids’ destiny and that is worrisome.

Bomb Shelter is a highly relatable collection of essays that perfectly balances serious issues with the author’s sense of humor.

Bomb Shelter is a book that I couldn’t stop reading but forced myself to put down because I just wanted to savor each essay. I felt absolutely seen and understood by this collection of essays. Mary Laura Philpott and I are the same age, and so many of her experiences are mine. While I love nothing more than reading about people with different perspectives, sometimes it’s so cathartic to fall into a book and know that you are not alone.

The essays in Bomb Shelter are loosely connected around themes of family and anxiety and the passage of time. Philpott worries about her kids when she’s taking care of her aging parents, and she worries about leaving her parents alone while soaking up the minutes with her teens. She recognizes the “last times” they’ll do certain things as a family of four before her oldest heads to college. She writes about discovering things she didn’t know about the people she’s closest to (her husband can juggle! Her dad worked at a secret military bomb shelter!) and wonders what else she didn’t know. The stories are funny and heartfelt and sad all at the same time.

I loved this collection so much, even as it had me tearing up at the thought that I only have two more years with my oldest before he heads off to college. If you are a worrier or a type A personality or are also in your 40s and figuring out how to juggle aging parents and teenagers at the same time, I think you’ll find comfort and humor in Bomb Shelter. I know I did.

I highly recommend Bomb Shelter if you loved I’ll Miss You When I Blink (Philpott’s first essay collection) or I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell.

Very unique book and I would give it a read. It’s not one of my favorites but I did enjoy the read. It starts off slow and middle starts to get better and then the ending was good. Stick with it

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for gifting me a digital copy of this wonderful memoir by Mary Laura Philpott - 5 sparkling stars!

The author and her husband are happily married and the mother of two children. Life was good, even though Mary Laura is a self-professed worrier since childhood. But in the early morning hours when they found their son having a seizure on the bathroom floor, all those worries seemed to come true.

Every once in a while, you read a book and when you're done, you just want to hug it. And then thrust it immediately into the hands of everyone you know. This is that book. While my circumstances aren't hers or any one else's, as stated in the book, everyone has something. So everyone will be able to relate to this book. We are all doing the best we can to go through life, worrying and trying to protect those we love whether friend, spouse, child, parent or even a stranger. I laughed out loud at so many of these essays - the cholesterol one had me reading passages out loud to my husband, who is going through the same issues. But I also cried, felt hopeful and understood. Which is why everyone needs to read this book. And then read it again.

This author brilliantly takes a scary situation with her son's health and handles it with grace, humor and levity. She bounces between childhood and life experiences and the health scare at hand. She makes you laugh and cry on the same page. I was worried this was going to be a bit dark and depressing but it really is uplifting.

As a fellow worrier and mother, I had to pick up Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott. A collection of of essays, Philpott's writing draws you in as though you are reading a letter from a friend. When her worst fears are realized finding her teenage son in the throes of a full on epileptic seizure, Philpott re-examines her anxiety and the fragility of life.

"There will always be bombs, and we will never be able to save everyone we care about. To know that and to try anyway is to be fully alive. The closest thing to shelter we can offer one another is love, as deep and wide and in as many forms as we can give it."

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A memoir in essays. Anxiety runs under Philpott's life. From her son's seizure to dealing with the dog, nothing is too big or too small. She's a worrier- but aren't we all. I'll bet I'm not the only one who recognizes something in Philipott's worries. The world just keeps getting harder and scarier to some of us, like Philpott, focus on the little things. Oh and Next Door! It's breezily written but don't let that fool you- she's got something to contribute to make you feel better. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read that made me smile.

Mary Laura Philpott’s essays read like a well’connected memoir. She describes many life events that people forty and over can easily relate to. I enjoyed her writing style. I thank NetGalley and Simon and Shuster for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott is a highly recommended collection of personal essays

Philpott openly discusses her life, anxieties, joys, worries, and pleasures in this collection that covers a wide range of topics from mundane everyday actions as well as the uncertainty which accompanied her son's first seizure and diagnosis. All the topics are presented and discussed in an approachable manner. She is dealing with her mortality while also recognizing the joy and small pleasures found in life. There is the recognition that she will need to let her children go soon, off to college and on to their own lives, but she worries about their safety. Philpott explains that she believes if she cares enough, she could keep her loved ones safe.

As she searches for the meaning in what makes up a life, both the mundane and the significant events, she approaches the discussion with equal parts anxiety and optimism. The essays can take on a circuitous feeling as topics appear, reappear, a jump forward and backward in time. She does ramble on at times, but the essays will also clearly leave a feeling of camaraderie with most readers. She is expressing in her own unique way many of the things others think and ponder. This is a thoughtful collection that should appeal to many readers.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, Google Books, and Amazon.

This was an enjoyable memoir told in essays. Remarkable stories and well written.
Many thanks to Atria and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

As a parent, a woman, a human being, I find Mary Laura Philpott to be very relatable. Reading her essays is like being with a close friend - you talk, share confidences, muse, laugh, and cry all in the same visit, and you feel refreshed and happy for having been together.

Somehow, I missed her first book, but I plan to correct that!

My thanks to Atria Books for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley. The book is scheduled to be published on 4/12/22. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Bomb Shelter
by Mary Laura Philpott
Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ATria Books
Thanks to the author, Atria, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
Genre: Essays, Memoir
I could relate to many of the essays in this book. She worries a lot. She laces heavy subjects such as illness, disability, and loss with just the right amount of gentle, yet sometimes laugh-out-loud, humor to make this an enjoyable insightful read.
3 stars

A very poignant memoir of essays. Mary Laura Philpott is so relatable - even though on the surface our lives seem very different (she has kids, I don't). She writes in a way that I totally understand and was nodding and agreeing with her throughout every essay.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lately, I’ve read some very good memoirs and this collection of essays can be added to my growing list. As a person who has been plagued with being overly anxious most of my life, I was eager to delve into her story.

Bomb Shelter is a book of short, unrelated, chapters. Philpott shared her struggles as a parent, something many can relate to. Each chapter addressed an individual snippet from her life. Some I could relate to. And if it wasn’t relatable it was certainly interesting.

This is the type of memoir that even non-readers are apt to enjoy. I see these chapters as short evening stories to unwind to.

I could feel the honesty spring from the pages as Philpott disclosed both her strengths, and her weaknesses. The writing was captivating and pulled me in with emotions and descriptions.

My Concerns
Often her stories would abruptly head in another direction which, I’m not gonna lie, bothered me quite a bit. However, in time I started to get used to it.

Final Thoughts
I’m not one bit sorry I read this book. I fell in love with the short chapters which made it perfect reading any time I had a few minutes to sit down with a book.

Her stories were very interesting, and it was hard not to share many of her experiences and emotions.

A definite yes. This is a book to add to your bookshelf if you like relatable, personal stories.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the ARC and post my opinion.

This book will stay with me long after I've finished. Mary Laura Philpott is nervous, and just wants to keep everyone safe. Why is that so hard? With kids getting older, and parents getting older, the author shares the story of a year in her life, that is also her whole life, because it's all connected. Her writing style is so unique - a very nuanced stream of consciousness. Cannot recommend enough.

This book is a ball full of BIG MOM ENERGY. It has such a nurturing, protecting vibe and I adored it.

I loved reading Philpott’s I Miss You When I Blink and Bomb Shelter is another great set of essays.

She candidly writes about pandemic life, her son’s epilepsy diagnosis, her near constant state of worry, and everything in between. But mostly she talks about death. Not in a morbid way necessarily, but in a realistic, this-will-happen-someday sort of thing. She sums it up best when she says, “I’m obsessed with death because I am in love with life.”

I happened to read the majority of this book on what would have been my mom’s 65th birthday. She passed away just 2 weeks shy of her 60th. Reading this incredible, motherly book, ESPECIALLY from a Tennessee mother, gave me a sense of peace. You can’t bear those TN moms, though. IYKYK

Definitely recommending this book if you like reading genuine essays on life, in hard times and good. Philpott has a way of putting you at ease and making you comfortable from the first paragraph.

Essentially a collection of essays on being a mother, by someone who worries a LOT. Not that she doesn’t have good cause, and not discounting that almost all mothers worry a lot. What I truly appreciated was the way the writer notices fine details. I can’t imagine knowing a turtle in the wild was “yours” by the shell pattern. As one who thought she was a very involved mother, who is also very observant, I ended up feeling like I really missed the motherhood mark! Fortunately, I now get to be “Mimi” instead.

“Are John and I really on our fourth dog together?” I had to laugh. And shudder. I have been with my husband long enough to have had six dogs–and a rabbit. Again and again, Mary Laura Philpott had me laughing and shuddering in recognition.

Phlipott writes about being alive, the wonder and dread of being a mother, the joy of life and the recognition of one’s mortality. It’s a hard world. Is it even safe to send our children out into it? We can’t protect them. And we look into the mirror and see our own aging. “I am obsessed with death because I am in love with life,” Philpott writes; “I grieve in advance of loss.”

This struck too close to home. I am looking at 70 in a few months. I have already lived longer than my mother, her twin brothers, my grandfathers, my great-grandparents, and a cousin. I have to live forever, to be there for our son. How do I use the years that are left? We can’t save everyone, Philpott writes, but we can shelter each other in love. It’s the only bomb shelter we have.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Get a cup of coffee, get comfy and lend Mary your ear. In her endearing and painfully honest voice, she explains her biggest fear, especially as a parent: loss, pain, heartache, and the growing pains of her most cherished possessions, her children.
Filled with rationales felt by all mothers, but expressed in an unapologetic way, Mary bares her soul and quietly asks you to be as honest in return. Snarky at times, at others sadly sincere, this is a book you’ll hold close long after you finish.
Sincere thanks to Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is April 12, 2022.