Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Today is a sad day for me. One of my reviewers, Paul Lane, lost his wife and the funeral is this morning.

I’ve known Paul at least ten years and we worked together for most of those. When he retired from the library, which was his second career, his  “retirement” job, he started writing reviews for me.

In all the years I’ve known him, the one thing that was constant was his love for his wife. Anita was a beautiful woman, and Paul was head over heels about her. I don’t know how long they were married, but I would guesstimate over 40 years, and to be that much in love after so long really says a lot, about him and their marriage. Note: Just learned they were married 53 years!

Yesterday, one of my favorite library patrons came in. Eleanor lost her husband a few months ago. They were married over 60 years and she is just devastated. He was her best friend and she misses him terribly. It’s all she talks about now. She gets no pleasure from life anymore because she can’t share it with him.

All that has had me thinking. Today is an anniversary of sorts for me. Ten years ago today my husband had a heart attack, which saved his life.

Ten years this morning he woke me at 5:30 and said he felt funny, something was wrong. He had some achiness in his right shoulder, not the left, and his jaw felt achy too, enough that it woke him. He went online and searched until he found something that said it could be signs of a heart attack.

The EKG they did in the emergency room did not indicate a heart attack, but was odd – they said it looked like an EKG someone would have after taking a stress test.

It turned out to be a very minor heart attack, so minor that they had to wait 24 hours for his blood work to come back to determine that there had been damage, albeit “just a few cells.” But that prompted an angioplasty, which the doctor felt would indicate he needed a stent. A short while later, we found out he needed a bit more than a stent. He underwent a quadruple bypass at age 48.

The surgeon called him his “pediatric” patient. The cardiac ICU nurse assured me that we were incredibly lucky; most heart attacks in men in their 40’s are fatal. We were also lucky to have one of the best heart hospitals in the country, Delray Medical Center, nearby.

My husband is still here, half way to the 20 years they “guaranteed” his bypass surgery. Last weekend he went on a 30 mile hike through the Everglades. He walks almost every day and tries to eat right when I’m not cooking food that not’s good for him (or me!)

We’ve been married for 32 years. He’s been my best friend all these years and I can’t imagine a life without him. He’s put up with a lot over the years – from me, my family, his family, even our kids now and then. So when Eleanor complains she gets no joy from life anymore, I understand. And I know that Paul will be feeling that way too, at least for a while.

It’s a good day to reflect.

I always have a hard time narrowing down my favorite books each year, but it seems to be a rite of passage I force myself through. I found a way around doing just a top ten by creating different categories for my favorites. Maybe cheating, maybe not, but it works for me.

My reviewers are apparently more discerning than I am, all of them pretty much stick to a top ten. The lists are posted here, and there are no clear cut favorites among all of us, but there were a few that made two of our lists.

The book covers pictured here were all the titles that were duplicated among reviewers. No book made more than two lists, and I think that is the first time that there really wasn’t a true consensus.

The only thing I can clearly state is that there were a lot of really good books this year.

I hope you enjoy seeing our favorites, and that you’ll let me know if we missed some of yours!

Home is where the heart is. There’s no place like home. A home without books is like a room without windows…

For me, that is very true, so perhaps this is the best place to start.

Welcome to my new home, stacyalesi.com. But don’t worry, bookbitch.com will get you here, too.

The BookBitch is not gone, just re-imagined. It was time for a change. A kinder, gentler home. While my home may have changed, rest assured my opinions have not.

I am packing my bags, so to speak, and moving in here. Taking all my reviews with me, and some of my reviewers as well. This will be a process so please be patient if what you are seeking cannot be found here yet.

I am leaving the BookBitchBlog as it is for a while until the move is complete. Or as complete as I care to make it. We often use moving as an excuse to get rid of excess, to purge, to cleanse. I am hoping to have a clean house here, and the best way to do that is to start with a clean house.

Besides the opportunity to go mainstream, I wanted all the reviews to be more easily searchable and more easily found. I wanted to combine my blog with my website and just have one home instead of shifting between two. Hopefully this site will accomplish that.

My most heartfelt appreciation to xuni.com for this gorgeous design and making everything work the way it should. Sheer genius!

All comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms are welcome.

I hope you’ll stop by often.

This is just to see Ramblings show up in the categories list, so pretend this is a rambling post which isn’t about book reviews, guest blogging or contests!  🙂