If You Knew Suzy by Katherine Rosman: A From Left to Write Book Club

If You Knew Suzy by Katherine Rosman

What would you find out about your parent when they die? What would your kids find out about you? A new thing or two might be learned, would it not? Read the stories the From Left to Write bloggers are sharing today, inspired by the book If You Knew Suzy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Reporter’s Notebook by Katherine Rosman.

The Twitter hashtag for the From Left to Write book club is #left2write. Follow From Left to Write at @fromleft2write. Follow Katie Rosman at @katierosman.

• Helen P from I Want a Book Deal is motivated to make a call to her mother’s childhood friend and from Milf Alert says don’t join this club
• Emily from West of the Loop bought a famous Coach beach tote
• Jennifer aka Mastermind Mommy from Ramblings of a Semi-Conscious Mastermind Mommy remembers a woman who meant so much to her, but whom she knows little about
• Melissa from Life with Sophia writes a letter to her late mother-in-law
• Elena from Cara Mamma describes good patients and bad patients
• Melanie from tales from the crib tells her kids some things she wants them to know about her
• Sharon from Channeling Ricky describes the difference between needs and wants
• Pamela Gold from 2 Much Testosterone thinks about the lengths she would go for her mother
• Lisa Carpenter from Grandma’s Briefs recalls her mom and music
• Cristie from The Traveling Circus asks if we only knew you better, what more could we be?
• Brenda Bartella Peterson from BrendaBartellaPeterson.com, a memoir writer herself, thinks about different approaches to memoirs
• Grace Duffy from Formerly Gracie thinks about if any of us only knew…
• Travel Mommy from The Travel Mommy tells the story of her baby boy’s Hebrew name as a force of strength
• Emily from Mama Sick was hit too close to home, but was inspired nonetheless
• Lisa from Hannemaniacs wonders if her son will know Lisa
• Thien-Kim from I’m Not the Nanny relates that being a stay at home mom was never her goal
• Rachel E. Ayers from A Little Each Day is reminded that this life is oh so precious
• Paige Bayer from Canning with Kids had this book come to her at just the right time
• c2cmom from Coast to Coast Mom examines the curse and privilege of having a daughter
• Darryle Pollack from I never signed up for this…. tells her kids a little bit about their grandmother, Marcy
• Linsey Krolik from Me Too You thinks about the missing pieces
• Michelle from Wife and Mommy wonders what her daughter would eulogize about her
• Rebekah from Mom-in-a-Million brings her Grandmom to life
• Samantha from temporarily me dot com reflects on her rebellious teenage relationship with her mother

About the book:

Faced with the loss of her mother, Suzy, to cancer at sixty, Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Rosman longs to find answers to the questions that we all wrestle with after losing someone we love. So she does what she does best: she opens her notebook and starts investigating.

Thumbing through her late mother’s address book, Rosman begins to discover a woman whose life was intricately connected to a host of characters her daughter hardly knew. Her reporting skills at the ready, she embarks on a cross-country odyssey, tracking down total strangers from whom she hopes to learn about a woman she once thought she couldn’t know better. Venturing into the heart of some colorful communities, Rosman interviews friends and acquaintances of her mother’s, as well as people whose relationships with her were more complex though no less potent—among them a former golf caddie, a legendary Pilates instructor, an eBay glass collector, and an immigrant doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. As Rosman attempts to fill in the blank spaces that may explain her mother’s motivations and philosophies in building a life and in facing death, she comes to understand this woman as she never imagined she could.

Blending humor, honesty, and old-fashioned reporting, Rosman grapples with the bittersweet reality that sometimes we can’t truly know someone until after she is gone. At once comforting, candid, and very funny, If You Knew Suzy is a heartfelt memoir against which readers can consider themselves and the lives of all those they love.

Author website:

http://www.katherinerosman.com

Publisher website:

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/If-You-Knew-Suzy-Katherine-Rosman/?isbn=9780061735233

Purchase your copy of  If You Knew Suzy by Katherine Rosman here.

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Full Disclosure: From Left to Write bloggers received complimentary copies of the book If You Knew Suzy by Katherine Rosman for use and participation in the From Left to Write Book Club. They were not obligated to write about this book.