Making Toast, by Roger Rosenblatt

This brief and touching memoir tells of an extended family’s first year together after the sudden and unexpected death of the author’s 38 year-old daughter, who is a mother of three young children and a pediatrician. He and his wife are invited by their son-in-law, a hand surgeon, to move in and help with six-year-old Jessica, four-year-old Sammy, and the one-year-old, James, AKA “Bubbies.” The author is a well-known author and essayist and evidently just as gifted as a grandfather. Unsentimental and wise. 166 pp.