'Goodbye, Emily,' Hello New Favorite Novel

There's nothing like curling up with a good book to get your mind back. The problem is I have the hardest time sitting still, much less read anything. No, I don’t mean reading the odd magazine at the hair salon, I’m talking an entire book. Scary commitment, Huh? It is for me.

Then a challenge arrives via email ... Michael Murphy, an author, is offering to send me a copy of his latest novel, Goodbye, Emily if I agree to reviewing it. Feeling optimistic I agree and when the book arrives I think, “Oh boy, this will take me years to finish. Look at all those pages! What fine mess have I gotten myself into now?”

A plethora of excuses to prevent me from reading the book immediately crowd my skull, there is little room left to think. Every time I passed by my night table now there it was, Goodbye, Emily, giving me the guilt trip. More mind clutter. Lately I have even given up the ghost of opening up all those lonely magazines piling up in my living room.

I should open up a doctor’s office.

Things get worse when Michael emails me asking if I’ve read the book. “Uuuuhhh, almost done, I fib.”

So I buckle down to read and you know what? I become entranced by this heartwarming novel and I can’t put it down. Goodbye, Emily teleports me back and forth from the "never say never" of my own wild child youth to today’s equally unstoppable "keep on truckin’ " attitude. 

This novel is excellent movie material.

The paradigm shifts that happen in this book are beautifully laid out. The more unwieldly relationships in the novel all do subtle yet powerful shifts that make the impossible possible.

A chain reaction is ignited among the characters and a movement is born. It is all set into perfect motion by one man, Sparky, a broken hearted 60-year-old widower at the end of the line who is willing to look at things differently. Sparky’s conviction in his "saying goodbye to Emily" mission with friends Buck, a Vietnam vet and Josh (struggling with Altzheimer's), is so powerful that others cannot help but follow suit and cheer these three determined boomers on.

Mike, thank you infinitely for sparking up the bookworm in me. I now devour novels voraciously ...

P.S. I want to be in the movie, okay? I’m serious!

Three baby boomers relive their 1969 trip to Woodstock. One final road trip. One last chance to say Goodbye, Emily.

The author of this post is Esmée St James, a personal image consultant for men  and women and founder of Hotwire Your Life—Mojo For Boomer Chicks, a blog site on beauty and fitness for women 40 and older. Esmée also shares some riotous personal life experiences ... For more see www.HotwireYourLife.com.