Happy New Year

I'm working on my to do list/timeline to get the new year off on the right foot. In the meantime, I thought I'd tell you about a couple more books to check out.

Good Grief by Lolly Winston: An amazing story about a young widow (she's only 36) and all that she suffers trying to get her life back together after her husband's death. It's not as depressing as it sounds -- in fact, it's funnier than you can imagine in several parts. The book, for being about grief and death, strikes me as saying an awful lot about life and how important, beautiful and fragile it is, so take it all in and enjoy it. What I liked best about this book was that the deceased husband wasn't perfect. The narrator remembered his flaws; among them, a messy car. But she also acknowledged the fact that dead people become these perfect iconographic representations of their true selves after death. We try remember only the good things, diminishing the bad. Except that isn't being true to the person, nor does it make it very easy for anyone else to live up to that perfection.

It's good writing and a deeply touching and funny story. Read the first paragraph and see if you want to put it down -- here's the link to the sample on bn.com.

Twilight by Meg Cabot, Book six in the Mediator series: This is my favorite Meg Cabot series, for YA or A *grin*, so I'm sorry to see it go, but it was so wonderful to see everything all wrapped up. *Hint* for those of you that know me, you already know how the story ends if I'm recommending it to you : ) As for the story, it goes something like this. Suze Simon is a mediator, one who mediates with ghosts in an effort to take care of their last requests and move them along to the next plane of existence. In this last book, Suze has a problem because she's fallen in love with a ghost, Jesse, and another mediator, Paul, who wants to date Suze is jealous. Paul wants Jesse gone for good. Suze will do almost anything to stop him...but will that be enough?

Unfortunately, no excerpt for this one. But I highly encourage you to check out the series. It starts with Shadowland.

Okay, I also got a whole bunch of books for Christmas, not to mention some gift certificates, so I'm sure I'll have at least a few more recommendations soon. My goal is to get them put together in a GalaxSHE newsletter and send that out too.

I'll have to add it to my to do list : )

Have a safe and Happy New Year!