Nancy Worssam

Each of the 31 stories in this book begins with a holiday ornament, yet the tales they tell explore travels in distant lands, adventures with loved ones, shocking happenings in mundane situations, and exotic foods eaten in unexpected venues.
You’ll find descriptions of good and bad marriages, and, if you have children, you’ll probably relate to the stories of the joys and trials of childrearing. You’ll meet in-laws to love and others to pity. There are characters whose lives have been touched with sadness and others who were born under a winning star. There are coming of age and end of life stories, stories of triumph and of unfulfilled dreams.
You'll learn how one mother coped with a particularly bizarre babysitting challenge. You'll read about finding magic at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Do you know what Berlin was like during the Cold War? You’ll find out in another of the tales.
You'll enjoy a feast in a posh London restaurant and another on the ground in a Philippine mountain village. And the descriptions of Harrod’s absolutely decadent food halls will make you salivate, as will the crispy Hanukkah potato pancakes served with delicious applesauce and sour cream.
There’s an encounter with the French Navy that includes a shipboard meal and ends in a chaste kiss. There’s a face-off with a she-bear and her cubs.
These vignettes capture tender, irritating, delightful, humorous, and unhappy moments. You’ll laugh at the bizarre predicaments, be saddened by heart rending experiences, and enjoy meeting the cast of unforgettable characters. It's a compendium of lives--richly lived ones, sadly depleted ones. Here are stories of extinguished dreams, notable successes, and the high points in those workaday lives that so many of us live, the lives that may not glitter, but certainly satisfy. Whether you are young or old, this is a book that will appeal to your heart as well as your senses.