Favorite Friday-fiction story&author

Oh how I love to read, and it is almost impoossible to chose a FAVORITE book. But I will have to admit this one is pretty close to my heart. Gardenia's for Breakfast by Robin Jones Gunn.
This book is very healing in a lot ways. Basically it is a story of 4 generations of women. In the story a mother and daughter take a trip a together and one of the places they visit is the mother's Grandma. Her Grandma was so special to her as a little girl because she had a rocky relationship with her own mother. So she wanted to take her daughter to meet her grandmother (the girls great-grandmother).

Along the way they did stop to see her mother (the young girl's grandmother) and while it was awkward between the adults the young girl and grandmother bonded immediately. They were a lot alike.

But yet, once they arrived to the Mother's Grandmother's house it was not at all like the young girl had pictured. She did not seem to bond with her Great-Grandmother like her mother had.

In the end, The great grandmother gives her grand daughter an old journal and through it she discovered that her grandmother did not have a good relationship with her daughter, which is why she tried to make up for it by being a wonderful grandmother to her. But the journal also helped her to understand why it was hard for her mother to be a good mother to her, because she had problems with her mother. It was like a generational mal-function between the mothers and daughters.

So in the end the mother realized that 1. she needed to break the chain and have a healthy relationship with her own daughter and 2. that she should not keep her daughter from knowing her grandmother even though she did not have a good relationship with her. She realized it was important for her daughter to have a good relationship with her grandmother, like she had with her grandmother growing up. She realized she was robbing her daughter of that....so she sent her daughter in the end to go visit her.

I know it sounds a little confusing but it really is such a sweet story. Just read it, it's a good one.
I really love everything by Robin Jones Gunn. She is my favorite author of all. Do you like to read any fiction books? What is your favorite one? And who is your favorite author?