This book was given to me at no cost as a member of the From Left to Write book club.

Katherine Rosman’s mother, Suzy, was in incredible shape for a woman of any age, let alone someone in her late fifties.  She was a dancer and a Pilates instructor, health conscious, always moving and on the go. One of the last people you’d expect to get lung cancer, and yet she does. In If You Knew Suzy, Katie goes into some length about her mother, about how close they were and her mother’s particular ways; her love of beautiful things and needing her home to be just so.

But as close as she was to her mother, she realizes that she only knew her the way a daughter knows a mother.  A reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Katie decides to go through her mother’s address books and emails in order to contact people who also knew her mother to find out how others saw her.

From her mother’s Pilates’ students to dance instructors to the people she dealt with on eBay, Katie goes on a fascinating journey to learn about Suzy:  the friend, the mentor, the teacher and the fashion maven.

Her book is a wonderful tribute to her mother and may also inspire you to do the same.  The one caution I might have about this book is that it is at times very difficult to read if you have recently lost a loved one to a prolonged illness.  I lost my father over six years ago, but the similarities of the cycle of dying at times brought me to tears.  Even still, you feel yourself nodding at Katie’s description of her mother’s cancer, and find yourself thinking Yes, I went through that agony too.

Katie Rosman happens to be a reporter with an amazing idea to memorialize her mother, but If You Knew Suzy shows us that all people in their own way make an impact on those they touch, even if not everyone knew their name.

Want to win this amazing book that was read only once by a woman who has no contagious diseases?  Leave a comment here, and give yourself another chance to win by retweeting my tweet.  A winner will be chosen at random by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, July 14th.  Good luck!