Wednesday Book Review

Hi All!

Time for another book review!

This time the book is The Goodbye Summer by Patricia Gaffney. I can't remember if I have read other books by this author but her name certainly seems familiar - Oh wait! She wrote The Saving Graces which I read about a year or so ago.

The story centers on a young woman named Caddie. She is an orphan who was raised by her very eccentric, artist grandmother. Now, the grandmother, called Nana, is getting on in years and her eccentricity is becoming much more erratic and leaning towards forgetfulness instead of artistic expression. Nana breaks her leg and decides to move to an elder care/convelesence home called The Wake House to recover.

The colorful characters who reside at The Wake House soon become like family to Caddie and support her as she struggles to "find herself" at the age of 32. Caddie meets a best friend, old enough to be her mother or grandmother, and learns many lessons from her as they complete things on the woman's "life list."

Caddie goes through many experiences, both bad and good, in the course of the story and I found it fun to read along. The book went by quickly and was a light, fun read.

I won't spoil the ending but I will say that I am a bit dissapointed in how it ended. Somehow all of the "loose ends" just didn't seem to be secured, from my point of view. I was looking for more story after the last page and there was no more. However, that wasn't enough to keep me from thinking that this book is enjoyable. It would be the perfect summer reading book while lounging at the pool or a nice winter book to read while cuddled in front of a fire.

Trisha

Voice Update: My voice is doing pretty well. I seem to be going through a period where I don't want to talk too much. I tend to go through that once in a while. As I write this I can happily imagine never having to speak again. I will say that a lot of education about people with vocal problems still needs to be done. My ASL teacher related a story about one of her students saying that she would make fun of anyone who couldn't talk right. *sigh* So sad.