A lovely and emotional memoir. I really appreciated this read as it brought forth many feelings within me as the author unfolded this narrative, and her writing style was highly poetic and bittersweet. There is pain, love, and grit all mixed within her words, and it culminated in a highly cathartic finish. You can tell how personal this is, and I highly respect that.

A lovely and emotional memoir. I really appreciated this read as it brought forth many feelings within me as the author unfolded this narrative, and her writing style was highly poetic and bittersweet. There is pain, love, and grit all mixed within her words, and it culminated in a highly cathartic finish. You can tell how personal this is, and I highly respect that.

I am late reviewing and therefore recommending this great read! Not a dry eye or lack of a desire to throw something at men who don’t measure up to the fatherhood requirements. Nonetheless,, the sense of community cures all! You rally in support and gasp where you should. Happiness is defined loosely and prescriptively as playing well with others as well as the hand you are dealt. Never contrived simplistically in characters or plot, this is a how to do so with restraint, clear eyes on purpose, and a steeled heart against expectations. Heather Harpham writes the way beautifully!

Absolutely wonderful motherhood memoir of the experience of having a child with a potentially fatal illness - it broke my heart but ultimately put it back together again and was told with the perfect mix of analysis and account of events as they happened years earlier.

Dear Fellow Reader,

And this week for something a little different, a memoir. While it is not always my first choice, I do like to read about the choices people make in their lives and why they make those choices. Human nature can be so interesting. I prefer to say that I am inquisitive but, the word “nosy” might be used by some. I am interested in how people think and act. The “why’s” are interesting.

I was lost in Happiness from the first. At the beginning of the book, there are some flashback sequences and they are so well done that you don’t think about the time sequence.

9781250131560The book is written in the first person. Heather, who is from California meets Brian while she is working at a university in New York City. Brian is an author and college professor. They fall in love. They have a life in New York and they are happy. Then Heather gets pregnant. Brian has made clear all along that he does not want to be a parent. When Heather gets pregnant, he does not change his mind. Heather is heartbroken but she is going to have the baby and decides that she should go back to California to be by friends and family is she is going to raise the baby by herself.

When the baby is born, she tells Brian that he has a daughter. Hours after the baby is born, the nurse comes to take the baby for a few tests. Heather, who is completely enamored with the baby allows them to take her but waits anxiously for the baby’s return. Finally, a doctor comes to her room to tell her that they need to transfer the baby to a bigger hospital and that the baby’s life is in danger. Scared and not understanding what if happening, Heather rides in the ambulance to the other hospital. Her wonderful daughter has a problem with her blood. Her red blood cells are not holding together.

This is how the story begins. The story continues with Heather telling Brian and his decision that he needs to come and see the baby. The wait to see if the health issue will ever be diagnosed, to see if Heather and Brian will both be parents of this little girl, and how at almost 4 years old Amelia Grace will travel to Durham, NC, for a transplant. The transplant is Gracie’s best chance for a long life but there is no guarantee that she will live through the transplant.

It is a love story. It is sad and scary and has imperfect characters. But the characters are real and you want it to all work out for them. If it were not a memoir, you would complain that some of the twists and turns could not possibly happen but because life is odd sometimes, those things do happen.

I think this is a good book. The pacing is good and it talks about emotional issues without being too dramatic. You feel the confusion without it being shoved down your throat.

Thanks for reading.

And before I forget (again!) I was given a copy of this book for my unbiased review. Thanks to Henry Holt Publishing for this book!



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I was really enjoying this story. The author's writing style was ideal for a memoir. It read like Literary Fiction and I loved that, but her entitled upper middle class clulelessness showed through too many times, and I found the last third of the story difficult to connect with; especially as a struggling single mother with a seriously ill child in previous years.

Heather Harpham's debut memoir recounts her at-times ambivalent romantic relationship that results in an unexpected pregnancy, and follows her through the astonishing path of caring for a sick child. Harpham manages to distill her experiences in a way that never shields the reader from her emotions whether they be anger, grief, confusion, or, as the title suggests, happiness, yet she never allows the emotions to cloud her story. While some of her experiences are unimaginable, there is a simplicity to her writing that allows the story to shine and lets the reader share in her difficult decisions and experiences. The tone of the book shifts appropriately throughout and while portions feel sad and heavy, this memoir surprised me as it is not depressing overall, perhaps because of her inherent optimism and hope. This is a thoughtful memoir of love and family.

A powerful and heart wrenching story that touched my every emotion. Author Heather Harpham’s newborn Gracie was born with a life-threatening blood disease. This intelligently written memoir is frank, sad, uplifting and feels straight from the heart.

Heather and ex-boyfriend Brian are living on different coasts when she phones Brian to share the devastating news about baby Gracie. Brian admirably steps up to his responsibility and his steadfast dedication to Heather and Gracie is truly amazing. I felt sad for him at times though, as Heather could be so dismissive. 100% of her energy went into Grace and she had nothing left to give to Brian. Understandable but still…sad. Heather does give Brian plenty of props in the book though and rightly so. He was a thoughtful one, the voice of reason and the glue that will hold the family together..

Fast forward.. Gracie is now 3 and preparations are underway for her bone marrow transplant. Happy, bubbly, curious Gracie shows strength and wisdom well beyond her years. Her “out of the mouths of babes” comments are priceless. I embraced the humor Harpham injects that offsets sad moments. My heart broke over and over as Heather chronicles the progression of days leading up to and during Gracie’s transplant. I haven’t felt this much emotion from a book in a long time. Thank you, Heather, for sharing your family’s very personal story.

*will post in additional e-spaces once published.

Happiness is a harrowing tale of a parent's experience with a sick child who required extensive medical treatment. Harpham details the relationship with her partner, two surprise pregnancies, the toll of parenting, separation, and finally success. It's a page turner because you have to discover the outcome.

Wonderfully written novel about a sad subject. Highly recommend!

Hearther Harpham has walked the walk of raising a high-needs child. Nobody thinks it will happen, then your angelic baby is suddenly taken from your arms and thrust into the high-stakes, miracles-might-happen (or not) world of neonatal intensive care. This lyrically crafted memoir reveals a family's emotional journey, survival/coping strategies, doubts, love, and places in between during difficult years of diagnosis, treatment, transplant, and recovery. It's partly medical memoir; as such, offers support to families and friends facing bone marrow transplants and other frontier-blazing medical interventions (especially for childhood maladies).

The Heather and Brian love story is also explored with tenderness, honesty, and realization that a couple can sculpt "happy for now" moments in the midst of dire and complicated relationship challenges. More than a love story, it's a love-of-language story, dazzling sentences and paragraphs that prove language and writing are powerful healing tools.

One of the best memoirs I've read this year, making good on the author's promise: "I've tried to remember everything that mattered, even those things I didn't want to remember."

Recommended for fans of Emily Rapp's THE STILL POINT OF THE TURNING WORLD, or Elizabeth McCracken's AN EXACT REPLICA OF A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION. Also for fans of "Dear Sugar Radio" because of the challenging territory of building/negotiating a relationship.

A touching, complicated, and emotionally charged story about relationships, children, illness, and survival. Harpham writes openly and honestly about making her relationship, while living with and taking care of a very sick daughter who undergoes a harrowing bone marrow transplant. It is a heart-wrenching story that any wife, husband, mother and/or father can relate to.