Blessings [Mass Market Paperback]

After reading Blessings by Anna Quindlen, you will feel as if you have become Skip Cuddy. Everything that Skip does, one can relate to very easily. The main thing that can be learned from this book is to take what you can get from life, and enjoy every minute of it.

In the beginning, a boy and a girl drop a box off at the foot of the garage at Blessings. Skip finds this box and discovers that there is a baby wrapped up in a flannel shirt in it. For a few weeks Skip tries to keep the baby a secret from Lydia Blessing, the owner of Blessings. Lydia Blessing is an 80 year old woman who has so many stories from her past to share. Some of them make her happy, and others make her sad, like the death of her brother Sunny. Even though Lydia meets Skip in a Wal-Mart parking lot, she decides to let him live in the apartment above the garage that the Fosters used to live in so that he can help around the house with the yard work. The one thing that Lydia found out about Skip is that he had served jail time for a crime that he didn't commit. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time with his friends, who really committed the crime.

Throughout the next few months Lydia learns to be more open to things and learns to trust Skip, or rather, Charles more. Lydia didn't like to call people by a nickname. Skip falls in love with the baby, and names her Faith. Skip enjoys watching her every chance he gets. One can tell that even Lydia begins to love Faith for she would listen for Faith on the baby monitor when Skip was out. One other way that Lydia changes is that she actually tries to talk to her daughter Meredith more, and even invites her to come and visit.

One night Skip sees a light on in Lydia's house that isn't normally on. Then he sees a shadow walk by the light, and can tell that it is not Lydia. He makes a comment that he wishes that Lydia had put a phone in his apartment. So, Skip decides to go down and find out who is there. Sure enough, it is Skip's old friends Joe, Chris, and Ed. They are trying to rob the place. Chris being there made Skip so angry that he picked up the teapot that was on the floor and wanted to throw it at him. As moments passed, Lydia came into the room and saw Skip holding the teapot in one hand, and a gun in the other hand. Lydia had never seen Skip like this. Once the police arrived, they took Skip away because having the gun was a violation of his parole. Later on, Lydia felt very bad about what she had caused Skip to go through again.

So, what will happen to Skip and Faith? Will Skip be able to keep Faith? What happens to Lydia? If you want to know what happens and the answers to these questions, you must read this book. Once I picked up this book, I could not put it down. I just wanted to continue reading it. You have to give a lot of credit to Anna Quindlen for writing such an amazing book. She makes you feel as if you are in the story by referring back and forth from Skip's past and Lydia's past to the present. This is a must read book.