Here is a novel that I could not put down and one I find thought-provoking and heart-wrenching with surprising twists:
How the Light Gets In by Jolina Petershein
Here is what the book review states: “When Ruth Neufeld’s husband and father-in-law are killed in a bombing overseas, she travels to Wisconsin Mennonite community with her daughters and mother-in-law Mabel to bury them, grieve, and piece together their next steps.
They are welcomed by Elam Albrecht, her husband’s cousin, who invites them to stay at his cranberry farm through the
harvest. Sifting through fields of berries and memories of a marriage that was broken long before her husband died, Ruth finds solace and healing in the beauty of the land…and also encounters the possibility of new love with Elam, whose gentle encouragement awakens hopes and dreams she thought she’d lost forever.
But an unexpected twist threatens the happy ending Ruth is about to write for herself. On the precipice of a fresh start, Ruth must make an impossible decision: “which path to choose if her husband isn’t dead after all.”
I hope you will stop in and check it out and see why you must not miss it!
On another note:
Here’s something I would guess not many of you know about our Library. Each month we receive the Large Print version of The Reader’s Digest. It is the same uplifting, witty and wonderful magazine we all grew up with. The recent copies are on the right table and back issues in the magazine rack on the north wall.
Four times a year we receive the Reader’s Digest Large Print Select Editions of condensed novels. There are two novels per edition. There are several of these on the “New Books” shelves and previous years are located on the shelf beneath the Betty Barrick Memorial.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the novels included in each volume. Quick and easy reads and some editions have Christmas novels. Give them a try.
NEW BOOKS ADDED IN JANUARY 2021
As with all Colleen Coble books you have interesting characters with realistic problems. This is a romantic suspense with the usual twists and turns that keep you guessing. In this book you meet Harper, raised in foster homes who wanting a family, takes a DNA test and discovers she has a half-sister. Set in Florida, this book involves three lifetimes, multiple deaths, mermaids and mollusks!
“In the wake of WWII, a grieving fisherman submits a poem to a local newspaper: a rallying cry for hope, purpose . . . and rocks. Its message? Send me a rock for the person you lost, and I will build something life-giving. When the poem spreads farther than he ever intended, Robert Bliss’s humble words change the tide of a nation. Boxes of rocks inundate the harbor village on the coast of Maine, and he sets his callused hands to work.” The time frames of 1944 and 2001 are linked with the maxim: Life is big, God is bigger. This is an inspiring story of grief, honor, memory and love and one person’s journey to find the light in the world and fight for it.
This is a story that portrays events in the Pacific theater of World War II and the long-term effects it has on families over years and decades. The book was inspired by a captivating true story of courage and forgiveness.