Review by
KT Sullivan
Lydia’s Winter
Bash is held every January. Every year she invites her best friends for the
past twenty years. Elaine, Celia, Maura, Jayne, Betsy, and Norris each have a
back story and baggage for the party. Most of them teach and bonded over their
love of art.
The story
follows Lydia’s preparations and how to tell her friends that this is the last
year. Lydia is dying of pancreatic cancer and is trying to compose a final
letter to her friends. She makes a list of her regrets, “things we did and wish
we hadn’t and regret for things we didn’t do and wish we had.” She doesn’t like
her rough drafts and crumples them up. Lydia doesn’t hand out the letters, but
one is found.
All
shocked, the women gather around Lydia and help in their own way. And, when Lydia’s gone, will they celebrate
her legacy by hosting the Winter Bash?
Or will this be their last hurrah?
I liked
Celia the best, so does Lydia. She compares being a mom to being a waitress.
She invents errands to be able to leave the house to be by herself on the
weekends and describes them as a vacation. Many topics in the story are easily
relatable and funny. A great story about
the bonds of friendship! A must read for
all!
Purchase the book at:
About the Author:
Margaret Hawkins is
the author of two previous novels, A Year of
Cats and Dogs and How to Survive a Natural Disaster, and a memoir about her sister, After
Schizophrenia: The Story of My Sister's Reawakening. She wrote about art for many years for the
Chicago Sun-Times and is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago.
Connect with the author
at:
