Until the Real Thing Comes Along by Elizabeth Berg

 I really enjoy Berg's descriptions and metaphors that immediately resonate with me. She picks specific images like American cheese or OshKosh overalls and I'm right there with her, particularly from when I was a young mother. This is a very poignant story of a woman who always wanted to be a mother but who could never seem to find the right father. She leads a quiet life after having fallen in love with a man who is gay and they remain good friends. But no one can live up to the closeness she feels with him, and so she convinces him to impregnate her... This is an interesting exploration into what it would take to change one's fundamental nature...Berg does it with honesty and vulnerability. I think, though, that Patty's acceptance of Ethan's departure is unrealistic... That she could welcome him, along with his new partner, seems like it would take a mighty big heart. But maybe that's what one would need: an example that it's possible...