3.5 overall. Well written and it makes you feel exactly what a 43 year old single woman dying of ovarian cancer feels especially in regards to her six year old son.

But I ask you, do you want to spend your free time feeling how she feels?

Me neither.

The author did a great job but only read if you are in the mood for something like this.
( )

I received "Our Short History" in a Librarything.com Early Reviewer's Giveaway. It is the story of a young single mother with a short time to live who is trying to make crucial decisions for her young son. It's a poignant story and I enjoyed reading it.

I wanted to like this much more than I did. The concept is heartbreaking and clever, the writing deft, the characterization vivid...but I hated having to spend over 300 pages with the narrator. Which is peculiar, because I've known and tremendously enjoyed befriending women like her. She's sharp and insightful, self-focused and childish, determined and hard-working, private, hypocritical, loving and fierce.

...She's also an island. No matter how much insight I was getting into her inner self through her narration, I couldn't find a way to connect that inner self to the people in her life. Important conversations—essential conversations—simply didn't happen. At least, not 'til the last 30 pages. So for the vast majority of the book, I felt trapped inside this woman's mind: alone with her pain and her fear and her grief.

Arguably, the most important conversation she's having is the one with her grown-up son via the book, but watching moment after moment of potential connection to family and friends and even strangers pass without remark, perhaps even without notice, left me fuming and frustrated with the narrator. Why whine when you can seek counsel, Karen? Why weep when you can find understanding? Why stew in your anger and hurt when you can demand explanations?

These are the sorts of flaws in a character that I can appreciate from the outside, but when I'm penned within her mind, reaping alongside her the agony of self-inflicted isolation? It's difficult to think about anything but escape, even if the story is heartbreaking and clever, deftly rendered, and vivid. ( )

This story is about a single mother with a young boy whose father has never been in his life and doesn't even know he's alive. Karen is dying from cancer and when her son wants to meet his father, she has to decide whether to let him into their lives. It is a devastating story, but written honestly and with a sense of humor as well. I was impressed with the authenticity of it and had tears in my eyes at the end. I rarely give a book 5 stars, but this one deserves it. Highly recommended. ( )

This is a story about a woman named Karen Neulander. 2 years ago she was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer and was given 3-5 years to live. She is a single mother living in NYC with a six year old son, Jacob. Jacob has never met his father and his father doesn't know he exists. When Karen told Jacob's father she was pregnant all those years ago, he told her he didn't want to be a father. Karen left the relationship never revealing that she had a son.
Now she is dying and Jacob wants to meet him. So Karen calls Jacob's father - Dave - and tells him about Jacob. Dave is overwhelmed and wants to be part of Jacob's life. Karen is stunned - she didn't think he would want to be involved.

Dave and Jacob meet and have an instant connection. Dave is now married and settled and wants to be a part of Jacob's life. Karen fears that Dave will try and take Jacob from her, and she makes her sister promise that won't happen after she is gone. Her sister encourages her to let Dave and Jacob have this relationship, but Karen lets past hurt feelings get in the way.

This book was....fine. Not great, and not terrible. I read it quickly. I liked parts of the story, but it moved kind of quickly, and none of the characters were ever developed much. Honestly - Karen seemed like an irrational crazy person most of the time. Her feelings about Dave and Jacob's relationship didn't make any sense. She was overly mad at Dave even though he never knew she kept the baby. It was HER fault he wasn't part of Jacob's life, yet she kept playing the victim in the relationship. It just was ridiculous. And Jacob - not a likable little kid. Hard to get attached to him at all - he was just a brat the entire book.

I don't recommend it. It was fine, but kind of a waste. It ended abruptly with no real direction, so I say skip it.