Book Review: Rules for Saying Goodbye by Katherine Taylor

Kate Taylor escapes Fresno to attend a New England prep school and eventually ends up in a rent controlled New York apartment and having a series of overseas experiences. It’s difficult to give more of a summary because this reads more like a book of anecdotes than a cohesive novel. But Author Katherine Taylor (no doubt drawing inspiration for many of her stories from real life) excels at telling a good yarn – and the ones she tells you could sit around and listen to all night.

That said, this is not the kind of novel that lends itself to quick reading. In fact, it took me two weeks to read it and I read other books at the same time, something I just don’t ever do. It’s the kind of book you can read a few chapters of at a time without feeling lost when you put it down and pick it up again later – a perfect bedtime book.

My favorite parts were the hilarious chapter 15 (detailing a funeral no less) and her 11 rules for saying goodbye, a chapter that comes after she breaks it off with a boyfriend who’d risk her dying of altitude sickness rather than stop short of reaching the summit of an alp. An excerpt from rule eleven: “Do not go back to retrieve things you have forgotten, like your climbing shoes or laundry you left in the dryer. Once you are gone, be gone for good.”

Rules for Saying Goodbye is now out in paperback.