The Overdue Life of Amy Byler

Genre: Fiction

​​This is the story of Amy Byler, mother to two teenagers, Cori and Joe, living in Pennsylvania. Amy has been raising her children on her own because, John, her husband, decided to move to Thailand and leave his family when the children were young. Sure, it's been a struggle, working as a school librarian and working with a small budget, but she's managed to raise two bright and independent kids (except she'll definitely have to fix Cori's dislike for reading!). John returns to the family as swiftly as he disappeared, and has offered to take the kids to his home and spend time with them over the summer (as well as send them to amazing summer camps) while Amy gets to go on a momspringer (defined as time away from kids and responsibility for moms who need to regroup-this term is based on the term rumpspringer, which is the term for when Amish teenagers are given time to explore the world outside of their community). Amy heads to New York City and reconnects with an old friend and attends a library conference. Her life is about to change as she meets new people, has new experiences and is introduced to the most amazing restaurants and places. This is a story of digging through life's responsibilities and deciding which are the most important to us.

Aside from this being a sweet and charming story, Amy is a school librarian, so I was bound to love this one. But, more than that, I really love the general message of the story. Amy realizes that she could be all the things she wants to be: a mom, a girlfriend, a friend, a librarian and be happy with all of those things together. I would further add to this message that to me, life is supposed to be messy and disorderly and our job is to do just what Amy does, decide what is most important to us. I was lucky to be able to be a stay-at-home mom to my boys for about nine years. While I cannot say that every minute of my time with them was joyous (I now know that I was actually depressed some of the time), but I truly felt pleasure from the special moments we shared, and that I got to experience every day moments and important times with them. Only about seven years into my nine years at home did I feel like I wanted more. When I went back to work, I loved every minute (even though the logistics have been difficult to manage). I have no qualms about not being there every minute for the boys because I really love what I do and I think it's important for me to follow my path. I know many very smart, successful doctors, lawyers, writers, and everything in between, who loved being at home with their young children. I also know lots of women who continued to work soon after their children were born (because of necessity or otherwise) who love and care for their children deeply. Just like me, all of these women loved where they were when they were there. I think that we can absolutely do it all, but we can't do it perfectly, all at once. But maybe that's the point. It's about this messy, imperfect mix of fulfilling our own destinies along with helping our kids find theirs.

This book is a great distraction and perfect read for this intense time in the world.