The Year of Pleasures

I just lost my husband so reading this book really resonated with me. Sometimes you read the right book at the right time and this was the right time for me

I picked this up because it was nice and short and I was between book club books. I ended up really enjoying this well crafted, beautifully descriptive novel. It starts out with Betta, a woman recently widowed, who fulfilling a promise to her dying husband, finds a simpler place to live. She finds a delightful home whose garden is in hibernation, as Betta herself is from the shock of bereavement. This novel deals with Betta's issues in her rebirth and journey to recovery from the loss of her husband. I loved the pictures which Elizabeth Berg painted in my mind. The book's title refers to a friend's advice to do one nice thing for herself each day. Take a bath, paint your toenails, eat chocolate cake for breakfast! I love the representations of friendship in this novel. Betta rekindles old friendships and gathers together new ones. It was a pleasure to read and I am recommending it to my reading group. Bonus: Author interview at the end and book group questions too. ")

What a wonderfully written book, and near-perfect for anyone who suddenly finds herself past her 50th birthday and wondering what's next. While this tender novel is about dealing with grief and the loss of a beloved husband, it is also about change and reinventing yourself at midlife, no matter what your situation. It simply speaks volumes to anyone in this age group. Elizabeth Berg is a sensitive and highly skilled writer who avoids falling prey to the ridiculous whims of commerical publishing. Berg refuses to season her story with gratuitous elements or outlandish situations. She relies instead on the poetry and gentle beauty of the ordinary. This is never easy to pull off in a novel -- yet this particular skill of Berg's brings true depth, intelligence, and a touch of domestic magic to "The Year of Pleasures." After reading just a few pages of the novel, I found myself caring about the fate of the main character. It didn't take long for me to be pulled into her situation. I found myself asking, what would I do if I suddenly found myself in this character's shoes? Could I start over in a new place? I am so grateful that someone recommended this book, as I haven't had much luck finding a good novel centered around a middle-aged woman. I was very disappointed in the over-hyped "The Mermaid Chair," but this book rekindled my faith and made me grateful for Elizabeth Berg.

In Elizabeth Berg's latest novel, THE YEAR OF PLEASURES, heroine Betta Nolan's husband John died, but not before reminding her that she is "stronger than (she) knows." After scattering his ashes (and burying "a pinch," releasing a bit into the air, setting some afire, and even swallowing a tad), Betta embarks on a journey of a lifetime, the relocation from Boston to the small midwestern town she promised her husband she would undertake. "What fell to me now," she said, "what I was driving toward, was the creation of a new kind of life, minus the ongoing influence of what I had loved and depended upon most in the world." Seeking the joy John wanted for her, Betta searches for pleasure in the mundane, the every day --- cups of coffee, pancakes, the dog next door. She rekindles friendships with three former college roommates: impulsive Lorraine, the theater director; earth-mother Maddy, the nurse-practitioner; and divorced Susanna, the divorce attorney. They step up --- even after decades --- to support her in her dark moments. Through heartfelt phone calls and long overdue visits, they buoy her and go so far as to convince her that a year of grief deserves to be followed by "a year of pleasures." John's fear that he not only kept her from her old friends but also from making new friends during their marriage is visited in flashbacks, proving they were so involved in each other that they didn't see --- or feel --- what was missing. The memories are loving and touching, bittersweet glimpses of their love and their life. New friends become a theme of Betta's life in her new hometown. Ten-year-old Benny offers to do odd jobs beyond his years, and in so doing becomes somewhat of a surrogate son. Michael, the twenty-something handyman she meets in a coffee shop, does the real odd jobs of shoveling and painting, and becomes a confidant and inspiration. Delores, the real estate agent who sold her a new house, is a rock, and even Lydia, the crotchety previous owner of the house, is a comfort (albeit a cranky comfort). A motley bunch --- her friends, old and new --- they embody John's long repeated advice, "love what you love without apology." One word sums up the theme of THE YEAR OF PLEASURES: resilience. Berg's writing is as moving as ever and her characters strong and charming. Beautifully crafted sentences and scenes carry Betta from death to rebirth: "With John, I'd found one kind of love. In the little town I'd moved to, I'd found another." --- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara

Betta and John had the perfect marriage. They were so involved in each others day to day lives that they rarely had the time for anyone else. They dreamed of leaving Boston and starting over in the midwest by opening up a little store but their plans changed when John was diagnosed with cancer. Before John passed away, he convinced Betta that she should follow through on their plans and make the move. He believed that she would be stong enough to keep living. Shortly after Johns death, Betta did just as he wished by getting in her car and driving. Following the country back roads, she ended up stopping in a small town outside of Chicago that felt right to her. Betta found a house, and slowly started making new friends and also reconnected with three lost friends from her college days. The Year of Pleasures is more than a book about the death of a spouse, it is about the life that we must learn to live afterwards. It is about doing one thing each day that brings you happiness instead of dwelling on grief. Elizabeth Berg has written some wonderful books like The Art of Mending and True to Form but in my honest opinion, I think this is her best one to date. It is so heartfelt and Betta is so endearing. I will give you a warning though, I got misty eyed a few times by reading this one so have a tissue or two ready.

Elizabeth Berg is one of my most treasured writers since I read her first book Talk Before Sleep. Each time I am about to begin her newest book I wonder if I will enjoy it as much as the book before her last one or the book before that one and so on. And each time I am almost never disappointed because each book is filled with wonderful characters and emotional sagas written from the heart. And once again I have fallen in love not only with this writer but her latest book The Year of Pleasures which features a main character on the brink of a new change in her life. Betta Nolan is a fifty something woman who up until her husband's death enjoyed a good life. Madly in love with her husband, Betta lives in Boston where she enjoys an almost solitary profession as a writer of children's books. Able to travel and enjoy the companionship of her husband, both she and her husband, who was a psychiatrist, never thought their time would be cut so short when he became terminally ill. With no children or relatives and few friends, it is as if they lived unto themselves in the world around them. But life stood in their way and when Betta's husband realizes she will live out her days without him, he urges her to strike out and make a new life for herself elsewhere. So when her husband dies, Betta honors her promise to him and does exactly what he urged her to do. Locking the door of her home, she sets out in her car to find a new place to live in and to grow as a woman alone but hopefully never lonely. And in the first year of widowhood, with some bumps along the way, this is exactly what Betta does finding not only a home but friends and a business which is an inspiration not only to her but to other woman in the area. The Year of Pleasures is one of those books like Pull of the Moon which reached out to me, took hold of me while I was reading it and will remain with me always. The emotions of losing a beloved husband and lifestyle and how one reacts is surely different for every woman who unfortunately experiences this event. And for Betta perhaps even more since the death of her loved one came at a time when life was somewhat winding down and plans for their golden years together was just around the corner. Although Betta wonders as many others do if there is ever a good time to lose a mate? At first Berg provides readers with all of the grief one must go through at this time and then slowly shows us how people in this position must grieve and then move on to give a new meaning and purpose to their lives. While I think that perhaps there was a bit of coincidence and unreality about some of the events -- would one really leave all that they know so quickly, in Berg's more than capable hands, readers are given an adventure in how to give meaning to one's life alone and feel good about the next stage of their life as well. And so Betta experiences a year of pleasures despite that the circumstances never suggested this is what it would be when