Paul Deaton: The author creates a sense of place that is hers alone and explains its risks and rewards. We see life along her road with all its wonder and tragedy.

I met Maureen McCue, who just published a memoir Birds in the Morning, Frogs at Night: Sharing Life Along the Road, when we were both on the Johnson County Board of Health in 2006.

As soon as McCue arrived to become the board’s physician, she drove us to become quite busy both with required tasks like replacing the director, and voluntary initiatives like educating other county boards of health on the effects of coal-fired power plants on human health. Given our shared history, I didn’t know what to expect when her memoir was released earlier this year.