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 so i like to read- 

friends often ask for book suggestions so i created this site in 2014 to help me think about what i read and pass it on.  

I hope you find many good books here!


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idaho by emily ruskovich

2/6/2017

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Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
305 pages
 
What’s it about?
This novel is almost too complicated to describe- it is certainly too complicated to describe well…..
Ann and Wade are married and living in the mountains of Idaho.  Wade is struggling with dementia.   As Wade’s memory fades, Ann finds herself wondering more and more about Wade’s first family.  What really happened on that fateful day that tore Wade and his family apart?
 
What did I think?
WOW!   This is already on my favorites for 2017!  This haunting novel is told with such beauty and insight.  It is about so many different aspects of our human experience.  Loss, memory, healing, forgiveness, redemption, friendship, how we give love and how that experience changes us.  It is complicated and does not wrap the story into a neat little package, but isn’t that true of life as well?
 
Should you read it?
Absolutely!  With sentences such as, “Ann thinks of what Wade told her years ago, about fawns being invisible to the noses of predators.  She watches the fawn walk, nibbling the grass, and she thinks: It leaves no trail.  It is safe from the danger of its history.”   How could this possibly be a first time novelist?
 
Quote-
“Because Wade had thrown everything away- drawings, clothes, toys- each accidental remnant loomed in Ann’s mind with unspeakable importance.  Four moldy dolls buried in the sawdust of a rotten stump.  A high-heeled Barbie shoe that fell from the drainpipe.  A neon toothbrush in a doghouse.  Then, finally, the half-finished drawing book.  Artifacts heavy with importance they didn’t deserve, but which they took on because of their frightening scarcity; they built up against her, making stories of themselves, memories inside her head that should have remained in Wade’s.”
 
If you like this try-
 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
The Enchanted by Rene Denfield
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

9 1/2 stars
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    “Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
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     ratings

    1 to 2- I did not enjoy this book.
    3 to 4- I found some aspect of this book redeeming but would not recommend it.
    5 to 6- I really enjoyed something about this book (characters, plot, meaning etc.) but it was uneven. Some aspects were stronger than others.
    7 to 8- It was a good book.  I liked lots of aspects of this book.  I would recommend it.
    9 to 10- I was sorry to turn the last page.  I highly recommend this book!
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