Leave It to Claire

This is the book club book of the month. The book is a quick read. I woke up at 3 a.m. Saturday morning and having slept for several hours already, I didn't have any hope of going back to sleep so I read until I needed to get up and make breakfast at 6 a.m. I finished reading it while watching the Red Sox kick the Colorado Rockies out of the park. I must admit I was so engrossed in the book at one point that I missed three runs and the excitement over it. My husband was stunned that I could block it out.

What was the book about? Claire is a single mother. She is a Christian author. Her mother lives 3 doors down and she depends on her mother to help out with her kids and do the extra "mom" type of things while she works on her books. She ends up needing surgery on her wrist which will make it impossible for her to work for 6 weeks. Her mother moves to Texas to live with her brother's family just before Claire's surgery. She is on her own.

Claire makes a list of 6 goals, which I found to be the typical person type of thing. I loved the "exercise - maybe" goal and the way her feelings and thoughts were expressed through the book. Her kids go through some normal challenges and the way she deals with them is typical but it is written in such a way that it is light. She is attracted to her son's teacher, who ends up buying her mother's house and they are neighbors.

Through it all she ends up growing, learning and becoming a better Claire in the end. Probably the biggest thing is to be able to forgive her ex-husband.

I can't say I would recommend the book to others. If you are looking for nice, light reading material then this would be perfect. While I enjoyed the book, lately I've been more interested in historical fiction.