Home Safe by Berg and No 48 Hour Reading Challenge For Me

This weekend is the forty eight hour reading challenge...something I enjoy reading about on other blogs. Each time I read about this challenge I think about how cool it would be to spend 48 hours of solitude reading. Then, I think a bit more about how unrealistic this is in my life with 3 small children. This weekend in particular my parents are hosting an open house for my sister's wedding, which was a small, family affair. I still have to make two desserts for this, along with getting everyone's clothes laid out and giving baths and hairwashes. Realistically the only way I am going to have quiet is if I check into a hotel and just sit in my room and read. I did manage to meet up with Peaceful Reader at the library and by some miracle our children played nicely for a LONG time and we were able to talk about books and catch up. The only reason I had to call an end to our party was my youngest child decided she wanted a nap and it was already after 1:00 in the afternoon and we had yet to eat lunch. I seriously could have sat at the library all day catching up and talking about books.

This morning I read the last half of Elizabeth Berg's Home Safe, her latest book. What a good women's fiction selection. I thoroughly enjoyed it....I usually read all of Berg's books as they are released, liking some more than others. This one is right up at the top, I think. Helen Ames is fifty nine and recently widowed. She and her husband had a good marriage and she is just starting to move on. Dan had always told Helen that he had nearly a million dollars saved for their retirement, so money has not been something she feels she needs to worry about. When her accountant breaks the news to her that Dan withdrew $850,000 from their account prior to his death, Helen begins to wonder what kind of double life Dan was leading. As soon as I read this I felt I could already guess where Berg was going to take this story. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that I am happy that Berg's story takes an entirely different path, one that is ever so much more interesting. Helen continues throughout the book to try and move on in her life, achieve some independence, let her adult daughter, Tessa, become independent, too. She works to revive her writing career that has remained dormant after Dan's death.

This is another author Oprah introduced to many readers with her book Open House, and one I continue to look forward to reading as her books are released.