** spoiler alert ** 
 I selected this title because it was by Wally Lamb, and I loved the two other books of his that I had read. I didn't know it was about the effects of Columbine and, to a lesser extent, other recent tragedies. I enjoy Lamb's writing because he gives everything to character development, but this time I felt the story suffered for the characters, and plodded along in parts. I wanted to like this much more than I did, though at the end I did shed some tears, so it probably affected me more than I think or am admitting. I would happily give it 3.5 stars, if I could. I did skip most of the diary entries from the main character's ancestor; I just was not in the mood to read about that time in history. I did find taking an actual event and interspersing fictional characters with real people to be a compelling and interesting writing technique. It felt similar to a historical fiction novel in that regard. If you haven't read any of Lamb's work, I would suggest reading She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True before tackling this title. If you've read both of those and have the time for a lengthy, often slow tale of how a horrific event effected one couple, then I say go for it--you may love it!