my take: Oh, I do love is kind of book…for every season and an especially great vacation read: an engaging plot line, a colorful cast of characters, a page-turner and yet requires a bit of reflection, so you can look up at the ocean and palm trees. (Did I mention I read this in Puerto Rico?)
If you read and loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, you are in for a treat. If you haven’t read Harold Fry: go. do. that. You are in for a double treat. This is the lovely companion to Harold’s story. In fact, now I want to go back and re-read to cross reference and see if I caught all the bits and clues Queenie reveals.
If you like the show Derek I think you will get a kick out of this as it’s set in a hospice home staffed with quirky nuns and the final stop for a delightful group of wacky patients.
Miss Queenie waits for Harold to arrive writing in a notebook all she did not tell him. Toward the end of her story she writes:
“….All these years I thought a piece of me was missing. But it was there all along….It has been everywhere, my happiness–when my mother sang a song for me to dance, when my father took my hand to keep me safe–but it was such a small, plain thing that I mistook it for something ordinary and failed to see. We expect our happiness to come with a sign and bells, but it doesn’t….”
Funny (I laughed), touching (I cried), and philosophical (I came away a better person).
my source: well-recommended by Daughter Anne and definitely worth the hardcover purchase at Schuler Books – if you are in West Michigan stop by to borrow.
my verdict: very good feel good read
Oh, I didn't know you had read this one yet! I really thought it was even better than Harold, and I liked that it made me think of Derek too. I've been going around recommending it, but it's tricky because it really means people need to read two… it's even better for having read Harold first.
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