I Like You Just Fine When You're Not Around by Ann Garvin
My friend Mad loaned me her copy of this novel, otherwise I would have missed it completely. It took me awhile to get around to reading it, but it is a quick read once you start. It is funny, sad, and captures the stress of trying to take care of an aging parent while still attempting to have a life. Tig Monahan is a woman in the middle of a whole lot of change. Her job as a therapist is ending, her boyfriend Pete is moving to Hawaii and expects Tig to come along with him; her mother Hallie is suffering from dementia and has just been moved to a nursing home. Tig is unhappy, and the world is moving way too fast for her to cope. It's especially hard for Tig to reconcile the woman her mother is now with the woman she used to be. A successful veterinarian with her own practice; a single mother bringing up two girls after her husband's unexpected death. A take charge, no fear kind of lady. But that's all gone now; Hallie is lost in her memorie...