BOOKS WORTH A LOOK...

I loved this book because it was a story of people who didn't let their cancer rule their lives.  They joke about it and live life on the edge.  An easy read, it's a love story between two teenagers suffering with different types of cancer.  Yes, it's a tear jerker!

This book attracted me because it's about a woman in transition - she's been widowed and her only daughter is in college.  She is trying to navigate her path through the uneven course of life.  One particular quote really resonated with me...

"You're good at catastrophes.  It's just normal life you screw up.  I think that's true for a lot of us.  It's easy to navigate when your destination is clearly visible, no matter what obstacles lie in your way.  a smilple matter of optic flow, the experts tell us, and the same neural circuitry that gets a beetle to a blade of grass will suffice.  You do what you have to do, walk through the brush or around the swamp, get through the chemo, bury the dead, deliver the child to the far side of senior year.  Do what you have to do because nothing else is important.  Normal life doesn't have a clear view of the end of the road.  You don't get to see what's up ahead, or how to get there, and obstacles loom much larger than they really are or disguise themselves as worthwhile destinations of their own..."

This book by Jane Pauley is a collection of stories of different baby boomers who have chosen to do something new for the second half of their lives.  A lot of these people were featured on a Today show segment.  She emphasizes that life after fifty is no longer a sedentary time but one that this generation looks at from a new perspective unlike any other.  I thought this book might have some hints for me as I enter the second half of my life. :) It didn't, but I enjoyed the stories.

I LOVED this one.  The author is the oldest child in her family, and struggles emotionally as she tries to "fix" her always-capable mother dealing with dementia.  She also includes some of her mother's recipes and lots of memories from childhood and adulthood.  Not a happy ending but I appreciated her reflections and it helped me realize there will never is such a thing as balance in life.