Can We End the Year on a Positive Note?
So many books, as I have noted, dwell on a horrifyingly possible future or horrifying things that have happened in the past or horrifying things that are happening now. In case you want to read something that makes you feel good, I have a few suggestions, most of which I have read!!
I just finished reading The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans. It is one of those books that you immediately want to discuss to someone else who has read it. A very strong woman in her seventies communicates to those around her, and sometimes to famous authors and media personalities, by writing letters. She has a few haunting secrets and relationship problems. She also has delightful friends and a quirky funny personality. Through her letters and those of people with whom she corresponds, the reader gets to know Sybil Van Antwerp, and Sybil Van Antwerp gets to know herself! The Wall Street Journal called the book, “This year’s breakout novel nobody saw coming.”
Another novel that initially got little fanfare is Theo of Golden. Allen Levi writes a debut novel about an elderly man named Theo who moves into a quiet Southern town and becomes interested in portraits that hang in the local pub. He then begins to buy these portraits to give them to the people they depict. At first the town’s people are suspicious. Then they are intrigued, and finally they become fond of Theo and the strange mission he must be on. There is an element of mystery to the book that I doubt you will figure out before the end, at least I didn’t! It really is a ‘must read.’
Rather than checking this book from the library, as I did the above two, I bought this one to read on my device. It took a while to get into the book, but the premise was very intriguing. James Goodhand’s Reports of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated begins when a dead body is wrongly identified. The man the hospital thinks has died has not! The actual dead man was his neighbor. The man who is NOT dead tries to set the record straight to no avail, and his family comes to town and arranges his funeral. In the meanwhile, the book meanders back to days gone by as we learn all about the man and the ‘love of his life.’ If the memories seem a bit tedious to read through, they set the stage for an unbelievable ending worthy of comparison to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the book!!
The last book I mention in this entry is one I have not read but want to. The book is The Forgotten Book Club, by Kate Story. I think it is probably ‘lightweight’ but nonetheless heartwarming. The story begins when Grace’s husband Frank dies and Grace decides to join his all male book club. The club is unique in that for an hour the gentlemen members gather and then read silently, never talking or discussing a book. Somehow, through this experience, Grace finds a way to reconnect to her husband, discover some of his secrets and deal with her grief. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?
