This is Jenn Delperdang, with the Sioux City Library, and you’re listening to Check It Out.
For women of a certain age and time of life, “busy” is the expectation—our to-do lists are endless and there is never enough time or energy to be everything to everyone. The book I’m recommending today, Maybe Next Time--a new novel by Cesca Major--may help us see things in a different light.
Literary agent Emma has a daily checklist that doesn’t quit. Between her two kids, her husband, friends, committees, clients and a very demanding boss, she has lost sight of what brings her joy. The obligations continue to stack up, and she finds that she has forgotten one of the most important days of the year to her husband (again)—their ‘dateversary’--the anniversary of their first awkward meeting on a London tube—and a day that they have made a tradition of writing each other heartfelt letters. After a heated argument, her husband Dan leaves the house, only to be killed in a tragic accident. Emma is devastated, but when she wakes up in the morning, Dan is alive, and in the spirit of Groundhog Day, it is December 3rd all over again. This isn’t a spoiler—it’s really just the beginning of the story.
I loved how Emma’s character developed through the successful and failed experiences in each December 3rd that she re-lives and I loved the way that Dan and Emma’s relationship is shared through the perspective of Dan’s letters.
Check out Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major, and other great summer reads at the Sioux City Public Library.
Support for Check It Out on Siouxland Public Media comes from Avery Brothers.
