I just completed a little reading spurt and was so surprised and delighted that I liked 3 out of 3 of the books.
How to Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward
From the back cover: To their neighbors in suburban Holt, New York, the Winters family has it all: a grand home, a trio of radiant daughters and a sense of security in their affluent corner of America. But when five-year-old Ellie disappears, the fault lines within the Winters family are exposed. Joseph, once a successful businessman, succumbs to his demons. Isabelle retreats into memories of her debutante days in Savannah, Georgia. And Ellie’s bereft sisters grow apart: Madeline reluctantly stays at home, while Caroline runs away. Fifteen years later, Caroline, now a New Orleans cocktail waitress, sees a photograph of a woman in “People Magazine”. Convinced that it is Ellie all grown up, Caroline embarks on a search for her missing sister, armed with copies of the photograph, an amateur detective guide, and a cooler of Dixie beer. As Caroline travels through the New Mexico desert, the mountains of Colorado, and the smoky underworld of Montana, she devotes herself to salvaging her broken family. With dark humour and gorgeous prose, Amanda Eyre Ward brings us a spellbinding novel about sisters, family secrets and love.
I’ll admit I almost didn’t read this book due to the main character being “Caroline the cocktail waitress,” not something I want to associate with my two year old Caroline. In the end, I’m glad I read this book but admit the subject matter was tough. Missing kids, marital abuse, alcoholism, kidnapping, drugs…definitely not light reading.
I give How to Be Lost 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White
From the back cover: For more than ten years, Naomi and Phil Harrison enjoyed a marriage of heady romance, tempered only by the needs of their children. But on a vacation alone, the couple perishes in a flight over the Grand Canyon. After the funeral, their daughters, Ruthie and Julia, are shocked by the provisions in their will. Spanning nearly two decades, the sisters journeys take them from their familiar home in Atlanta to sophisticated bohemian San Francisco, a mountain town in Virginia, the campus of Berkeley, and lofts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As they heal from loss, search for love, and begin careers, their sisterhood, once an oasis, becomes complicated by resentment, anger, and jealousy. It seems as though the echoes of their parents deaths will never stop reverberating until another shocking accident changes everything once again.
White tackles a topic which I’m sure every parent has worried about. What will happen to my kids if I die? This issue is further complicated for blended families. Ruthie and Julia end up in completely different situations and their relationship suffers as a result.
I give A Soft Place to Land 4 out of 5 stars
Prayers For Sale by Sandra Dallas
From the back cover: Hennie Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in the mountains of Middle Swan, Colorado since before it was Colorado. Nit Spindle is just seventeen and newly married. She and her husband have just moved to the high country in search of work. It’s 1936 and the depression has ravaged the country and Nit and her husband have suffered greatly. Hennie notices the young woman loitering near the old sign outside of her house that promises “Prayers For Sale”. Hennie doesn’t sell prayers, never has, but there’s something about the young woman that she’s drawn to. The harsh conditions of life that each have endured create an instant bond and an unlikely friendship is formed, one in which the deepest of hardships are shared and the darkest of secrets are confessed.
I loved this book and think you might too. In fact, I was reading it one day at soccer practice and another woman came up to me and told me how much she enjoyed the book. Nit and Hennie, although vastly different in ages, become good friends and confidants through Hennie’s stories and their love of quilting. This book will make you stay up past your bedtime.
I give Prayers For Sale 5 out of 5 stars
Do you have any recommendations for me?
