Rating: 
Summary: Read this Book!
Review: I was changed after reading Good Grief. Lolly Winston has an amazing way with words. This book is funny and heartbreaking, and a true pleasure to read.
If you want a well-written book about a character you actually care about, this is the one for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, not great
Review: Lolly Winston has written an engaging book about a young woman who has experienced the death of her husband and now has to figure out how to move on.Good Grief is a fast paced read with an extremely likeable leading lady, Sophie Stanton. In fact, Winston has crafted a story with characters who are accessible and interesting to read about. My main criticism of the book is the ending which wraps up a bit too quick and is a bit unrealistic (I am referring to the "Grand Opening" and will leave it at that). After reading that scene I must say that I lamented "Good Grief!" under my breath! This and the annoying Drew are the reasons it gets only 3 stars. In the end, though, Sophie is able to define success and family in new and different ways; ways that she is comfortable with. I think this would be a good read for anyone who has dealt with a difficult tragedy, as Winston does have a way of putting a comical spin on things, while never minimizing the loss one experiences with such tragic events.
Rating:
Summary: A Humorous, Heartwarming Tale
Review: Lolly Winston's debut novel is a beautifully written story about a woman named Sophie who loses her husband to cancer and her battle to go on alone.
Sophie suffers through denial, depression and the long process of healing after her loss. Readers will be hooked immediately as Sophie leaves her house and her job in Silicon Valley to move to Oregon to start anew. Sophie signs up to be a "Big Sister" to a troubled teen, Crystal. Their gradual bond and heartwarming friendship encourages both of them to heal as they find comfort in each others company. Together they rediscover the world around them. The world they both felt has let them down.
Sophie's grief counseling group is full of quirky characters. Her shrink tries to help her by assigning various "healing exercises" and drugs. Her "little sister" is a pyromaniac but the possibility of having her house burn down is the least of Sophie's worries. Crystal has many problems that Sophie is desperate to help with. Sophie is determined to get her life and Crystal's back on track. Readers will cheer as Sophie picks herself up, dusts herself off and heads out into the world at full force to find a new job, regain her sense of self and dip a toe into the dating pool.
Rating: 
Summary: A novel of overcoming loss
Review: Sophie has just lost her husband of three years to cancer and is drowning in her loss. She can't imagine life without her husband and begins to spiral out of control until one day, she goes to work in her bathrobe and slippers, not caring who sees her or what happens. Diagnosed with a depressive breakdown, Sophie decides to sell her house and moved to Ashland, OR to be near her best friend. There she finds a new job in a restaurant and takes on the role of Big Sister to Crystal, a 13-year old girl who's mother pays no attention to her and who sets fires and injures herself for release. She also begins clumsily dating again and meets Drew, a Shakespearean actor who threatens to sweep her off her feet. In the process of taking care of the people she cares about, including Crystal, Ruth (her friend), and her Mother-In-Law Marion, who has Alzheimer's, she begins to find new strength and a will to persevere after her loss. Lolly Winston has written many moving scenes of grief that will resonate with you...when Sophie unthinkingly donates her living room furniture to Goodwill rather than the boxes of Ethan's belongings that she meant to, you will want to take her in your arms and try to convince her that everything will work out. Sophie also lost her mother to a car accident when she was 13, and Winston nicely wove her feelings about that loss into the thread of the story. From the book jacket, I was expecting to read a comedic novel, and while there are some funny moments in the book, all in all, it was more touching and poignant than anything else.
Rating:
Summary: Good Grief....Great Reading
Review: Sophie Stanton wasn't planning on being a 36 year old widow. Faced with her husband Ethan's death,she tries to be a good widow ..."a graceful composed Jackie Kennedy kind of widow." No such luck. Sophie pushes down her grief and anger,until a spectacular work place meltdown(which she attends in her bathrobe and bunny slippers).No longer will she be in public relations at Silicon Valley's Gorgatech,pitching the pluses of the company's new scrotal patch. She can't even face her mother in law, Marion, who seems untouched by her only son's death. She clings to Ethan's belongings and tries to face life alone.
Eventually she finds refuge in Ashton,Oregon living with her college friend Ruth. Life just isn't meant to be pretty. Sophie finds as she tries to navigate building a new life she has to not only accept that Ethan hasn't just "stepped out for a minute" but is never coming home and she can choose to go on.
This is such a tender, witty, well written story that I had a hard time believing it was a first book. Lolly Winston deftly weaves the various stages of grief ,acceptance and continuing life without a false note. The characters are engaging, the situations poignant, heart wrenching and sometimes hilarious (Al,the grief group guy is a classic). Through it all Sophie comes to terms with her loss, Ethan's frailities,and the ability we all have to continue to reach out to help others and heal ourselves.
Rating:
Summary: Getting On With Your Life
Review: Sophie Stanton, thirty-six year old public relations specialist in San Jose, has just lost her husband to cancer. She wants to portray herself as a stoic, dignified, quietly suffering widow, but can't quite pull that off. She eats ice cream and Oreos obsessively, gains weight, gives away her nearly-new living room furniture to Goodwill instead of parting with her husbands belongings, breaks all her dishes and shows up to work in her bathrobe and slippers because she can't find anything that fits.
She decides to re-invent herself, because her old self seems to be lost. She moves to Ashland to be near an old college friend and starts to rebuild her life. But she's not over the grieving process yet, and has setbacks and bad days. She takes a job as a waitress because that's all there is in Ashland, starts dating an actor, and befriends a troubled 13-year old girl through the Big Sister program.
Sophie's despair and growth through the grieving process are heartwarming and a little frightening, because I couldn't help wondering how I would fare in a similar situation. The chapter names in the book describe her journey to renewed mental health: Denial, Oreos, Anger, Depression, Escrow, Ashes, Lust, Bargaining, Waitressing, Mentoring, Dating, Baking, Acceptance, Goodwill, Thanksgiving. She seems to take in others who are flawed or needy in some way, and in helping them to mend themselves, gets her life back on an even keel.
The novel veered from sad, heartbreaking situations, to hilariously funny incidents, to joyous occasions, and from the outset I was cheering for Sophie to navigate the obstacles in her life's journey and return to happiness.
Rating:
Summary: Great female characters, great story
Review: Sophie, Ruth and Crystal are great characters in this funny yet moving novel by Lolly Winston. Of the books my book club friends and I have read, we enjoyed this one like we did Paddock's A SECRET WORD and Cline's WHAT TO KEEP. Like these, GOOD GRIEF will make you feel better about yourself, give you courage to face the day and even to face your sadest memories of yesterday. I'd give it more than five stars if I could, and my friends agree.
Rating:
Summary: Great Look about Life
Review: This book is a great and easy read. Love the characters. The book relates to a wife losing her husband from cancer and how she copes with it, from wearing her bathrobe and slippers to work to taking pills to deal with the lonliness and sadness that comes when we lose someone we love. The book would seem to be depressing but it is not, it actually helped me to see how life can really can go and does. It's a happy ending to say the least and it will have you cheering. I also recommend The Secreat Life of Bees, and Can you keep a Secreat.
Rating:
Summary: Touching Story
Review: This book is about Sophie, a thirty something woman who just lost her husband to cancer. Her story takes place in California. The writer tells the story about the different stages of grief that a person goes thru. This story is not at all morbid or depressing, it tells of the love that Sopie felt for Ethan and how his death affected her, and her survival story of how she got thru the year following his death.
She moves away to her girlfriends house and how she gradually gets her life back into a somewhat normal status. Sophie purchases a bakery from the money that she received from selling her house and starts over.
The book is light and very touching without being depressing or boring.
ellen
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