Joy for Beginners, Erica Bauermeister

Just listen to this:

"Daria oftened referred to her mother as the patron saint of perpetual disappointment.  Daria envisioned her, arms outspread, welcoming the hordes of the ticked-off, the judgmental, the depressed, into her all-encompassing embrace, where she would teach them essential life skills such as how to take the silver lining out of clouds, or conjure flaws out of thin air."

Or this (spoken after a character finds the perfect house with the perfect porch):

"She wondered who the architect was who had first understood that basic human need to have a place, a moment, to pause before entering, to shift from the person you were outside to the one you would become when you walked through the door.......  She hadn't gotten that, she thought, looking at the porch -- when Sean died, there had just been before the phone call and after.  No illness, no aging.  Just Sean and then no Sean.  No porch to stand on, to get ready to go inside."

Oh my stars.  Isn't that magnificent?  That's why I read Erica Bauermeister.....
  She makes my breath catch in my throat.  I discovered this author with The School of Essential Ingredients.  Read my review of that one here. 

I absolutely can't wait for her to pen another one.
Read all about Joy for Beginners at EricaBauermeister/Joy.
And for Pete's sake, go read the book, then read Essential Ingredients.