Good Grief

Well, as usual it's not that I've been remiss in my reading but just in my posting. I always say, "I gotta blog this book," and then it turns into, "I'll do it tomorrow," which inevitably ends up three weeks later. I'd love to hear from those who blog regularly how you keep yourself on track with everything else that goes on in life...

So, this read was GOOD GRIEF (Warner Books, c2004, ISBN 0-446-53304-1) by Lolly Winston and I absolutely loved it once I got beyond the strikingly parallel similarities it had to my own life.

The book begins in San Jose, California in the Silicon Valley but the main character, Sophie Stanton soon moves to Ashland, Oregon, where she finds love and baked goods, not necessarily in that order. Read this book just to drool over the description of savory cheesecakes.

The first sentence?

How can I be a widow?

This book is Lolly Winston's debut novel (had I not read that it was her debut novel, I never would have guessed) and it is written in first person (which I normally don't like but not in this case). Sophie Stanton is a 36-year-old woman who has just lost her husband, Ethan, to Hodgkin's disease, and she is dealing with her grief as best as she can, even if it means Oreos must be involved.

This book, at times - hilarious, at others - very depressing, is a very swift-moving book with great character development. Sophie was very real to me and I felt for her (and related to her being a 36-year-old newlywed myself) throughout her grieving process.
Bring some Kleenex.