A haunting, harrowing punch to the heart, Among the Missing is flat-out brilliant. About the secrets we keep, the lives we are desperate to live, and the chances we miss, it's a psychological dazzler. Truly, one of my favorite books of this year-or any year.

I've always had a clear sense that time is short and we need to live as fully as we can in every moment.

I was a bookworm who aced every test - until third grade, when my teacher handed out a pop quiz about Jesus and the Apostles.

My first husband was a serial cheater.

I had a nervous breakdown at 17 when my first love left me, and he was a typical bad boy, albeit a charismatic one, with a string of broken hearts trailing behind him.

Open adoption, when it works, is fabulous. But when it goes wrong, it's so traumatizing for everybody.

When you love what you do, it stops seeming like work and instead becomes necessity.