Synopses & Reviews
For many mothers, a childs senior year brings about a serious look back on the past eighteen. Every eventfrom Halloween to Mothers Daybecomes The Last Time.
Toni Piccinini knows exactly what thats like, and in The Goodbye Year, she offers the loving support every soon-to-be Empty Nester needs. Think of Toni as your bossy-but-loving Italian auntie, with modern sensibilities and a packed pantry. With the wisdom shes acquired from saying goodbye three times to her own children, she reassuringly holds your hand while encouraging you through the insanity of the college application process, the rejections and the acceptances, and the teary dorm drop-offs. Even better, she reminds every mother that the best is yet to comefreedom, creativity, flexibility, and the Me Years.
Review
"Toni's voice sparkles with wisdom, humor, and truth about the paradoxically joyful and painful path of motherhood. From loving to letting go, she speaks for the Mother in all of us, the one who finds heaven in the eyes of a baby and who finds herself stretched thin, tired of putting out fires, thinking, 'This is not who I am.' Then she shows us a way through. I wish I'd had this illuminating book as my teenagers turbo-individuated during their last year at home!"
Jessica Shepherd, author of A Love Alchemist's Notebook
Buy Toni Piccininis book for the absorbing story and lovely writing. Keep it on your shelf for the recipes. A nourishing read on every level.
Joan Ryan, author of The Water Giver
Synopsis
Every September, some mommys baby” starts her senior year of high school. For many women, a childs senior year is the first serious look back on the past eighteen. Every event (from Halloween to Mothers Day) will be The Last Time. Mixed in with all the melancholy is the ever-present and stress-filled now” of the senior yearcollege applications.
The Goodbye Year speaks to a mothers realization that her childs senior year of high school is the end of motherhood as she knows it, because Toni Piccinini knows exactly what thats like. After her third child graduated, she was an expert at navigating the senior year experience, and she shares her acquired wisdom about letting go in a narrative that addresses what motherhoodand womanhoodis really all about.
From college applications to acceptances (and sometimes rejections), Piccinini takes the reader through senior year, one month at a time. With tips for staying sane and letting go, as well as calendars and other helpful tools, this book provides guidance for mothers struggling with their soon-to-be empty nest. Part self-help, part therapy, and completely honest, The Goodbye Year is the perfect book for moms getting ready to say goodbye to their children.
About the Author
Toni Piccinini was born in a tiny coal-mining town in western Pennsylvania on an unseasonably warm November evening. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in biology. At the University of California San Francisco, she researched the efficacies of antibiotics, which led to publications most notably in
The Journal of Clinical Pathology and
The Journal of Microbiology.
Toni opened a San Francisco Top 100” restaurant and has won several recipe contests, one of which awarded one hundred pounds of pasta to the San Francisco Food Bank in her name. She has written essays, cookbook reviews, and recipes for national and local media, including Roadwork, SheWrites, and The Marin Independent Journal. Her essay House Affair” was a Narrative Magazine Story of the Week.” She lives in Marin County, California.