Book Embargo

Light of the Moon is Luanne Rice’s newest novel. It takes place mostly in France, but our main female character is from Connecticut. I have never read anything by Luanne Rice before, and I enjoyed this experience. At our bookstore we have, what we call, “Calgon-Take-Me-Away” reading. This is definitely in that catergory. It is the story of a woman who goes to France, to visit the white horses of the Camargue.

The story begins with a vacationing woman being swept off her feet, literally. Beyond the entertainment value of this story, I believe that this book could help someone deal with grief in a way that books found in the grieving section never could. The death of Susannah’s mother, and the loss of Sari’s mother ties together in a way that could help people accept the grieving process. While some loss is dealt with though time like Susannah with her mother, other forms can be even more scarring. The manner in which Sari loses her mother, with the pain of the following accident, keeps her trapped in the grief of her five year old self, even though eight years have passed.

If you feel like reading a classic or a literary tome, this will not fit the bill. If you feel like being swept away by other people’s problems (in France no less), then check out Light of the Moon. It was a delightful story, but if you are anything like me, find the tissues BEFORE YOU START. It will make everything much easier. Look for this new novel at your local independent bookshop now!

Tags: books, camargue, connecticut, fiction, france, genre, grief, hardcover, horses, light of the moon, luanne rice, mother, rice, romance, white horses

The fourth confirmed author for our summer events at the Innisfree Bookshop is Ann Hood. This novel is about a woman who loses her five year old daughter and is kept from drowning in grief by her “Knitting Circle.”

This is from Ann’s website about The Knitting Circle. I think it is just so beautiful and I want to make sure you read it!

HE KNITTING CIRCLE:

This novel is very special to me. A few years ago I was afraid I would never be able to write again. For my entire life, reading and writing were ways to work out what I felt, what I worried about, what I feared, what I hoped for. Then on April 18, 2002, my five year old daughter Grace died suddenly from a virulent form of strep. As an added insult, when I lost Grace I also lost my ability to use words. I couldn’t read and I couldn’t write. Letters didn’t come together to make words; sentences did not make sense. I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t focus.

Almost two years later, the literary journal Tin House sent out a request to writers for submissions for their theme issue on Lying. That night-I was unable to sleep well and was often up walking around the house at all hours-an essay came to me fully developed on the lies about grief. I sat down and wrote it and Tin House published it.

That essay opened the door back to writing for me. During that time when I wasn’t reading or writing, I learned how to knit. Knitting, I believe, saved my life. But it also introduced me to a new world of yarn and colors and textures and of people. Sitting in various knitting circles, I slowly learned that knitting had rescued other women too. Bad marriages, illness, addiction-knitting gave comfort and even hope through life’s trials.

Once I began to write again, a novel about women in a knitting circle began to take shape. The old adage: Write what you know is true, but I like the writer Grace Paley’s version even better: Write what you don’t know about what you know. With that in mind, I began to read books about knitting history, knitting poetry, knitting everything! I gave my protagonist, Mary, the loss of her only child, and then surrounded her with women who, while teaching her to knit, also tell her their own stories of love and loss and recovery.

The women in this fictitious knitting circle became as real to me as those strangers I sat knitting with after I lost Grace. Each of their stories is told in their own voice and each story moves Mary along in her grieving process.

This novel is important to me as a writer, as a woman, as a mother, and as a knitter. I hope you find comfort and hope-and even knitting tips!-as you read THE KNITTING CIRCLE.

It is in stores now. Our signing for Ann is Saturday August 4th from 2:00-4:00 pm. We hope to see you there!

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Tags: ann hood, author book signing, author events, author signing, book signings, death, grief, hood, knitting, knitting circle, signings