I just finished Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, this was the first time I have read anything by Berg and I enjoyed the story. It was well written and kept my attention. It's a story about love and loss and the bonds between a mother and daughter, good and bad. It left me with an uplifted feeling and reminded me to be thankful for the things we have, and the things we lose in this very brief gift of life we've been given here on earth. I'd say it's worth a trip to the local library! ( )

Well told story of a woman widowed in her 50s, finding herself suddenly responsible for parts of her life which were foreign to her. She is a writer and can no longer write and finds that her husband had taken most of their money to create a surprise for her. She is also too dependent on her adult daugher. Berg shows us how she finds her path again. ( )

I was leaning toward a 3 - 3.5 for this newest of Berg's books - it felt predictable and a bit ho hum. But it really picked up for me toward the end and turned out to be not so predictable after all.

The story centers on 59 year old Helen, a novelist who's been recently widowed. She hasn't been able to write since her husband's death; it becomes apparent that she was dependent on him for many things and she must find her way through the maze of finances, home repair and navigating around her city of Chicago. She comes to depend on her 27 year old daughter Tessa a bit too much and is also forced to let go of trying to control Tessa's life.

There are many nice moments and bits of prose in this novel. I especially liked the writings of the adult students she taught (an experiment in diversity). Berg was able to come up with consistent voices for each of the students, and these scenes showed glimpses of astonishing writing by people who wouldn't consider themselves writers or be considered writers by others.

Well written, very enjoyable book. ( )

Elizabeth Berg has always seemed to me a little bit like a poor man's Sue Miller -- something about her plot doesn't ring true, and her books about "everyday life" often fall flat. This, her latest, might have been the least successful book of hers that I have read: the two main characters (the mother Helen and daughter Tessa) are utterly unlikeable; there is no "double life,"; there is, in fact, no real problem or issue to overcome, save perhaps Helen's writing block.

The best part of the book? The beautiful cover of the blue jay and the egg. ( )

This book is about recent widow struggling with living on her own, strangely without grief or sadness. She was not at all a believable character to me nor was her non-dimensional daughter. It is a pretty boring book. Seems to be much like a Romance novel, I suppose, I don't read them so that is just a guess. Simple sentences devoid of much description does make it a quick read. I've got to remember to skip Elizabeth Berg no matter how enticing her titles and book covers may be! ( )