Today, I am recommending Colleen Oakley's debut novel Before I Go, which explores the unsettling questions presented when time is running out.
At 27, Daisy Richmond is excited for the future. Her husband, Jack, is a brilliant veterinarian-in-training. Daisy is also in graduate school, trying to settle on a thesis. Having just purchased their first house, a fixer upper with a to-do list a mile long, the young couple is eager to renovate their dream home and build a life together.
Then, with one fateful doctor's visit, Daisy and Jack’s plans for the future fall apart. The cancer Daisy beat three years earlier is back and more aggressive. She leaves the doctor's office with a stage four diagnosis, and at best, six months to live.
Faced with the devastating news, Daisy finds that her biggest fear is not for her own life, but for Jack’s. In the witty and immensely moving tradition of P.S. I Love You, a young woman with breast cancer makes it her mission to find a wife for her husband with what little time she has left.
With the help of a friend, Daisy secretly scouts out parks, local coffee shops, and dating websites looking for Jack's perfect match. But the further she gets on her journey, the more she questions her plan. As the thought of her husband loving another woman becomes all too real, Daisy is forced to decide what is more important in the short amount of time she has left: her husband's happiness, or her own?
One thing is for certain; letting go is the toughest love of all.
Check out this book about life, death, and love, and enticing read-alikes at the Sioux City Public Library.
