"I Almost Forgot About You" by Terry McMillan

Dr. Georgia Young has the life many dream of - she has a great career, wonderful family, and close friends that she can depend on no matter where life takes her. But that doesn’t stop her from feeling stuck in a very large rut. It’s time, Georgia has decided, for some major change.

When Georgia quits her job and puts her house up for sale, she’s positive she is taking steps that will turn her life around. But it’s when she decides to look up all the loves of her life, good and bad, and see how they are doing that her life really ends up changed. 

I Almost Forgot About You, by Terry McMillan, is a moving and very relatable novel about revisiting the past and opening yourself up to whatever it has in store for your future.

Terry McMillan is a very special writer to me. When I was sixteen I came across her novel Mama on the shelves at my school library. From the very first pages I was hooked and I made it my mission to read everything she had written until that point. It only took me about two weeks to get through the four books. That was a pretty big deal considering I was at a point where I was turned off of reading fiction. Ms. McMillan reignited the love of reading I had as a child and I have never forgotten that. 

Since then, I’ve made sure to read every book she writes and I have never been disappointed by her. I love how in her writing it is clear the audience her books are aimed at and yet at the same time they transcend cultures and age groups. I like how her characters have aged over the years, the same way that us readers have. I can’t think of any other readers who understands their characters and their audience as well as McMillan does.

I really like the concept of looking back at the past loves of your life and getting in touch with them to let them know how much they meant to you (I mean, I love the concept in a book, not that I’m actually going to do that myself.) But the strength of this plot is that McMillan knows how to write characters of an appropriate age. I can see so many people coming up with this concept but for a woman in her twenties or her thirties. With that age, it would just seem flighty. But McMillan understands that for it to really work, it needs to be a woman who has experienced love, loss, and life. That’s who Georgia Young is. That’s why this was such an easy and enjoyable read.

While there is little about this character that my own life relates to, I felt like I was right there in the story with her, understanding what she was going through, and cheering her on. This is a great story about a woman who has finished the first part of her life and is looking at what is next. You don’t need to be in the same place in life as Georgia, the themes of this book are universal. Who doesn’t sit and wonder about all the loves of their life? If you have ever looked up a former flame on Facebook, or even just entertained the thought of it, this is the novel for you.