It's best to let her go," he says. No, no, that's wrong. It's never right to give up on someone.

Bet you never eat, he says. Bet you drink up the oxygen like it's butter. Bet you can go for days on nothing but thoughts.

When I was 11 or 12, I was really bored with everything on my summer reading list. It was all happy, middle-grade kinds of books. I was getting frustrated, because I liked to read. My mother went to the library and got me a copy of 'The Other Side of Midnight' by Sidney Sheldon. It was my first adult book.

who once had dreams of saving the world, now laughs at anyone who tries.

Do you know what my father used to say?" I ask her. "He used to say that songs had a heart. A crescendo that can make all your blood rush from your head to your toes.

Times like this, when she slips her hand into mine and holds on tight, and our husband becomes just a shadow in the doorway.

I shake my head, watching snow tumble and swirl from an all-white sky. The world seems so clean if you only look up