I NEVER PROMISED YOU A GOODIE BAG

In May 1991 when she was 22 years old, Jennifer Gilbert was brutally attacked and very nearly stabbed to death by a 250-pound convicted murderer out on parole. She fought off the attacker and survived physically, but in years following, had no reason to believe that anything good would ever happen to her again.

She had lived, but at what cost? She had no heart, no joy. Determined not to let the attack define her, Jennifer threw herself into the event-planning business, eventually starting her own company, and made her mission to help other people feel the joy she thought she herself could never experience again. If Jennifer could plan, execute and hold together events, then she could also hold herself together at least on the outside. Surrounding herself with other people's beauty and happiness, some of it eventually rubbed off on her. Each event she planned helped to heal her and bring her back to life and taught her some invaluable lessons about what's important, what's fixable, and what's worth celebrating.

I NEVER PROMISED YOU A GOODIE BAG is about pausing the constant flow of our lives now and then, just long enough to take a look around and raise a glass to the people we love. Each chapter tells entertaining, funny, bittersweet, sometimes hair-raising stories about the most memorable celebrations she planned, while weaving in milestones from her life: the moment she got her laugh back, and realized that she had been faking it for so many years; the realization that she hadn't smelled anything in five years because she was too focused on hearing and seeing the senses that betrayed her on the day of her attack; her heartbreaking romances; miscarriages and the births of her children, her father's cancer, her husband's lost job and finances when his investment company collapsed.

JENNIFER GILBERT founded the event-management company Save the Date, and after only five years in business, she was awarded "Entrepreneur of the Year" in 1998 -- the only woman to receive the honor and the youngest in the award's history. Jennifer has consistently been on "Working Woman Magazine's Top 500 List" and she is often quoted for her expert advice on everything from meeting planning to wedding advice in national publications from The Wall Street Journal and Business Week to Cosmopolitan and InStyle Weddings.