Monday, March 2, 2015

Lydia's Party - Review & Giveaway

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! 

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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.  

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Website 

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