Jean Carnahan was the first lady of Missouri when her husband, Governor Mel Carnahan, who was running for the U.S. Senate, and their son, were killed in a plane crash. When Mel Carnahan was elected posthumously (beating John Ashcroft), Jean agreed to take his seat in Washington and served in the U.S. Senate during 9/11, the anthrax attacks, and the vote to go to war in Iraq. During a time of intense and almost unimaginable personal loss, she managed to keep her head up and her heart open and worked diligently for her constituents and for the country. Her upbeat attitude is truly a lesson to us all.

Carnahan, in the public sphere most recently as she campaigned for President Barack Obama, is a skillful writer. A cross between Molly Ivins and Maria Shriver, she brings her tales about aging, change, strengthening the family, history, politics, and language to the page with a plainspoken, wise humor that is pure pleasure and genuinely uplifting. The Tide Always Comes Back is the kind of practical inspirational gift book that word-of-mouth could turn into a wonderful, evergreen book.