By the Time You Read This

when He Discovered That He Had Only Six Months To Live, Thirty-year-old Kevin Bates Picked Up His Pen And Wrote the Manual—advice For His Five-year-old Daughter, Lois, To Live By, Laugh At, And Follow From Twelve Until Thirty. Seven Years Later, When Lois Is Given the Manual, She Can Barely Bring Herself To Read Her Father's Words, The Pain Of His Loss Is Still So Raw. Yet Soon Kevin's Advice Is Guiding Her Through Every Stage Of Life From Teen Angst To Career Arcs, To Knowing When She's At Long Last Met The One. While the Manual Can Never Be A Substitute For Having Kevin Back, The Words Left Behind Become Lois's Steady Support Through All Of Life's Ups And Downs, And Prove Invaluable To Unlocking The Key To Happiness.

publishers Weekly

brit Counselor Jaye Offers A Self-help Manual Dressed Up As Fiction In Her Debut. Lois's Father, Kevin, Died When She Was Five. Seven Years Later, She Receives A Book From Auntie Philomena On The Day Her Mother Remarries. The Book, The Manual, Is By Her Father And Is Chock-full Of His Advice For Lois, To Be Read One Chapter Per Year, On Her Birthday. A List Of Seven Rules Includes A Warning For Lois To Not Skip Ahead, And She Takes Her Dad's Advice To Heart, Savoring The Entries, The Vast Majority Of Which Consist Largely Of Standard Self-help Fare ( “tomorrow's Not Guaranteed, So Live Today”; “allow Yourself The Chance To Really Feel”), While Enduring The Vicissitudes Of Life. It's Decent If Bland In Its Earnestness, And Will Likely Find A Place On More Than A Few Bookshelves Between Kübler-ross And The Last Lecture. (aug.)