Book Talk

I haven't gotten around to reading (or buying, for that matter) this month's book club pick: Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza.  I may pick it up at some point when I'm back in a non-fiction mood.  Recently, however, I have managed to read three engrossing, fictional page-turners, and I think you'll like them, too.

Earlier this summer, I saw Save Me featured in a handful of magazines and on "The Today Show" as a new must-read.  Although it is a newer release only available in hardback, I found it on amazon.com for just a few dollars.  What an incredible book.  Rose, your seemingly average mom, is volunteering at her daughter's elementary school when the unthinkable happens and she is forced into making an impossible decision.  In the aftermath, Rose is deemed a hero, the very worst kind of villain, and everything in between.  In a situation that tests her character, her emotional and physical strength, her self-worth, and her relationships, Rose emerges as a strong and beloved character.  If you're looking for a book you can't put down, it's Save Me.

It had been a long time since I'd read an Anita Shreve book, but when we were in MN a couple weeks ago, my mom had just finished Rescue so I borrowed it from her.  There are some authors that are just good go-tos for me, and I knew going in that between Shreve's writing style and her captivating story-telling I would be sucked into this book.  Webster is an EMT in the same small Vermont town where he grew up, and after a series of events, he finds himself raising his young daughter on his own.  This story challenges that idea that love is enough, and makes the reader question how a mother could ever choose anything over her child.  Webster's character is endearing, and the story as a whole is heartbreaking and beautiful all at once.

The Bright Forever is another one of my MN bookshelf finds.  The author, Lee Martin, is a the director of the creative writing program at The Ohio State University, and it's obvious in his writing.  This story is told from various points of view; each character tells his or her side, and the narrator gets a turn once in a while, too.  The writing is literally without flaw.  Even if you dislike the story, you'll be caught up in the perfection of the prose.  But you won't dislike this story.  With an eeriness that will remind you of "American Beauty" and The Lovely Bones, you'll find yourself turning pages well past your bedtime.

"Yet a little while we linger,

Ere we reach our journey's end;

Yet a little while of labor,

Ere the evening shades descend;

Then we'll lay us down to slumber,

But the night will soon be o'er;

In the bright, the bright forever,

We shall wake, to weep no more."

The Bright Forever by Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)