The poems of Earthquake Season are impressively wide ranging. Here are tender yet decidedly unsentimental poems about family history, marriage and motherhood, unflinching poems about illness, and harrowing, memorable poems about the challenges of life in contemporary Los Angeles. Goodheart has Jane Kenyon’s gift for the poetry of ordinary life, Sylvia Plath’s uncompromising eye, and Adrienne Rich’s courage, wisdom, and sensitivity to social injustice. What distinguishes Goodheart’s poems is her unwavering capacious and humane gaze at the world, and her ability to take on difficult subjects with warmth, humor, and imagination."