- I was looking for a nice, quiet read.
I also recommend:
- The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by Julie Stuart
- Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith
Summary from GoodReads:
With writing reminiscent of Alice Munro, Carol Shields, Larry McMurtry, and Elizabeth Strout, Juliet in August uncovers the incredible drama beneath the inhabitants of a sleepy prairie town. Juliet, Saskatchewan, is a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of town—a dusty oasis on the edge of the Little Snake sand hills. It’s easy to believe that nothing of consequence takes place there. But the hills vibrate with life, and the town’s heart beats in the rich and overlapping stories of its people: the rancher afraid to accept responsibility for the land his adoptive parents left him; the bank manager grappling with a sudden understanding of his own inadequacy; a shy couple, well beyond middle age, struggling with the recognition of their feelings for each other. And somewhere, lost in the sand, a camel named Antoinette.
My Review:
Juliet in August is one of the most understated, beautifully written books I’ve read in 2012. Dianne Warren has created a book that, with the subtlety and grace of a racing horse, has completely taken over my imagination and whisked me away to a little town in Canada named Juliet.
Juliet in August begins with a horse race – a story which is the foundation of the short tales that follow it. In a way, this book is a mixture of a bunch of short stories, strung together in such a pitch-perfect way that they do not begin to mix until I became completely embroiled in the lives of each and every one of the characters. My heart ached for the Dalton’s, I explored life with Lee and mourned his adopted parents with him as well. The time I spent reading I felt as if I was visiting newly acquired friends and I loved every single minute.
I am pretty sure, even more so as I sit here writing this review, that Dianne Warren is kind of a genius. She packed so much material in short segments, making them seem as if the pages were flying by but time was slowing in the process. And the entire time, I felt as if I was reading a beautifully written, literary western novel and that each person I was connecting to was someone who could easily be linked to a friend in my own life.
Juliet in August surprised and delighted me and easily fits in with my top five books of the year. Don’t be fooled by its simple cover and name – this book is one of the most complex and interesting you will pick up this year as well, I promise.
Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!
