Sunday, March 16, 2014

What's on my bookshelf?


One of my favorite things is a lovely new pile of books on my night stand ready for me to dive into at bedtime.  Yesterday I had the luxury of browsing unhurriedly at the Chapters for an hour and I took full advantage coming home with 6 great books.  As I looked through my favorite section, the discount tables, it was not for the first time that I felt wounded for the authors whose works were being sold for $4.99.  All the love and work that went into their work was being sold for a pittance but at the same time I consoled myself with the thought that at least the poorer shoppers were able to enjoy their work. 
I had a lovely experience at the cashier’s desk as my clerk happened to have read one of my choices “Orphan Train” by Christina Baker Kline.  She recommended a similar book called “Calling Me Home” by Julie Kibler and because she was so enthusiastic about it I followed her back to the discount table and after reading the first page decided it was a keeper.  As a perpetual reader since the age of nine I still find it thrilling when I find a book that I simply cannot put down.  Of late years the experience has been less frequent so it is with pleasure that I can recommend “Orphan Train” as one of these books, not-put-down-able.  It’s written in the third person narrating two women’s stories some 80 years apart but bringing them together in a very natural way. Vivian and Molly are sympathetic characters who engage the reader’s interest from the moment they hit the page.  Very satisfying.
So here’s one of the comments on Calling Me Home – “If Julie Kibler’s novel .. . were a young woman, her grandmother would be To Kill a Mockingbird her sister would be The Help and her cousin would be The Notebook. . . .”  Doesn’t that sound interesting?

No comments:

Post a Comment