A Good Goodbye is a Book of the Year Award Finalist

Jun 26, 2011 | 0 comments

A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die is a finalist in the 2010 Book of the Year Awards Family and Relationships category. The awards were announced by ForeWord Reviews magazine at the American Library Association annual convention in New Orleans.

Americans plan their finances, their families, their retirement, just about everything – except their funerals. That omission can mess up all their other life plans. A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die by Gail Rubin (Light Tree Press, Albuquerque, NM) helps families avoid emotional and financial disaster.

Author Gail Rubin speaks regularly to groups on getting the funeral planning conversation started. Rubin, “The Doyenne of Death,” is an event planner specializing in funerals and memorial services.

“It’s an honor to be a finalist in this prestigious award competition, even without taking home a gold medal,” said Rubin.

As the author of “Matchings, Hatchings and Dispatchings,” an Albuquerque Tribune column on life cycle events, Rubin found the columns on death elicited the greatest reader response, indicating a pressing need for information on the topic. She started The Family Plot Blog (http://thefamilyplot.wordpress.com), a chipper online resource to provide the information, inspiration and tools to pre-plan a healing and meaningful funeral or memorial service.

Rubin’s first book, A Girl’s Pocket Guide to Trouser Trout: Reflections on Dating and Fly-Fishing, won Bronze in the Humor Category of the 2004 Book of the Year Awards.

A Good Goodbye is available through bookstores, online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and www.AGoodGoodbye.com. E-book versions are available for Kindle, Nook, iPad and Sony e-readers. Discounts are available for bulk sales and presentations by calling Light Tree Press at 505-265-7215.

The 2010 Book of the Year Awards, conducted by ForeWord Reviews, represents more than 350 publishers. The finalists were selected from 1400 entries in 56 categories.

ForeWord Reviews’ Book of the Year Awards program was established to help publishers shine an additional spotlight on their best titles and bring increased attention to librarians and booksellers of the literary and graphic achievements of independent publishers and their authors. Award winners are chosen from real librarians and booksellers, who are on the front lines everyday working with patrons and customers.

ForeWord is the only review trade journal devoted exclusively to books from independent houses. Since 1998, ForeWord Reviews has been one of the publishing industry’s most respected print magazine and online review service for readers, booksellers, book buyers, publishing insiders, and librarians. ForeWord is published six times a year and each issue reaches an audience of 26,000 librarians and booksellers.

A Good Goodbye