I learned about Elizabeth Berg through Ann Patchett. When Patchett was asked who she liked to read, she named Berg as one of her favorite writers. So I had to try one of her books.
When I started this collection of short stories, I worried a bit. Is this going to just be about counting calories? Is it just going to focus on the rebellion of eating things that make no nutritional sense? The first few pages it read that way, but then it shifted and became something genuinely real and touching. Berg pulled off this magician's feat over and over again in these stories. You're lulled into what looks like the mundane and then it becomes specific and moving.
I read these stories while hanging out with a cat. Our landlord is gone, and I said I would hang out with the cat so that she wouldn't be lonely. So I would go down there and crank up the heater and tuck into this book while the cat danced around me and seriously considered my lap, but in the end couldn't make the trip. It was one of those great holiday experiences, being surprised over and over again by the simple reality of the human condition while a cat prances around you.
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg
