Author: Dr. Rebecca Thompson in conversation with Kelly Burke

Held Together: A Shared Memoir of Motherhood, Medicine, and Imperfect Love
Tuesday, 4/14/2026
6:00 - 7:00
Virtual Library

United States

Author Rebecca N. Thompson, MD, presents Held Together: A Shared Memoir of Motherhood, Medicine, and Imperfect Love, a decade-long collaborative project that weaves her story of the challenges and joys of parenthood as a young physician into the stories of a remarkable group of her patients, friends, and medical colleagues. In conversation with her former patient and Held Together collaborator Kelly Burke, Dr. Thompson will explore themes of family, resilience, and identity, highlighting how personal experiences, illness, and shifting family roles shape the way we parent our children and support each other both individually and in community. 

Through diverse and immersive first-person narratives, Held Together captures the extraordinary moments hidden within ordinary lives, from tear-stained to laugh-out-loud, from devastating to triumphant. These intimate true stories offer connection, empathy, and insight for all kinds of families, born and built and and chosen, while celebrating the complicated realities of our most meaningful relationships as beautiful, messy, imperfect humans. 

Please visit Dr. Thompson’s website for book club guides, teaching resources, media coverage, and upcoming events in the Bay Area (including in person with collaborator Devorah at Book Passage’s Ferry Building location on Tuesday, April 21!) and beyond. 

Connect: Rebecca Thompson – Website | LinkedIn | Instagram |Threads

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This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

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