MAY 2015 BOOK SELECTION - AT THE WATER'S EDGE

My book selection this month is At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen. You may recognize this writer from the novel, Water for Elephants which was made into a film. I don’t usually read brand new releases because I have such a backlog to read. However, this time, I ordered it from the public library…. I was about thirtieth in line… and thought I would not get it before Christmas. Lo and behold, it was available right away so I grabbed it. An easy read and an interesting story, I gobbled it down.

About halfway through the novel I made the mistake of reading a few reviews on Amazon. Big mistake. Here I was, enjoying the read and some reviewer dissed it. I found that it began to inform my enjoyment of the novel. In a perfect world, it shouldn’t have, and I don’t usually listen to reviews about movies or anything else. I try to form my own opinion. But it niggled at the back of my mind.

It was an epiphany for me.

So here’s the thing. I’m a writer, and because of that, I know the blood and sweat that goes into creating, shaping, editing, editing, editing, coddling and producing any work of fiction or non-fiction. I’ve been guilty of doing the very thing that I find so annoying… passing judgement on other people’s work… and in print no less. We all make book selections based on our tastes and interests. Who am I to tell you what’s NOT worth reading? So I won’t anymore. I will only print a Book Selection if I truly love a book. So the next time (after this month) I make a selection, it will be because it makes my heart soar.

So back to this, my final selection, until that time. I truly enjoyed At the Water’s Edge. It takes place during WWII in New York and moves to the Scottish Highlands. It was about human relationships, connections, humanity and what could happen when there is a lack of any of the three. There was a magical element to the story which added dimension and depth. Recommend.