Review: Making Piece by Beth Howard

Making Piece by Beth Howard

Publisher: Harlequin 

Pages: 320 

Format: ebook 

Buy the Book: Amazon 

Goodreads:  "You will find my story is a lot like pie, a strawberry-rhubarb pie. It's bitter. It's messy. It's got some sweetness, too. Sometimes the ingredients get added in the wrong order, but it has substance, it will warm your insides, and even though it isn't perfect, it still turns out okay in the end."When journalist Beth M. Howard's young husband dies suddenly, she packs up the RV he left behind and hits the American highways. At every stop along the way—whether filming a documentary or handing out free slices on the streets of Los Angeles—Beth uses pie as a way to find purpose. Howard eventually returns to her Iowa roots and creates the perfect synergy between two of America's greatest icons—pie and the American Gothic House, the little farmhouse immortalized in Grant Wood's famous painting, where she now lives and runs the Pitchfork Pie Stand.


Kritters Thoughts:  A memoir with quite the Thanksgiving cover that with each page made me thankful for the husband that I have who is alive, happy and well and the relationship we have as two partners taking on the world.  Beth Howard is a wanderer and although married; her and her husband didn't always live on the same side of the universe, so it was almost like they were two independent people who happened to be married and happened to run into each other every once in a while - I don't know how she did it.  As a divorce is in the works, Marcus, her husband passes away and this book is born.

Her journey to recover from grief and find her next passion was heartbreaking and motivating.  I have never been a wanderer and always followed a plan, so to read about her life jumping from job to location to job was interesting because it was so far different from my own life experiences.  As a newlywed, it was hard to read this book, because I didn't and still don't want to admit that maybe some day I may have live without my spouse or he without me - I understand her inability to put the pieces together because I don't know that I would be able to put both shoes on each morning.

I think at this time of the season, this book is a good read to remind us all to be thankful to wake up each day with the person we love and to constantly do things for our spouses because one day we may not be able to.  I know this is a memoir, a story of life, but I found her journey to be refreshingly truthful - I thought she didn't cover up any of the details that we as the reader would need.  If you are a fan of memoirs, this one should be added to your list.

Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Ebook 2012 Challenge: 66 out of 25