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The Year of Magical Thinking
By Joan Didion

In this memoir about the year following her husband's death, Didion explains that she felt as if he might come back at any second, so she had to leave his shoes right where they were. I wept from beginning to end. The book reminded me of when my grandmother died. I was working, getting stuff done—but it was as if a little shroud were over my head. One day I thought, "Oh, the sky is blue." And I realized I hadn't lifted my eyes off the ground for a year.

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