the one by Anna.

What a blissful week it has been reading a book I love.  A vacation from nasty, grueling books that are tedious chores to get through.  A book with characters I can relate to, free from shock tactics of sex and gratuitous violence.  A book with heart.

What I love about Anna is that she gets grief.  She lost her mom in her twenties to ovarian cancer.  My favorite passage in this novel takes place when Mary Beth questions another's grief.  She says "whatever she did was fine.  That's what I've learned.  It's fine.  Whatever you manage to do."  Life should be about more than just managing but some days we can only do our very best.

I was charmed by the ending of this novel.  I have a dream about moving to Vermont someday and living in a barn and having antiques and cooking chicken tetrazzini for my family and learning to be a master gardener.  But the life I envision now will ultimately be disappointingly different and much, much grander than I could ever imagine.

I know I shouldn't reveal the last sentence of the book but darn it, I love it.
"This is my life.  I am trying."

Can't wait to meet Anna tonight.