Before I was born, my mother had decided to name me either Laurel or Lydia, names that appealed to her artistic temperament. But then somehow--she was convinced by my father's sisters to make me a lackluster Ruth, in honor of their recently deceased mother, Rose. And so my birth certificate reads Ruth Leila, a name I was never called, by my mother, either of my father's sisters, or anyone else.

So begins the life list of Linda Rosenkrantz, 207 random recollections of her first 12 years that together comprise one of the year's most unexpected and delightfully offbeat memoirs.

Rich with the sights, sounds, and smells of her sheltered childhood in a Jewish enclave of the Bronx. My Life as a List re-creates the urban experience of American Jews in the years surrounding World War II. She writes with wry affection of family and friends, of grievances harbored and accomplishments savored, all recalled with the laser particularly of a child's eye. Period photographs and ephemera from the author's own collection bring her colorful cast of characters even more vividly to life.

Juxtaposing the poignant with the hilarious, the insightful with the quotidian, My Life as a List is a delightful patchwork quilt of memories that is sure to resonate with readers.