Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg

What would you say if you knew your best friend were dying? What words would you speak if you knew that soon you’d no longer have a chance to express them? This is the unspeakable truth tearing Ann’s world apart as she watches her best friend, Ruth’s, cancer spread from her breast to her liver to her lungs and finally to her brain.

Time is short, bittersweet, and while this book might seem like a real downer, it’s not. Interspersed with poignant remembrances of happier days, the gut-wrenching sadness never lasts for long. Filled with friendship, love and tenderness, it teaches us all about life and coming to grips with our own mortality.

Ruth, a petite beauty with a bubbly personality, is loved by all, but it’s the unlikely Ann, so different from Ruth, who becomes the key caretaker, companion and confidante during Ruth’s final days. Sacrificing her family, picking out wigs to hide the effects of chemotherapy and helping Ruth choose the perfect burial plot are just par for the course. None of this is easy, but as with most difficult things in life, it deals its just rewards. For in helping her best friend to die with dignity and grace, Ann learns more fully how to live.

Talk Before Sleep burns with the intensity of enduring friendship and flickers with the pain of having to say our final goodbyes. Share it with those you love and take heart in its most basic of human lessons.

Best places to buy this book online (from Best Book Buys) Note: Prices include S&H and are subject to change

1. Paperback (Used) Amazon.com $10.73
2. Paperback (Used) Powells.com $11.45
3. Paperback (New) eCampus.com $14.30

Be sure to check out the online auctions, too. Name your price! Also, try your local library, where every book is free!

Did you know?…(National Breast Cancer Coalition Statistics)

In 2001, it is estimated that 233,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed among women in the United States.

A woman in the United States has a 1 in 8 chance of developing invasive breast cancer during her lifetime.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the United States and worldwide (excluding skin cancer).

All women are at risk for breast cancer

Coming May 16: Tuesdays with Morrie along with my very first group discussion. Read the book then join me in some thought-provoking questions.

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