cover image Sunday List of Dreams

Sunday List of Dreams

Kris Radish, . . Bantam, $11 (378pp) ISBN 978-0-553-38398-0

With her retirement looming, nurse Connie Nixon is preparing a "list of dreams" to accomplish once she's out of the working week. Revised 48 times by her retirement date, Connie's structured quest to let loose provides the opportunity for Radish (Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral ) to spin an inspirational story about making amends and the power of mother-daughter love. Connie's list contains run-of-the mill things like "stop setting the alarm clock" and "write more thank-you notes" and mildly daring to-do's like buying a convertible and drinking wine before noon. It is, however, the confluence of two list items, "maybe sex" and "recapture Jessica," that pushes Connie to rejuvenate her relationship with youngest daughter Jessica, who moved from hometown Indiana to New York three years ago and has since become the "CEO and part owner of... one of the most successful sex-toy stores in the United States of America." Connie travels to the Big Apple, and the two women reconnect in an unexpected way: Jessica puts Connie to work in the sex toy business. Every page contains a warm fuzzy. (Jan.)