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**Check out these must-reads, and then join the discussion at Cookie's book forum**

When Madeline Was Young: By Jane Hamilton; Doubleday, $23; What do we do for love—and what does love do for us? Inspired by Elizabeth Spencer's The Light in the Piazza, this award-winning writer's sublime fifth novel explores the repercussions of a family tragedy. When Aaron Maciver's glamorous young wife Madeline had a freak accident, she was left with the mind of a child. But Aaron and his second wife took her in, caring for her devotedly and making her a sister to their own children. How and why they could do such a thing still haunts their adult son, Mac, who probes the stories of all their pasts in an attempt at understanding. Set against the tumultuous backdrop of the Vietnam and Iraq wars, this is a haunting meditation on regret, rivalries, and the surprising and mysterious elasticity of love.

Always Too Soon: Voices of Support for Those Who Have Lost Both Parents: Edited by Allison Gilbert with Christina Baker Kline; Seal Press, $15; While losing one parent is tragic, losing both makes for emotional earthquakes. Gilbert, a producer of CNN's American Morning, has gathered together the voices of orphaned adults to craft a collection that is both inspirational and moving. Gilbert herself shares her story of getting married under a wedding canopy made from her mother's scarves. Rosanne Cash talks about how love survives loss, and Ice-T and Geraldine Ferraro both say they would not have struggled so hard to succeed if their parents had lived. Get out the Kleenex and, if you're lucky enough to still have parents, call them right now and profess your love.

A Day of Small Beginnings: by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum; Little, Brown, $25; You might initially think that this book is The Lovely Bones with a Jewish accent, but first novelist Rosenbaum is too audaciously creative, too blazingly original for this to be considered a copy. The great gift here is the charismatic voice of elderly, childless ghost Friedl Alterman, who finds a new maternal need when young, faithless Jewish boy Itzik Leiber hides by her grave after accidentally killing an anti-Semitic Polish peasant. But Friedl's soul can't find peace until Itzik and his descendants acknowledge their cultural and religious heritage. Flash-forward 86 years, when Itzik's son, Nathan, and his daughter, Ellen, confront their own confused feelings about God and Judaism, bringing the book to a magical, mystical closure. Lyrical, heartbreaking, and movingly funny, this is a gorgeous book that has "classic" written on every page.