SallyKoslow.com

Welcome, friends—

Summer is here, and with the new season, I have a new novel, The Widow Waltz, my fourth. People and Real Simple have included it in its summer roundups, Booklist has called it “heartfelt and witty” and Library Journal, “well-written, page-turning domestic fiction.” Told through the alternating perspectives of a mother, Georgia Waltz, and two daughters, this novel digs into how to redefine your life in the face of devastating loss. As the cover suggests, despite the depth of the topic, there is warmth and lightness, too—Amazon is ranking it in “humor” as well as “mothers and daughters”--which makes this novel one I can imagine you relaxing with at the beach or a screen porch with a tall glass of lemonade. To order The Widow Waltz now, here’s the link. While you’re at it, please check out my previous novels, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx; Little Pink Slips and With Friends Like These.

When you fill your beach bag, please also throw in Slouching Toward Adulthood: How to Let Go So Your Kids will Grow Up, last year’s hardcover book now released as a paperback, enlarged with a preface and discussion guide. This is a meaty book club book that addresses the consequences of helicopter parenting. Millions of American parents have sent their kids to college only to have them ricochet home with diplomas in one hand and DVR remotes in the other. Many moms and dads now sit down to dinner every night, wondering why their fully grown children are joining them or, more likely, grunting good-bye as they head out for another night of who knows what. As a mother I lived through this stage and as a journalist, decided to explore what lies behind the current generation’s unwillingness—or inability—to take flight. For more than a year, I spoke with frustrated parents and equally frustrated “adultescents.” The New Yorker had this to say about the book. If you click reviews, you’ll find what critics thought and can also check out what reporters found about this topic, which hasn’t stopped being news.

Enjoy the sunshine and happy reading.

Sally