The Reminders *, a debut novel by writer, singer-songwriter, and actor Val Emmich (Vinyl and Ugly Betty) is the unlikely friendship between a gifted child who remembers everything and a grieving man who is trying to forget.

The 10-year-old Joan Lennon Scully (named after her father's favorite songwriter) has HSAM: highly superior autobiographical memory. While she can recall every minute detail of her life, she is frustrated that everyone else forgets, even the most important things and people in their lives. She thinks winning a local songwriting contest might make her unforgettable.

Their house guest Gavin Winters is a grief-stricken TV actor who recently lost his partner Sydney. Caught on a neighbor's camera (the video went viral) setting fire to everything the couple own, Gavin, embarrassed and humiliated, accepts Paige and Ollie's invitation to visit New Jersey. Gavin and Ollie were college bandmates while Paige grew up with Sydney, and introduced the two. Gradually, Gavin is comforted by Joan's many cinematic and precise memories of Uncle Sydney through the years. As a trade-off, Gavin agrees to help Joan write the "perfect song" for the contest.

Told in the alternating voices of Joan and Gavin, we witness how this quirky friendship takes them on a few wild adventures and eventually heals them both in heartfelt and unusual ways. "(A)chingly sweet, and unexpectedly nuanced. " (Kirkus Reviews)

In Rabbit Cake * * by Annie Hartnett, Elvis (she shares the king's birthday) Babbitt's Mom marked every milestone and holiday by baking a rabbit-shaped cake. According to the Chinese zodiac, rabbit represents longevity and good luck. Thinking back, Elvis thought the first sign of danger was when her mother burned the ears of the rabbit cake for Elvis's 10th birthday. Six months later, her Mom, an accomplished swimmer, sleepwalked into a river and drowned.

Before she could get on with grieving her mother (she was told it would take 18 months), Elvis seemed to be the only one in the family concerned with 15-year-old Lizzie's increasingly bizarre and dangerous sleep-eating behavior. Her father was no help - taking to walking around the house in her mother's silk kimono, wearing lipstick, and adopting a pet parrot that talks like her mother.

Like her mother, a biologist, Elvis finds comfort in facts and figures. She continues to investigate the strange circumstances of her mother's death and tries to complete the research for the book her mother was writing on the sleep habits of animals while coming to terms with her fractured family.

"This is the moving and often funny story of a family trying to figure out what to do next now that their touchstone is gone. The narrator’s voice is a stunning combination of youthful and astute....How a whip-smart young girl handles the loss of her mother and the reorientation of her family; charming and beautifully written." (Kirkus Reviews)

Suggested read-alikes: Carol Rifka Brunt's debut Tell the Wolves I'm Home; The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender; and Invincible Summers, Ann Arbor area author Robin Gaines' debut.

A friend also suggests Option B: facing adversity, building resilience, and finding joy * by Sheryl Sandberg that "explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships... Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere and to rediscover joy."

* = Starred review
* * = 2 starred reviews

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