Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister and a Giveaway!

At an intimate, festive dinner party in Seattle, six women gather to celebrate their friend Kate's recovery from cancer. Wineglass in hand, Kate strikes a bargain with them. To celebrate her new lease on life, she'll do the one thing that's always terrified her: white-water rafting. But if she goes, all of them will also do something they always swore they'd never do-and Kate is going to choose their adventures.

Shimmering with warmth, wit, and insight, Joy for Beginners is a celebration of life: unexpected, lyrical, and deeply satisfying. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts about Joy for Beginners ~~

This is the first book written by Erica that I have read. But it won't be the last. What an excellent storyteller! I love reading stories about a group of women who have a bond and get through life by leaning on each other.

When Kate is diagnosed with cancer, her friends gather around her and get her through her ordeal. When they get together to celebrate her recovery, she decides she is going to do the one thing she is afraid of and challenges each of them to do something they are afraid of doing or facing. But she gets to pick what they each have to do.

Because of the time she spent with each of these women during her recovery, Kate really understands her friends and knows what each of them needs to find fulfillment and happiness in their lives. I really loved that each chapter focuses on one of the women and the reader gets to know them very well and becomes invested in their challenge, right along with them.

Here's a couple of great lines from Joy for Beginners ~~

'It's a bookstore. We specialize in stories.'

'Adults need to have fun so children will want to grow up.'

And I love this ~~

'I think love is kind of like those waves out there. You ride one in to the beach, and it's the most amazing thing you've ever felt. But at some point the water goes back out; it has to. And maybe you're lucky -- maybe you're both too busy to do anything drastic. Maybe you're good as friends, so you stay. And then something happens -- maybe it's something as big as a baby, or as small as him unloading the dishwasher -- and the wave comes back in again. And it does that, over and over. I just think sometimes people forget to wait.'

Erica's newest book, The Lost Art of Mixing, just came out and I so want to read it now!

About the author

Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients (Putnam, 2009) which follows the lives of eight students and their teacher in a cooking class held in a restaurant kitchen. Her novel, Joy for Beginners (Putnam, June 2011) explores what happens to seven women who challenge one another to do one thing in the next year that is new or difficult or scary. The twist? - they don't get to choose their own challenges. Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, has called Joy for Beginners "moving, touching, wonderfully written; inspiring to read." Erica Bauermeister is also the co-author of two nonfiction books: 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide and Let's Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. She lives in Seattle and loves to talk with book groups.

Connect with Erica

Website | Goodreads | Amazon

This is book 1 for my 2013 TBR Pile Challenge

Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win
a paperback copy of this amazing book!

Be sure to check out the sidebar for my current giveaways!

a Rafflecopter giveaway