It is only July but I believe that I have just finished what could be the best novel that I will read this year. This book is The Sweet By and By by Todd Johnson. The Sweet By and By is one of those rare books that will touch your heart and leave you thinking about it long after you're done.The primary locale of Johnson's book is the Ridgecrest Nursing Home in eastern North Carolina. Each chapter is written through the eyes of one of four women--Lorraine, Margaret, Rhonda and April. These four, along with Bernice (who does not have a voice as she suffers from dementia--although she sometimes makes the most sense), forge a fast friendship that transcends race, age, fortune, and past experiences. All have scars from their past and Rhonda, especially, has been taught that she is not worthy of love or happiness. But they all bring joy to each other, and as Bernice says, "Life is choosing whom and what you love. Everything else follows."In The Sweet By and By, Todd Johnson does everything well. You will laugh at the antics of sassy Margaret and sweet Bernice, two residents who aren't afraid to challenge the status quo. You will delight in the sage wisdom of LPN Lorraine, who seems wise beyond her years. And your heart will melt when Rhonda (a hair-stylist) learns to believe in herself. But where Johnson truly excels is in his beautiful prose that often reads like poetry. When I read a book, I keep a list of quotes that touch me in some way. After reading The Sweet By and By, I had pages of them. I am hard pressed to give just a few examples. When Lorraine is describing her parents' separation, she says "That day I would learn that you don't always leave people because you hate them, but instead because you cannot bear the burden of them. The agony of my daddy's living was my mother's slow dying, and she was not ready to die." Or when Margaret describes her marriage, "My husband was a good man. I did not love him, but he was good. I reckon I was waiting for a real valentine, and what I found was Charles Clayton...My heart never changed, but it did soften, with time, and I found some room for him in it that I didn't know I had." Lorraine's daughter April, watches her mother and her son together and thinks "Watching them, I could believe in life, and God, seeing in them that age could be fashioned into a gold crown in the hands of love. And I could be assured that my mother's wonder had rooted itself in me, so deeply that I would feel her presence always, in the dignity she bestowed as carelessly as rainwater or falling stars."One of Johnson's gifts to us in The Sweet By and By is his writing about aging and the elderly with such compassion and dignity. In fact, I understand that groups that deal with the aged are using this book as a teaching tool. For whatever your reason for reading, I can't recommend it enough.