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Recommended Reading—The Garden of Happy Endings
Periodically I like to choose
from among the best books I’ve read recently and share them with my readers.
I’m a big advocate of spreading the word about great writers and great writing.
The last couple of months, I have been truly amazed—almost everything I read
was so great, most of the books made it to this list. Over the next couple of
weeks, I’ll talk about my favorites in more detail than usual—because they
deserve it. I hope you’ll check some of them out.
One of the books that really
stood out was THE GARDEN OF HAPPY ENDINGS by Barbara O’Neal. I discovered
Barbara through another author I love, Jennifer Crusie, and immediately ran
through everything she’d had published under that name. [She also writes
romance under her own name, Barbara Samuel.] I suppose these books would be
classified as “Women’s Fiction,” but frankly, I think they are in a genre all
their own.
The book blurb says: “In Barbara
O’Neal’s novel of hope and renewal, two very different sisters discover that
life is like a garden: tend to it daily, nourish it with patience and optimism,
then watch the beauty unfold.”
The beauty is interspersed with
darkness, and the hope with tragedy. This is not an easy book to read, although
the writing itself is lyrical and flows smoothly. Reverend Elsa Montgomery struggles
with a crisis of faith after a terrible incident, and her sister Tamsin’s world
is shattered when she discovers that her husband is a criminal. But there is
also gardening, and community, and faith, and friendship, and love.
This book is a treasure: a feast
for mind and heart and soul. Harsh, vibrant, gentle, loving…its spirit will
resonate in my bones long after the words have faded from memory. It may be a
novel, but it is not a work of fiction. Just the opposite, for it contains the
essence of all that is real and true about life. Including, of course, a
difficult, believable, and ultimately satisfying tale of love.
If you read one book this
summer, make it this one.
Coming up soon, my favorite paranormal romance, YA paranormal, fantasy, urban fantasy and short story anthology!
Also coming up is my next online workshop at the class loop http://witchywritingwithdeborahblake.blogspot.com/ -- registration is open now!
For those who are writing a witch character (whether protagonist or
antagonist) and want to get it right. See what's already been done,
learn the basics of a modern witchcraft practice, and get hints from
someone who has written six nonfiction and four fiction books about
witches, magic, and spellcraft.
This is a class that I have given a number of times before, usually over the course of about three weeks. We're going to see if we can cram it into FIVE DAYS. Are you up to the challenge? I hope you'll join me!
Not that I need another book on my teetering TBR pile, but this sounds like one I HAVE to read. Maybe I'll add it to the growing TBR collection on my Kindle. It's less likely to fall on my head when I open the book cabinet that way...
ReplyDeleteIf you PROMISE to give it back (because I will be rereading this one), I'll loan you my copy :-)
DeleteI'd intending to do my usual bunch of reviews all together, then realized that I'd raved so much about this one book, there wasn't room...
I truly loved this book. And I agree 100% with you here:
ReplyDelete"its spirit will resonate in my bones long after the words have faded from memory. It may be a novel, but it is not a work of fiction. Just the opposite, for it contains the essence of all that is real and true about life. Including, of course, a difficult, believable, and ultimately satisfying tale of love."
And I come to this book from the point of view of an atheist. It really is for everyone no matter what your faith or lack thereof.
And I'm a Pagan. It really doesn't matter what you think about religion, so much as what you feel about spirit.
Delete