{"product_id":"making-toast-isbn-9780061825934","title":"Making Toast","description":"\u003cp style=\"LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"\u003e“A painfully beautiful memoir….Written with such restraint as to be both heartbreaking and instructive.” \u003c?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\" \/\u003e\u003co:p\u003e\u003c\/o:p\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"\u003e—E. L. Doctorow\u003co:p\u003e\u003c\/o:p\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"\u003e\u003co:p\u003e \u003c\/o:p\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"\u003eA revered, many times honored (George Polk, Peabody, and Emmy Award winner, to name but a few) journalist, novelist, and playwright, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"\u003eRoger Rosenblatt shares the unforgettable story of the tragedy that changed his life and his family. A book that grew out of his popular December 2008 essay in \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker, Making Toast \u003c\/em\u003eis a moving account of unexpected loss and recovery in the powerful tradition of \u003cem\u003eAbout Alice \u003c\/em\u003eand\u003cem\u003e The Year of Magical Thinking\u003c\/em\u003e. Writer Ann Beattie offers high praise to the acclaimed author of \u003cem\u003eLapham Rising\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eBeet\u003c\/em\u003e for a memoir that is, “written so forthrightly, but so delicately, that you feel you’re a part of this family.”\u003co:p\u003e\u003c\/o:p\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"How long are you staying, Boppo?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Forever.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen his daughter, Amy—a gifted doctor, mother, and wife—collapses and dies from an asymptomatic heart condition, Roger Rosenblatt and his wife, Ginny, leave their home on the South Shore of Long Island to move in with their son-in-law, Harris, and their three young grandchildren: six-year-old Jessica, four-year-old Sammy, and one-year-old James, known as Bubbies. Long past the years of diapers, homework, and recitals, Roger and Ginny—Boppo and Mimi to the kids—quickly reaccustom themselves to the world of small children: bedtime stories, talking toys, playdates, nonstop questions, and nonsequential thought. Though reeling from Amy's death they carry on, reconstructing a family, sustaining one another, and guiding three lively, alert, and tender-hearted children through the pains and confusions of grief. As he marvels at the strength of his son-in-law, a surgeon, and the tenacity and skill of his wife, a former kindergarten teacher, Roger attends each day to \"the one household duty I have mastered\"—preparing the morning toast perfectly to each child's liking. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the wit, heart, precision, and depth of understanding that has characterized his work, Roger Rosenblatt peels back the layers on this most personal of losses to create both a tribute to his late daughter and a testament to familial love. The day Amy died, Harris told Ginny and Roger, \"It's impossible.\" Roger's story tells how a family makes the possible of the impossible.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“A painfully beautiful memoir telling how grandparents are made over into parents, how people die out of order, how time goes backwards. Written with such restraint as to be both heartbreaking and instructive.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eE.L. Doctorow\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The blow of the improbable: a highly achieved daughter who is the mother of very young children is tragically struck down in her radiant prime. Husband, children, and grandparents are bereft, and what can come of such a maelstrom of grief? MAKING TOAST, Roger Rosenblatt’s piercing account of broken hearts, records how love, hurt, and responsibility can, through antic wit and tenderness, turn a shattered household into a luminous new-made family.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCynthia Ozick\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] piercing account of broken hearts [that] records how love, hurt, and responsibility can, through antic wit and tenderness, turn a shattered household into a luminous new-made family.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCynthia Ozick\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoger Rosenblatt means, I believe, to teach patience, love, a fondness for the quotidian, and a deftness for saving the lost moment—when faced with lacerating loss. These are brilliant lessons, fiercely-learned.  But Rosenblatt comes to them and to us—suitably—with immense humility. - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRichard Ford\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Written so forthrightly, but so delicately, that you feel you’re a part of this family. Rosenblatt’s writing turns a story that might be too uncomfortable to read, or too sentimental, in the direction of simple facts that required sophisticated, but instinctual, responses.  How lucky some of us are to see clearly what needs to be done, even in the saddest, most life-altering circumstances. - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnn Beattie\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Written so forthrightly, but so delicately, that you feel you’re a part of this family... How lucky some of us are to see clearly what needs to be done, even in the saddest, most life-altering circumstances.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnn Beattie\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“There are circumstances in which prose is poetry, and the unornamented candor of Rosenblatt’s writing slowly attains to a sober sort of lyricism...This is more than just a moving book. It is also a useful book....[Rosenblatt’s] toast is buttered with wisdom. ” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLeon Wieseltier, The New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Rosenblatt avoids the sentimentality that might have weighed down [Making Toast]; he writes with humor and an engagement with life that makes the occasional flashes of grief all the more telling. The result is a beautiful account of human loss, measured by the steady effort to fill in the void. - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[MAKING TOAST] is about coping with grief, caring for children and creating an ad hoc family for as long as this particular configuration is required, but mostly it’s a textbook on what constitutes perfect writing and how to be a class act.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCarolyn See, The Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Rosenblatt…sets a perfect tone and finds the right words to describe how his family is coming with their grief… It may seem odd to call a book about such a tragic event charming, but it is.  There is indeed life-after death, and Rosenblatt proves that without a doubt.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A gem of a memoir, deceptively simple in its proportions, but in truth: sad, funny, brave and luminous. . . . Without self-pity or sanctimony, the author reminds us in this rare and generous book that there is no remedy for death. The way to live, he concludes, is ‘to value the passing time”; the best we can do is to pay attention and to love each other well.’” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“It may seem odd to call a book about such a tragic event charming, but it is. There is indeed life after death, and Rosenblatt proves that without a doubt.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A beautiful account of human loss, measured by the steady effort to fill in the void. - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“There are circumstances in which prose is poetry, and the unornamented candor of Rosenblatt’s writing slowly attains to a sober sort of lyricism. But this is more than just a moving book. It is also a useful book. Perhaps because beauty is the antithesis of use, there is something especially marvelous about useful beauty. MAKING TOAST, a memoir of helpfulness, may actually help some of the people who read it. There are not many books that are important in this way: Helen Garner’s The Spare Room, a shatteringly honest and artful account of assisting a friend through her dying, is another such book. The epigraph to Garner’s austere masterpiece, from Elizabeth Jolley, captures also the large spirit of Rosenblatt’s book: “It is a privilege to prepare the place where someone else will sleep.” Rosenblatt’s children and grandchildren chose their father and grandfather well. His toast is buttered with wisdom. ” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLeon Wieseltier, The New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A must read for all....By no means treacly with sentiment, the book takes us through the ordinary along with the extra-ordinary events in the life of this family as they struggle to regain their center and go on with their lives. - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookbrowse.com\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] gem of a memoir... sad, funny, brave and luminous....[a] rare and generous book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Sad but somehow triumphant, this memoir is a celebration of family, and of how, even in the deepest sorrow, we can discover new links of love and the will to go on.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[An] exquisite, restrained little memoir filled with both hurt and humor.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR's All Things Considered\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hauntingly lovely.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ecco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889527681253,"sku":"NP9780061825934","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780061825934.jpg?v=1730231438","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/making-toast-isbn-9780061825934","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}