Luanne Oleas

Good ol' [a:Anne Tyler 457 Anne Tyler https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1529285150p2/457.jpg]. She never disappoints. I love her characters and their realistic conversations and situations. In this case, poor Ian thinks he caused his older brother's death and it changes his entire life as he tries to make up for his perceived mistake.I guess in Ian's shoes, I might also join some whacked-out church and hope for redemption, though he's not sure what that looks like. What his life becomes is one of sacrifice as he, at age 19, leaves college to raise his brother's children, two of which (and maybe all three) aren't biologically related to Ian. He's such a good guy, trying so hard to do the right thing. In fact, doing the right thing becomes an obsession with Ian. Agatha, the oldest of his brother's children, seems to be the one most in tune with Ian. Thomas, the second oldest, seems fine to skate through life without a care. Then there's the youngest, Daphne, who is more spiritually in line with Ian and maybe has the most realistic expectations of life. I love how the story takes the characters through 20 years in the blink of an eye, or so it seems. Tyler's sparse descriptions convey just enough about the other members of the Second Chance church, the foreigner neighbors, dear Mrs. Jordan , and Reverend Emmett as well as Ian's aging parents. Ian seems to be there for everyone, but who will be there for Ian? It's a question that a long last is answered in a surprising way. Overall, a lovely book about a good man.

This book kept me up until the wee hours of the morning. (Curse you, Jodi Picoult!) The story grabbed me (mystery of infant found dead in a barn), but the setting (Amish country) really knocked me out.

Ellie is a big city lawyer whose had enough of the rat race. She comes back to Amish country where she used to visit as a child. She returns just in time to get roped into representing an Amish girl, Katie, indicted for killing her newborn baby. Most of the plot twists in this story are initiated by Amish customs. I was particularly fascinated when the court case–it's vintage Picoult, you knew there'd be a court case–finds the accused insisting on telling the truth. If only she could remember what it was.

Ellie brings in an old friend (read: flame), Coop, who is a psychologist, to help Katie remember (and deal with the loss of her infant.) Sparks reignite between Coop & Ellie, but Ellie is still trying to avoid stress, including those from failed relationships.

The twists and turns in the plot made me want to finish, but then bummed out when I did. That's a sign of a great story.

This long, fat book had me stymied for the maybe two-thirds of the book, but I hung in there and the payoff was well worth it. I only give it four stars because I know it was a struggle to get to the payoff. At first, I accused King's editor of doing him an injustice, but the end of the book clarifies that in his acknowledgements. It says:

“Quite often reviewers of novels–especially novels by people who sell great numbers of books–will say, ‘So-and-so would have benefitted from actual editing.' To those tempted to say it about LISEY'S STORY, I would be happy to submit sample pages from my first-draft manuscript, complete with [his editor's] notes. I had first-year French essays that came back cleaner.”

So, the mystery was intentional. I'm not sure if the narrator was supposed to be unreliable, but that's how it felt to me.

I read JANE EYRE mainly so I could say I read JANE EYRE. Though there were good parts and some great writing, it was an exhausting experience. It may have been because I was reading an annotated edition, which explained everything! However, that was helpful at time due to the colloquial terms and now obscure references.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and I couldn't wait to finish, just to see where she ended up. It started off rather gloomy, and pretty much stayed that way until the middle. However, considering when she was born, and when the book was written, she did all right for herself.