Faye, Faraway

I enjoyed Helen Fisher's Faye, Faraway so much more than I anticipated that I would. It's a time travel fantasy about a 37-year old woman who sorely feels the loss of her mother who died when she was 8-years old. She was taken in by loving neighbors who eventually adopted her. At 37, she's in a loving marriage with a guy whom she adores and two kids who are the world to her. 

We're given little information about what Faye's life was like as a teenager or young adult. The fact that two of her best friends are from her college days makes me think that, although she missed her mother, she didn't have too terrible a life.

An old photo and a beat-up cardboard box stir up an intense longing in Faye for her mother. Somehow, thru fantastical means, Faye is transported back to the 1970s where she has the opportunity to meet her mother as well as her younger self.  In the beginning, I wondered how hokey the book was going to be. But because Faye finds time travel as fantastical as I did as a reader, it really works.

There were some wonderfully written passages in the novel that I've bookmarked so I can read them again. And again. And again. They were thoughtful and loving and they really spoke to me as if they were written for me.

It's a novel about faith, friendship, mother-daughter relationships and love. It's a story of guardian angels.

After my mom was hospitalized at what turned out to be the end of her life, we kind of wondered where her engagement ring was. My dad said she often hid it when she left the house so we were looking in what we thought might be "great" hiding places. No luck. At all. On the night of her burial, I was sitting in the dining room of my childhood home. My 104-year old house. People were walking around and the floors were creaking more than with just my dad, my brother and I tottering around. A hollow glass heart that I don't think we'd noticed tumbled down from the top of a secretary desk kept in the corner. It rolled across the floor. As I picked it up, my mom's ring fell from the hollow part of the heart and into my hand. It was a sign that my mom was looking over me. This morning, after I put down Faye, Faraway, the first thing I spotted was the hollow heart which now sits on my dresser. To make me feel the love of my mother in a more concrete way than just through memories. Not related to the novel... or is it?

This also confirmed that while I say I really don't like the genre of fantasy, I do like the sub-genre of time travel when the themes of the story of themes I enjoy reading about. I loved The Time Traveler's Wife, 11/22/63, and most recently Kindred.

I'd highly recommend Faye, Faraway.

Ordinary Grace

I discovered Ordinary Grace while scrolling through the books available at the library last week. I recognized the name William Kent Krueger as being the author of This Tender Land, a much talked about novel these days, one that I haven't (yet?) read. Next I checked the reviews on goodreads.com. They seemed fabulous. Having nothing else to read, I checked this novel out of the library and began to read.

I was quickly caught up in the summer story of brothers, 13-year old Frankie Drum and  his younger brother, Jake.

It was the summer of 1961. Their father, Nathan, has been a minister in the southern Minnesota town of New Bremen, the hometown of their mother, Ruth. There's a lot of personal history in this small town.

The summer of 1961 is a summer of tragedy for the Drum family and for the people of New Bremen. Each person's faith is tested numerous times over the summer. As such, this is a book about faith. It's also a mystery, a genre I don't typically enjoy. But in this case the mystery was secondary.

For a book full of heartache, this was a pleasant book to lose oneself in.
 

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

I'm in a Facebook group called Renee's Reading Club and everyone there has been raving about Robert Dugoni's The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. It comes up all the time when someone is asking for a nice, good novel. Easy to read during a pandemic. A feel good novel.

I liked the book. It was easy to read. It was a good distraction from what's going on around us. The end left me with a feel good feeling. But did I love it? No. I merely liked it, although I really liked Dugoni's writing style. Would I recommend this novel? Sure. Why not?

Samuel Hill, a small town ophthalmologist, was born with an eye condition, ocular albinism, which gives his eyes a red color. When he started primary school, the kids called him "Devil Boy" which led to him being called Sam Hell. His mother always claimed that he had extraordinary eyes because he was going to have an extraordinary life.

It was Sam's two best friends, Ernie and Mickie, who helped him get through those primary school days and beyond. This is really a novel about friendship. What we need our friends for and how we give back. I was envious of the close friendships that Sam was able to maintain for so many years.

I'm hoping this won't be my last post for who knows how long. I'm having trouble with the new format of blogger. Once the "legacy" format goes away, unless they really fix the new format, I won't be able to post. Blogger says I'll be able to use the old format for another two weeks. And I'm sure I'll finish a few more books before then. In the meantime, this is frustrating. Follow me on Facebook if you can't follow me here.