How to Love an American Man.

There are no words to convince you how wonderful this book is. I can't even begin to tell you how engrossed in it I was. I started it on Friday morning and by Sunday morning I had read through every page. I have a list of little nuggets of advice and wisdom that I scribbled down as I was reading. It's the best book I can remember reading...ever.

Originally suggested to me by Jenna the minute I read the description I knew I had to have it. With the extra time off and relaxation in store for Thanksgiving weekend I convinced my mom to give me her Kindle since I knew she'd want to read this after me. This book is inspiring on a number of levels. The author paints so vividly a picture of what so many people feel and suffer from when they're trying to figure it all out. It reminds you of where you need to be before you can depend on others. The wisdom and experience of generations before us. And above all else, what you truly need to be happy.

When I started this book I was sitting in a Starbucks on Black Friday. Curled up in the very back of the store I was ready to dive in. However, (as you saw via my tweets on Friday morning) I had to read a couple of pages, then set it down. Gather myself and then start again. This happened a few times. The first chapter was so touching I was in tears within PAGES of the start. The poor little boy sitting next to me with his Gameboy was probably terrified of the sad lady in the corner.

Here's the book description from Amazon:

An endearing and unforgettable memoir of love, self-discovery, and enduring, old-fashioned values

Kristine Gasbarre made a New York career of dating driven, inaccessible men. When she realizes her love life will never result in happiness if she continues on the same path, she makes a big decision—relocating to Italy to discover her roots and find out what defines her adoring grandpa. But upon receiving the news of his sudden passing, she is lured away.

With nowhere left to go, Krissy returns to her small hometown for the first time in a decade to help care for her grandmother—a refined, private matriarch suffering from early dementia along with the loss of her husband. In her reluctant agreement to share the nearly lost love stories and transformative lessons from her rich sixty-year marriage, Krissy’s grandma becomes the one offering comfort as she coaches her granddaughter through the fear of loving. Grandma’s unapologetic femininity and secret giving spirit opens Krissy’s eyes about relationships, teaching her the single most important requisite for loving a man: first a woman has to learn the power of her own inner beauty.

As I mentioned, I have a list of snippets from this book, that I will review probably daily for a while...and while I don't want to post them all (because I just KNOW you're all going to read the book), some of my very favorite are below:

"Relationships aren't just a blessing, they're a necessity. The trials of the individual are never enough reason not to love."

"A woman is too precious to compromise her good time or her happiness because things haven't gone her way with a man."

"A partner should make us want to improve ourselves constantly, and urge us to maximize what we contribute to the world."

If you're looking for something to add to your Christmas list, or a heart warming story to curl up next to the Christmas tree with - I have to insist you add this to your must buy list. You won't regret it!