The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold (on CD)

This has received so much press that I was skittish about reading it. In my experience, the more chitchat about a book, the higher my expectations, and the more likely it is to not live up to them.

This book did. If you haven't read it, you might consider it. Or listen to it. The narrator--Alyssa Bresnahan--does a nice job of inhabiting the characters without distracting.

In case you don't know the outline, the story is told from the vantage point of a young teenage girl who was murdered and is now in heaven. The first chapter contains the details of her death, but the situation is told very simply and without dwelling on gore.

The book is really about grief and life and appreciation of good things and accepting the realities of the world. Wonderful book.