Binding: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781586216580
Edition: Abridged
Format: Abridged
ISBN: 1586216589
Label: Hachette Audio
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Hachette Audio
Number Of Items: 4
Publication Date: 2004-04
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Studio: Hachette Audio

When 36-year-old Sophie Stanton's husband dies of cancer, she desperately wants to be a graceful, composed Jackie Kennedy kind of widow. Alas, Sophie is more of a Jack Daniels kind. Self-medicating with cartons of ice cream for breakfast, showing up to work in her bathrobe and bunny slippers, soon she's lost not only her husband, but her job and her waistline. In an attempt to reinvent her life, Sophie moves to Ashland, Oregon, where she finds an embittered 13-year-old girl with a fascination for fire, a job as Salad Girl at the local French restaurant, and an alarmingly cute actor whom Sophie wishes she didn't like quite so much. Readers will laugh and cry along with Sophie as she proves to the world and herself that she can recover from something this devastating with darkly comic humor and her own type of class. GOOD GRIEF is the perfect book for anyone who has ever been heartbroken, lost someone they loved, or eaten too many Oreos.
Some widows face their loss with denial. Sophie Stanton's reaction is one of pure bafflement. "How can I be a widow?" Sophie asks at the opening of Lolly Winston's sweet debut novel, Good Grief. "I'm only thirty-six. I just got used to the idea of being married." Sophie's young widowhood forces her to do all kinds of crazy things--drive her car through her garage door, for instance. That's on one of the rare occasions when she bothers to get out of bed. The Christmas season especially terrifies her: "I must write a memo to the Minister of Happier Days requesting that the holidays be cancelled this year." But widowhood also forces her to do something very sane. After the death of her computer programmer husband, she reexamines her life as a public relations agent in money-obsessed Silicon Valley. Sophie decides to ease her grief, or at least her loneliness, by moving in with her best friend Ruth in Ashland, Oregon. But it's her difficult relationship with psycho teen punker Crystal, to whom she becomes a Big Sister, that mysteriously brings her at least a few steps out of her grief. Winston allows Sophie life after widowhood: The novel almost indiscernibly turns into a gentle romantic comedy and a quirky portrait of life in an artsy small town. At all stops on her journey from widow to survivor, Sophie is a lively, crabby, delightfully imperfect character. --Claire Dederer

Customer Rating:
Summary: A great read
Comment: I was given this book in hardcover by a friend who bought it in a book club a couple years ago. I was expecting something along the lines of typical fare for this type of book and was pleasantly surprised instead. A refreshing approach to the grieving widow. All the emotions you'd expect and some you wouldn't even think of

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great (an unusual) Bereavement Support Tool
Comment: As a chaplain I deal with folks in all sorts of grieving situations. This book is one I give to women mostly, when they are thinking that they must be going crazy in their loss. It's a lovely book on its own, and truly gives the reader a view of what it is like to be dealing with the "madness" of grief. Hopeful and helpful.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Comment: This is one of my all time favorite books. It is so insightful, touching, and honest, yet laugh-out-loud hilarious. You wouldn't think that a book called "Good Grief" could be funny, but it definitely was. I was sad to finish this book, I wanted the story to continue, and that to me is the sign of a great book.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Comment: Lolly Winston's writing made me feel sad, happy and hopefully. I literally laughed out loud reading her one liners.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: one of my favorite books of all time
Comment: I have loved this book from the first time I picked it up, and have just finished it again for the 7th time! Yes, I said 7 times. I am an avid reader, and there are only 3 books that I will read over and over again. They are Good Grief by Lolly Winston, Up Island by Anne Rivers Siddons, and Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons. The characters are so well developed, that it seems like I am visiting an old friend when I pick them up again every couple of years... I wish they would make Good Grief into a movie...

---