Novelist Rosellen Brown, author of Before and After, described the volume as “a gathering of generous souls willing to speak about what matters to them in a way that makes it matter to us.” Author Sara Davidson hailed the “honest, raw, close-to-the-bone and often humorous stories.” In addition to births, deaths, weddings, and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, these transitions include: the daughter of an Alzheimer’s victim facing the moment her mother no longer recognizes her, a father accepting and learning from his son’s choice to live as a strictly Orthodox Jew, a young man embracing his gay identity, an unconfident woman discovering her true strength at age forty.

In the words of Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso: “These moving essays open a window into the special moments of their authors’ lives.” These are moments you don’t want to miss.