The Things Worth Remembering

A collection of newspaper columns, essays, and letters by my mother, Deni Menken.

I wanted to make my mom a book she could hold, read, and share—and give her the pleasure of seeing herself on its cover.

Christmas 2026 · First family edition
Words by Deni Menken · Compiled by Sasha Smith

Read the book: PDF · EPUB. Both open in Google Drive. Choose the PDF for the designed pages, or EPUB for adjustable text in an e-reader.

A book for the woman who wrote it

My mom is curious, funny, opinionated, and wonderfully specific. She notices things: a grandmother’s eyeglasses, a tin of colored pencils, an evening at the opera. In her writing, those details open into something larger about people, pleasure, memory, and the way we live.

What began as a Christmas present became a project in editing, design, family collaboration, and a surprising number of decisions about photographs and captions.

Choosing an order, keeping her voice

I selected and sequenced the pieces, wrote an introduction, and worked on the pacing: how one essay leads into another, where a photograph belongs, and when a page needs space. Her humor, opinions, and particular way of noticing needed to remain her own.

I kept original manuscripts and alternate drafts separately. A book needs an order; an archive needs room for the things that don’t make it into that order.

Making it feel like hers

The cover pairs cranberry red—her favorite—with gold lettering and an illustrated Victorian remembrance cup. Inside, classic typography, generous space, and captioned photographs make the collection comfortable to read.

My aunt Sherry helped gather and identify family photographs. We worked through the details using family information and album notes. Where a date was uncertain, we left it out. There is enough to remember without confidently inventing the year.

A book to hold, and words to carry along

I prepared a hardcover family edition for professional printing, a designed PDF, and an EPUB with adjustable text for e-readers. The files have been submitted for printing; the physical book is still to come. The cover shown here is the digital design.

I hope she sees her name on the cover and knows how much we wanted to spend time with her words.

A little more to read

Essays and things I’ve been thinking about →

How I approach research, experimentation, and making things easier →