2002

Reviewed by Mrs. Mansfield (Vocational Education)
This book makes you think about what is really important in life. The setting is a rural town in Missouri. The main character leaves a high profile job and "finds" what is important isn't money and material possessions, but life itself. Her grandmother teaches her a lot about this. She also befriends a child that has a difficult home life. The other books in the series are just as powerful. ( )

Kate Bowman, along with her husband and infant son, travel to the family farm in Missouri to try to convince her strong-wiiled grandmother to move to a nursing home. Kate, used to the frantic pace of the city, dreads returning home and being embroiled in family drama.

Grandma Rose, who is stronger than anyone realizes, leaves her journal out so that Kate will read it. As Kate reads the journal, she come to appreciate and know her grandmother and discovers what is really important in her own life.

Fine chick lit that encourages all of us to slow down and smell the roses. ( )

I'd heard so many rave reviews about this book that I was tempted to not read it. Too much praise normally turns me off of books. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, which is based on the author's own experiences with her grandmother. Kate Bowman and her husband arrive at her grandmother's farm to spend Christmas, but to also prepare the way for the rest of the family to inform Grandma that it's time to move to a care facility. Kate and her husband are young, up and comers, with an expensive lifestyle, and due to their newborn son's heart surgery, a lot of medical debt and unpaid medical leave.While predictable, I loved the story of family. There were many areas in which I could relate to Kate: my newborn son had open-heart surgery, and while we all love each other, my family has had its own communication issues. Grandma Rose, realizing that Kate doesn't want to hear well-intentioned advice, writes stories of her life in a journal and then leaves that journal in places Kate will find it. Being curious, Kate reads the entries and along the way comes to understand not only her grandmother, but herself as well. There are some beautiful quotes which are always attributed to Grandma Rose, but are quite profound. "Sometimes we must try to view the actions of those around us with forgiveness. We must realize that they are going on the only road they can see. Sometimes we cannot raise our chins and see eye to ete, so we must bow our heads and have faith in one another."A touching novel that simply reminds you to slow down your life and enjoy the roses along your path. ( )

Kate Bowman is on maternity leave from a high-pressure job, so when Grandma Rose starts a fire through her forgetfulness, the family decides Kate and her husband Ben, who's an architect and can "work anywhere", should go stay with Grandma Rose and convince her to move into a retirement home.

Grandma Rose is a bit cantankerous and persnickety, and is prone to heartbreaking and alarming bouts of forgetfulness, but she also has a unique sense of humor and the wisdom she's gleaned in her long life.

It's mostly Kate's story, as she goes from frustration with Grandma Rose and eagerness to return to her old life, to a real affection for and understanding of the old woman, and the big old house. She periodically finds a journal lying around, in Grandma Rose's handwriting, and each time there's a new story of Grandma Rose's life, but after she's read it, it disappears until the next time.

Kate was more understanding of Grandma Rose than I think I would have been, but I really enjoyed Kate's journey. She went from buying in to the yuppie dream at the beginning of the book to understanding what really mattered to her at the end, helped along by Grandma Rose's advice: "maybe you should want less." Ben had the same journey, but it was a little easier for him, I think, since his focus was on architecture rather than on the lifestyle. Too, his life didn't change as much as Kate's.

The secondary characters were vivid, unique, and realistic--the other family members, who are concerned that Grandma Rose is manipulating Kate, and the young girl Dell who Grandma Rose takes under her wing.

It's a little self-consciously "heart-warming," something I don't particularly enjoy, but the characters made up for that somewhat, and since I'd read the subsequent books in the series, I already knew how some of the more emotional scenes would turn out, so they weren't as tear-inducing as they might otherwise have been. ( )