These essays-or as Sydney Williams calls them: "musings"-are evocative of a time and a place-of growing up in a New Hampshire village in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sydney Williams was the second of nine children whose parents were sculptors and who was raised on a small farm, with horses, goats and chickens-an unconventional life in an unconventional place, but during a conventional time. They include memories of his parents and their families, of books and of skiing.

While they are personal, their message is universal message. It is one of remembrance-the closeness of families and the effect genes and environment have on how we become who we are.