Finished the last, oh, 20 pages. Oh well. Better luck next time.
I did like this book, but I didn't love it. Part of that was that I really wanted to get through it so I could start reading Dune. But I think most of it's just that the story was more low-key than I generally enjoy. There was no real climax; there were ups and downs, but it just kind of petered out. The end, though, was really sweet, how they went back in time a little and showed the author's father and mother as young people trying to start a church for their community, and then skipped forward to when the mom was old and living in another state, but came back to visit the church and its new pastor. It really sort of embodies the idea of community spirit, how a place can become a part of you, and vice versa. I was interested to look in the back and see that many of the siblings live and work in our area. Not that I'm going to try and seek them out or anything, that would just be too weird and way overdoing the whole thing. It's just a cool little piece of local history. I always get a little thrill when I see that an author or a character lives close to us. Marley and Me, for one. And Laurie Halse Anderson actually lived in Ambler for a while, and set a whole series of children's books here, which I eagerly devoured as a fourth grader upon discovering them. These days, she's living in northern New York, and her YA stuff like Forge and Speak is more my speed, but it's still so cool!
Soon, I'm hoping to add to this post with information from a family friend who actually knew the author's mother.
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