Rating: 
Summary: Goods read
Review: Well written, both entertaining and insightful. The only real issue I had with this book was the author's tying up things very neatly with a shallow, sappy ending of sorts. Not that I wasn't cheering for the character(s) to find happiness, but given the wonderful level of the author's writing talent, and her ability to develop characters, coming up with essentially sit-com resolutions wasn't really necessary to make the story work. That's the only way this novel fails in what is otherwise a wonderful rendering of a fictional reality that rings of truth. Bravo Lolly Winston.
Rating: 
Summary: A WARM, WITTY, INSIGHTFUL DEBUT
Review: Grief, an experience that touches all of us, is the focus of Lolly Winston's warm, witty, insightful debut novel. Of course, grief is a subject that has been discussed ad infinitum but there's not a dollop of cliche in this story of 36-year-old Sophie Stanton who lost her husband to Hodgkin's disease. Unfortunately, as Sophie points out she didn't have a dress rehearsal for widowhood, and she has not the faintest idea of how to cope with it. Experts will tell us that there are five stages of grief, Sophie goes through 15 in one year. Beginning with denial she segues to oreos (overeating), anger, depression, bargaining, waitressing, baking, acceptance, and thanksgiving. This is an incredible journey for Sophie, and a memorable experience for the reader. Her attempt to heal begins with a grief therapy group recommended by her psychiatrist. Once there, she finds herself wanting to ask if it would be alright if she threw plates at her former mother-in-law who wants to come over and pack up Ethan's things for Goodwill. Sophie dreads "the thought of her snoopy paws all over his Frank Zappa CDs and Lakers T-shirts. She'd probably want to chuck his frayed flannel shirts, which I've started sleeping in because they're soft as moss and smell like Ethan." Midnight trips to the fridge have swollen her former size six figure, and she has lost all interest in her Silicon Valley job. She desperately wants to be what she believes widows should be - regal in their mourning. Sophie isn't even coming close. Further, she loses her job. Fleeing mother-in-law and memories, Sophie sells her house and moves to Oregon where she hopes to begin anew. Starting over is far from a breeze - there's dating, an occupation she hasn't indulged in for quite a while. It's awkward, embarrassing. Evidently, she's forgotten how to be single. She does find a new job but soon discovers that being a waitress may need some skills she lacks. As another outlet she signs up for the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program, hoping for perhaps an eight or nine year old girl with whom she can bond. Instead, she's given Crystal, a mixed up early teenager with a knack for starting fires, cutting herself, and getting expelled from school. On the plus side, Crystal does make Sophie laugh. There's more in Sophie's diary of loss to renewal, including a romantic interest and a new business. Each step of the way is related with insight, compassion, and humor by an outstanding new voice, Lolly Winston. - Gail Cooke
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: Great read!
Review: I loved this book, it touched my heart with Sophie grieving her husband and trying to move on with her life. Laugh-out-loud in some parts and sad in others, though not unbearably so. In the sad parts, Winston was able to incorporate humor and I finished the book in a matter of days!
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: 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: 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=Good Read
Review: Good Grief is the perfect book to take with you to the beach this summer. Why? Because it's well-written chick lit with a twist chick lit that will actually make you smile, and sometimes even laugh out loud. Sophie Stanton, the charming narrator of this novel is 36 and recently widowed. Let me warn you, the first several chapters of this novel, while well-written and gently humorous, are sort of a downer--Sophie is pretty much miserable and her life is falling apart. My advice: try to read them in one sitting and get to the more middle parts of the novel, where she starts to get her act together. You can breeze through this novel in a couple of hours. Sophie is a wonderful character--likeable, you'll want to root for her. A fun, light read.
Rating:
Summary: A great novel of personal triumph
Review: An excrutiating look at grief from the eyes of the main character Sophie Stanton, who has recently lost her husband to cancer. Her downward spiral is heart-wrenching, but readers, please stick with this book. Sophie does pick herself up, find talents she never dreamed of, and most importantly find someone who needs help more than she. As a "Big Sister, she meets a teenager named Christine, not he soft, cuddler toddler she had hoped for. But Christine proves to be the perfect match for Sophie, showing her that there is more than one type of grief and that some grief comes from living rather than dying. Christine becomes her path back to life.
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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