Life Flashes

Life Flashes: A Memoir, comprising nearly 119,000 words, is a genre-bending combination of diary, memoir, biography, and spiritual commentary written across a fourteen-year span by the author based in Cohasset, Massachusetts. The book folds snapshots of history, pop culture, and current events of the period into the author's private reflections, family moments, and personal philosophies creating a story that functions as both a contemporary guide and time capsule for future readers. The lengthy narrative pace is truncated with short diary entries and quickly changing topics, which tend to keep the reader from losing focus. The author's decision to avoid using possessives is unique as a literary tool. Although readers may find that the style is awkward to read at first, the flow feels more natural as the book moves on. The work is sprinkled with tasteful, non-offensive humor and heartwarming and wholesome anecdotes. The book is suitable for readers ranging from some young adults to seniors. Merrie H, Reagan portrays key moments of historical record that happen over the course of the fourteen-year period of work. Hurricane Sandy, the shootings at Newtown, the historic Obama and Trump presidencies, and the COVID-19 outbreak do well to support and bring into context the various personal recollections and musings of the author. There are moments in which Ms. Reagan discusses personal musings about various topics, including relationships, current events, politics, religion, spirituality, psychology, and alternative medicine. Notably, she presents the ideologies in an innocuous, gentle and objective manner. In doing so she encourages readers of the book to examine personal ideologies in a similar manner and in turn form constructive decisions surrounding these matters.