I have had Americans in Space on my TBR pile for over two years now. When culling through some of my selections from that time I decided, on a whim, to keep this one because the title fascinated me. No other reason- I just liked the title. So, when picking books for a TBR yearly challenge for the blog I put this one on the list - again, because I liked the name.

I've read quite a few books on loss and grief and recovery. I consider myself to be a fairly good judge of when a book is getting it right, because I get this feeling in my gut - you know, the one that feels like you've just been kicked? Well.. my gut is bruised from reading this book.

I don't know which characters story affected me more, but I'm telling you right now: mother-daughter tension - check; mother-son confusion - check. This book has just about everything, from dependencies to rebellion to recovery and learning to live life again.

So what kept me from making it one of my all-time favorite books? My issue isn't with the characters, the writing, or the story - it's that the book was released with several glaring issues in editing. There are words that... well aren't words, and phrases that don't end correctly. I found one sentence that looked like it stopped mid-sentence and another latter half of a different sentence was pieced on to its end. That made me feel discouraged - that these things could crop up and mar my enjoyment. And frankly, for a professional book (Editor and all) they should not have been there. ( )

Interessant, aber ich hätte es nicht gekauft wenn es kein Mängelexemplar gewesen wäre. ( )

LOVED this book!

She is now my new favorite author.

Told with empathy, heart, and humor this story about a woman who lost her husband at 36 had sadness and charm as the story unfolds about her 4 year old who has an attachment to Heinz bottles and her rebellous 14 year (who seemed more like 16+ to me) as they all deal with life after such an awful event. ( )