“A resigned yet hopeful examination of grief with a side of human absurdity . . . warm and modestly knowing, with a wisecracking slacker hero.”—Kirkus Reviews Doug Parker is a widower at age twenty-nine, and in his quiet town, that makes him the object of sympathy, curiosity, and in some cases even unbridled desire. But Doug has more urgent things on his mind, such as his sixteen-year-old stepson, Russ, a once-sweet kid who is now getting into increasingly serious trouble. As Doug starts dipping his toes into the shark-infested waters of the second-time-around dating scene, it isn’t long before his new life is spinning hopelessly out of control, cutting a harrowing and often humorous swath of sexual missteps and escalating chaos across a suburban landscape. How to Talk to a Widower is a stunning novel of love, lust, and loss that USA Today hails as “hilarious but emotion-packed.” Praise for How to Talk to a Widower “[A] winning tale about a man raising his stepson after his wife dies.”—People “Part of Widower’s charm is that there’s no happily ever after, no Cinderella-catches-the-fella ending.” —USA Today “A mixture of mourning and mockery . . . surprisingly moving.”—Entertainment Weekly

Dating a widower comes with unique challenges that you won’t encounter when dating a single or divorced man. For the relationship to work, the widower will have to put his feelings for his late wife to the side and focus on you. But how do you know if he’s ready to take this step? Drawing on his own experience as a remarried widower, Abel Keogh provides unique insight and guidance into the hearts and minds of widowers, including: · Why widowers date so soon after their late wife dies · How to know if the widower is ready to make room in his heart for you · Red flags that indicate widowers aren’t ready for commitment · How to set and maintain healthy relationship boundaries with widowers Dating a Widower is your guide to having a successful relationship with a man who’s starting over. It also contains 21 real-life stories from women who have gone down the same road you’re traveling. It’s the perfect book to help you decide if the man you’re seeing is ready for a new relationship—and whether dating a widower is right for you. *** Abel Keogh is the expert on widower relationships. A remarried widower, Abel has successfully helped thousands of women know if the widowers they’re dating are ready for a serious relationship. He also helps widowers understand what it takes to overcome grief and open their heart to another woman. Learn more at http://www.abelkeogh.com.

If you or a close friend are now or about to become a widower, this book can help you. The physical, emotional, and psychological pain will be greater than you can imagine. A widower may think that he is going crazy, his judgement is often distorted, and his social filters can be almost nonexistent. Nights often become sleepless delusional times from which there is no escape. Widower to Widower is written to provide widowers with desperately needed help during their grieving process. It is also a resource to therapists who assist widowers, to friends and family who want to better understand what he is going through, and to women who have befriended a widower. Colby's own experience made him desperate to find answers so he could avoid making bad life choices. He quickly found that resources for widowers were minimal and often of questionable value. This led him to write Widower to Widower. He drew upon thirty years of writing experience writing during his non-profit career. REVIEWS: "Fred Colby's book, Widower to Widower, shares his experiences as he navigates the grief process following the death of his wife. With a straight-forward voice and clear writing style, Fred provides insight from his personal journey to provide education, understanding and comfort to other men who are grieving. This book is an essential tool for grief counselors as well as their male clients." Mia Towbin, MS, LMFT - Grief Counselor. "For any man who has suffered, either recently or not so recently, the death of his beloved wife, Fred Colby's book is essential reading. As a fellow widower, I give this book my highest recommendation." Robert Devereaux, Widower, Writer, Actor Hundreds of widowers have offered their praise of Widower to Widower on Fred Colby's Testimonies/Reviews page at fredcolby.com.

"Drawing on a decade of experience as a remarried widower, Abel Keogh gives you unique insight into what it takes to make any long-term relationship with a widower successful." -- Page [4] of cover.

From a widow and therapist, a guide to life after losing a husband, with reflections on grief and practical advice In this remarkably useful guide, widow, author, and therapist Genevieve Davis Ginsburg offers fellow widows -- as well as their family and friends -- sage advice for coping with the loss of a husband. From learning to travel and eat alone to creating new routines to surviving the holidays and anniversaries that reopen emotional wounds, Ginsburg give guidance on: Dealing with anger and guiltMaintaining family relationshipsDating after widowhoodHandling moneyResponding to others' supportAnd more Widow to Widow walks readers through the challenges of widowhood and encourages them on their path to building a new life.

Jonathan Tropper’s novel The Book of Joe dazzled critics and readers alike with its heartfelt blend of humor and pathos. Now Tropper brings all that–and more–to an irresistible new novel. In Everything Changes, Tropper delivers a touching, wickedly funny new tale about love, loss, and the perils of a well-planned life. EVERYTHING CHANGES To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side. A steady, well-paying job, a rent-free Manhattan apartment, and Hope, his stunning, blue-blooded fiancée: smart, sexy, and completely out of his league. But as the wedding day looms, Zack finds himself haunted by the memory of his best friend, Rael, killed in a car wreck two years earlier–and by his increasingly complicated feelings for Tamara, the beautiful widow Rael left behind. Then Norm–Zack’s freewheeling, Viagra-popping father–resurfaces after a twenty-year absence, looking to make amends. Norm’s overbearing, often outrageous efforts to reestablish ties with his sons infuriate Zack, and yet, despite twenty years of bad blood, he finds something compelling in his father’s maniacal determination to transform his own life. Inspired by Norm, Zack boldly attempts to make some changes of his own, and the results are instantly calamitous. Soon fists are flying, his love life is a shambles, and his once carefully structured existence is spinning hopelessly out of control. Charged with intelligence and razor sharp wit, Everything Changes is at once hilarious, moving, sexy, and wise–a work of transcendent storytelling from an exciting new talent.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A twisted psychological thriller you’ll have trouble putting down.”—People “If you liked Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, you might want to pick up The Widow by Fiona Barton. Engrossing. Suspenseful.”—Stephen King Following the twists and turns of an unimaginable crime, The Widow is an electrifying debut thriller that will take you into the dark spaces that exist between a husband and a wife. There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment. Now her husband is dead, and there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage. The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything... An NPR Best Book of the Year One of The Wall Street Journal’s 5 “Killer Books” of the Year A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year Includes a Readers Guide and an excerpt of Fiona Barton’s The Child.

With her signature warmth, hilarity, and tendency to overshare, Leslie Gray Streeter gives us real talk about love, loss, grief, and healing in your own way that "will make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page" (James Patterson). Leslie Gray Streeter is not cut out for widowhood. She's not ready for hushed rooms and pitying looks. She is not ready to stand graveside, dabbing her eyes in a classy black hat. If she had her way she'd wear her favorite curve-hugging leopard print dress to Scott's funeral; he loved her in that dress! But, here she is, having lost her soulmate to a sudden heart attack, totally unsure of how to navigate her new widow lifestyle. ("New widow lifestyle." Sounds like something you'd find products for on daytime TV, like comfy track suits and compression socks. Wait, is a widow even allowed to make jokes?) Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Widow redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-drinking, to being a grown-ass woman crying for your mommy, to breaking up and making up with God, to facing the fact that life goes on even after the death of the person you were supposed to live it with. While she stumbles toward an uncertain future as a single mother raising a baby with her own widowed mother (plot twist!), Leslie looks back on her love story with Scott, recounting their journey through racism, religious differences, and persistent confusion about what kugel is. Will she find the strength to finish the most important thing that she and Scott started? Tender, true, and endearingly hilarious, Black Widow is a story about the power of love, and how the only guide book for recovery is the one you write yourself.

This warm, conversational, easily digestible book is for widows—women over 50 who are beginning new lives without their husbands. In So Now You’re a Widow, the author and the 34 women she interviewed share what they wish they had known when they became widowed. As one of the women commented, “People tell you how to decorate your home, drive a car, train your dog, and plan a wedding, but no one tells you how to be a widow.” The women frankly share their advice and experiences on 26 topics, including: finding your inner strength the one-size-does-not-fit-all grieving process dealing with social invitations changes in family dynamics handling finances choosing how you’re going to live your life Plus, a journal section at the end of each chapter allows the reader to personalize what she has read and to gain insight into how she’s dealing with her situation. The women who contributed to this book care deeply about other widowed women and want them to understand that what they are experiencing is normal and has been experienced in one form or another by others. You are not alone!

In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you've never heard of to books that you've read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.