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When someone you love asks for your hand in marriage, you have several choices. You could say “No.”

You can say “Yes, how does the day after tomorrow sound?” or “Yes, I’ll buy a pile of bridal magazines and start planning now.”

Or, as in “Between Goodbyes,” the newest novel by Anita Bunkley, you could say, “Okay, but first, let me check with the other two men who asked me to marry them.” Ahhh, decisions, decisions.

Niya Londres is very thankful for the life she has. Her path to fame started on a refugee boat from Cuba to Florida. But when renegades captured the boat, Niya and her brother fell overboard. Injured, scared, and fearing for Lorenzo, Niya found refuge at a small diner in a swamp. Her first break in America was meeting Sandi Lee Holt, who gave Niya shelter and the impetus to flee to Miami.

Niya’s second break was meeting Tremont. When musician Tremont Henderson spotted the beautiful Cuban dancer, he was smitten and angled a way to make her his. Soon, Niya was dancing for Tremont’s band, giving rumba lessons to rich Floridians, and wearing Tremont’s engagement ring. But Tremont was playing fast-and-loose with the IRS, and the game was almost up.

Niya’s third break was meeting Astin Spence at one of her performances. Astin was tall and handsome and owned a resort in Nevada, and he danced with Niya as if they were two parts of a whole. She couldn’t get him out of her mind, even though she was engaged to someone else. Was it possible to love two men?

How about three? Granger Cooper molded Niya into a Broadway star, which was her fourth break. He was Henry Higgins to Niya’s Eliza Doolittle, and he controlled what she wore, what she ate, how she spoke, even the kind of music she enjoyed. Granger convinced Niya that she needed him to make her a star, and he pushed for a wedding as soon as possible.

With Tremont in prison for tax evasion, Astin far away in Nevada, and Granger gnashing his teeth in London, Niya needs to make a choice. Who will hear her say goodbye?

I’ve read quite a few books by author Anita Bunkley in the past few years. This one catapults her into my “Favorite Authors” category.

“Between Goodbyes” has everything you want in a novel: a heroine who has a few flaws, but is basically good-hearted and very smart; a handsome, rugged cowboy-type guy with a secret; a musician bad-boy with attitude; a rich man with lies on his lips and money to burn; and a best-friend character that turns out to be not-so-friend-like. Toss them together in night clubs, theatre stages, ghettos, and ritzy resorts, and you know you’re in for a story you won’t want to say “adios” to until the holy-cow ending.

If you’re looking for a great book to jump into this new year, you have lots of choices. Pick this one. “Between Goodbyes” is surely one you’ll want to say “hello” to.

The next time you hold something old — an antique, an heirloom, an artifact — imagine the stories it could tell if it could talk.

Someone bought that item new, or made it for a beloved. Maybe it was carried across continents or states, tucked in a backpack or spirited beneath petticoats. No matter where the thing was or where it came from, it takes some serious sleuthing to find out the story of that which you hold in your hand.

Hannah Heath is a detective of sorts, specializing in antique books. In “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks, an old manuscript tells Hannah a story, and it’s not just the one printed on the pages.

It was the first illustrated manuscript discovered, and it rocked the antiquities world when it was found. Because Jewish belief forbade lush drawings in prayer books, the so-called Sarajevo haggadah, created in medieval Spain with vivid colors and detailed drawings, was rare and precious beyond description. It was the jewel of Bosnia, recently saved from the ravages of war. The U.N. asked rare book expert Hannah Heath to examine the ancient tome and to ensure that it deteriorates no further.

Carefully aware that politics are at the heart of this career-making assignment, Hannah questions why she was chosen. Surely her former mentor, Werner Heinrich, would have wanted to hold the haggadah in his hands. Amitai Yomtov, one of the most brilliant men in the field, would have leaped at the chance to examine it. Even the haggadah’s kustos, Ozren Karaman, was a more obvious choice.

But the U.N. wants Hannah, so she carefully unwraps the haggadah and finds a mystery. A small fragment of insect wing is imbedded in the book’s folds. There’s a trace of salt. A stain (wine?) mars a page corner. Holes were made for clasps, but clasps are missing. And curiously, an ebony-skinned woman is depicted in the illustrations, which defies what’s known about culture at the time the book was made.

Meant for seder, the haggadah holds more than prayers. If the book could talk, it would tell stories of war and persecution, sickness, bravery, and love. With her own personal problems distracting her, will Hannah listen?

“People of the Book” starts out slow; so slow, that I wasn’t sure I could make it through almost 400 pages. There’s a lot of set-up to make the story work, and not much happens for the first couple segments. In the end, I was glad I stuck it out.

With time-framing reminiscent of “Pulp Fiction,” some factual history, the existence of a real book, and a fictional character who is increasingly easy to like, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks takes you on a five-century trip from Bosnia to Venice, Vienna to Spain, inside mosques and Getos, churches and torture chambers. And with a list like that, what’s not to love?

If you like historical mysteries, antique-hunting, or “The DaVinci Code”, pick up “People of the Book.” This book-about-a-book is a double delight for anyone who craves the written word.

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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.