When the seven of us book signing at “The General Store” exchanged books, we left with an armload of books we hoped to get read by 2011. I flipped through each one eagerly, read Debra Chaney’s children’s book, and after finishing Denesh D’sousa’s “Life After Death: The Evidence” and one spy thriller by Vince Flynn, I picked up Becky’s book (a nice antidote, by the way, to terrorism) and have had a delightful time reading it this week, even as a deadline looms over me to read Joyce Meyer’s “In A Second” before a book club meet on January 14!
There are two things that seem to galvanize people very quickly: politics and religion. Sometimes the connection is polar and we quickly shut down and move away; sometimes it is positive and draw us into a comfort, like that famous quilt that Gillie Anne made. A third galvanizer is…books.
I absolutely loved your book. Your prose was stiletto quick and smart, your characters endearing, your story wonderful. You so masterfully brushed a canvas of each generation and its foibles and customs. My favorite chapter has to be “Rose Ella” and her Moats Ark story. This book would be so good on tape; like any good story, it’s even better told out loud. I see why it won the SM Arts Council Fiction Award.
I don’t know if your characters are based on your own family or fictional, but each narrator in each generation endeared himself or herself to this reader. I feel I know you now as more than a fellow writer, Becky; because our writing brings us heart to heart. You are now a friend. I look forward to another book signing session at The General Store. You have so much to teach me!
Glad you liked the book. The characters are fictional, although the name Forbes is in my family and some of the settings are real.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your "What a Christmas!" I finished it the day before Christmas and thought it was delightful.
See you at the next book-signing.