The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters

Jeffrey Zaslow, author of The Girls From Ames and co-author of The Last Lecture, was killed in a car accident on February 10. He was driving to a show to promote his latest book, The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters. Publishers Weekly called the book "[a] tender, intimate study of the changing nature of wedlock [that] traces the many generations of devoted customers at a Michigan bridal shop. The Detroit-based author, now a columnist at the Wall Street Journal, with three daughters of his own, elicits personal stories from worthy brides-to-be captured at the store, such as the Baptist-raised local daughter who along with her three sisters swore "a vow of purity" until marriage; the 40-year-old marrying for the first time; and the young lady maimed in a car crash whose fiance stood by her." The touching stories are made even more poignant by the untimely death of the author.