The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

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As we take a rest in the comforting month of December and also begin the work of planning out 2023, we’d love to hear from you, darling readers, as to what you’d like to read with us during Virtual Book Club! You know the drill on how to get in contact with us, so do that in your preferred manner. Smoke signals not suggested during a snowstorm. Cuddle up!

I am so thankful for my book buddy and her habit of listening to Anne Bogel, who had author Jon Cohen on episode 160 of her podcast What Should I Read Next? and repeatedly recommends his books to other podcast guests. That includes today’s comforting read, Harry’s Trees, but Cohen has written two other novels, The Man in the Window, and Max Lakeman and the Beautiful Stranger. Of note, Cohen is also co-writer for the Steven Spielburg directed Tom Cruise movie Minority Report based on the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name. A former critical care nurse, Cohen is the recipient of a creative writing grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Darling Readers, I am going to should on you. Not because I didn’t do what I’m telling you to do, but because I did. READ. THE. MARKETING. COPY. Harry’s Trees does not start out being a book that is comforting. There is so much tragedy interlacing this story because of  the sudden deaths of the spouses of two of our main characters. Harry is a widower and Amanda is a widow with a young daughter, who find each other a year after their tragedies occur. The whole story, though, is one of hope and the comfort of a good story, especially one given by a trusted librarian. Let me just tell you, I want to be librarian Olive Perkins when I grow up. She knows how important the power of story is to Oriana who is grieving the death of her father, no matter how much Oriana’s mother Amanda thinks the fantasy world Oriana has been inhabiting takes her away from real life. 

From the first page, Cohen will have you believing in the power of signs and coincidences that can and do direct our very real human lives. I’m giving Harry’s Trees a 4.5 star review. I’ll go ahead and round it up to five, not because I think I’ll be re-reading it anytime soon, but because it’s a big contender for top book of the year. I enjoyed every tug of my heart string, every sarcastic comment from librarian Olive Perkins, and am going to be recommending it to all readers everywhere for all the reasons.

What book took you on an emotional rollercoaster ride and left you with a book hangover?

~Ashley

Darling readers, I listened to Anne Bogel discuss Harry’s Trees on multiple occasions, and I’ve listened to the author, Jon Cohen, discuss this book with her, and I’ve probably even read the marketing copy, but I WAS NOT READY for the first 15% of this book.  Trigger Warning: Those two deaths discussed in the aforementioned marketing copy are heavily discussed on the page as our main characters are still grieving their spouses, and those first 15% suck you in and are tragic.  After that though, this book is as comforting as an afternoon curled up on the couch in front of a fire, with a dog warming your feet, a beverage warming your hand, and the view of a crackling fire and soft snowfall outside.  Yes, that is my goal for this weekend (except the fireplace is gas), and it’s also the most comforting reading experience I could conjure in my mind’s eye.  Also, I did warn Ashley of the gut-wrenching beginning of this book, and still, you saw what she said (after she complained that I didn’t remember the marketing copy).  

And yet, without that first heartbreaking chunk of the story, I don’t think I’d love the rest as much.  Anne and Jon described Harry’s Trees as magical realism, and I don’t think that’s quite it.  It’s more serendipity or a series of amazing coincidences.  Perhaps there is magic making these things happen, but that magic is not on the page.  I did read this book, which does include Harry healing himself through reconnecting with nature and helping Oriana on her healing journey, shortly after finishing Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and I adored the connecting points.  Braiding Sweetgrass is about First Peoples in the present United States and the ways their culture protects and supports nature.  Harry’s Trees include a lot of time spent in the woods (also in the marketing copy) and discussing trees, and the idea of tapping a maple tree linked both of these titles in my head.  

I’m giving Harry’s Trees 4.5 stars for a fantastic story that’s stuck with me, picturesque writing that had me envisioning the scenes on the page, and an amazing cast of characters, most of whom I’d like to be friends with.  But really, what made this novel for me was the theme of hope, the book within the book, and the healing that comes to the characters as they process through their grief and keep putting one foot in front of the other.  I’m also going to round up for all those reasons.  This well-rounded novel is definitely on the long list of favorites of 2022, and we’ll see how it comes out in a few short weeks.

What is a novel that surprised you with its immersive writing?

~Nikki 

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The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

Darling readers, we have completed another year of Virtual Book Clubs and we hope you had a great time!  Just as we’re thinking about our reading goals for 2023, we’re thinking about our Virtual Book Club plans for 2023.  If you have thoughts and opinions about Heart.Wants.Books Virtual Book Club, we’d love to see them below in the comments or in our DMs.  Please help us make this space a little better for you by letting us know what you’d like to read and experience (or not) in 2023.  

If you’ve been around more than a hot minute, you know what I want to see is … MORE EPILOGUE!  That’s right, one of the reasons I enjoy a lengthy romance series is that each novel feels like it includes a bit of epilogue for each one that comes before it as the couples from the previous books participate in the supporting cast.  When it came across my screen that Kim Michele Richardson was writing The Book Woman’s Daughter, I was SO excited to read the continuation of the story, not Cussy Mary’s story per se, but the continuation via her daughter.  

Also surprising no one who’s been around here any amount of time, when I started reading The Book Woman’s Daughter, I was very confused because we read and reviewed The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek in July 2020.  Naturally, I remembered nothing.  Well, almost nothing.  Like any e-book reader suffering from a lack of memory, I quickly went to my library app, secured the original title, and skimmed the last 15% or so of the story so I remembered how everyone fit together.  And if you’re curious everyone means Cussy Mary, Jackson, and their daughter, Honey.  If you’re confused, haven’t read the first book, and/or  want to jump into the second, please find my DMs and I’ll happily explain.  

As The Book Woman’s Daughter opens, Honey, also a Blue like her mama, is 16 and being sent away by her parents.  Cussy Mary and Jackson are about to go to court for violating a law against mixed race marriages and are trying to keep Honey from going to a reform house if they both land in jail.  Yup, bigotry and hate feature in this book too, like you do in 1953.  Honey is going to live with ‘Retta, who kept her when she was a baby and her mama was working her library route.  Drama ensues, and Honey applies to be a packhorse librarian too.  The rest of the story is about her life as a librarian, including her patrons and the friends she makes along the way, and her efforts to stay out of the state’s custody.  Those who’ve read Cussy Mary’s story will recognize Doc and Eula among others, as well as the community of miners and shiners who live in the area.  Naturally more drama ensues, and the ending is chef’s kiss, even if it does completely lack an epilogue.  

Many of the themes remain, including rural life, bigotry, community, friendships, found family, the patriarchy, and more.  The first maybe third of the book felt rushed to me, but that could have also been me, reading it later than usual because I was sick and couldn’t sleep.  After that, the book and I settled quite nicely and I consumed this wonderful return visit to Troublesome Creek.  Richardson’s writing remains picturesque and her dialogue includes a lovely dialect I found enchanting.  I’m giving  The Book Woman’s Daughter a solid 4 stars.  It was a great reading experience, and a delightful comfort read.

What’s a follow up that you didn’t expect but thoroughly enjoyed?

~Nikki 

If we take a little ride in the way back machine and visit the year of 2020, you’ll see Heart.Wants.Books. wrote about Kim Michele Richardson in July when we reviewed The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, her most critically acclaimed novel. And now, here we are two years later, writing about the sequel that’s also a stand-alone novel and an instant New York Times bestseller, The Book Woman’s Daughter. I need to remind you that Kim Michele Richardson is a Kentuckian, full stop. She only writes books about the people of her home state, and that includes her 2012 memoir, The Unbreakable Child, which delves into her and others’ physical emotional abuse at an orphan asylum in rural Kentucky run by Catholic nuns. All the profits from the sale of her memoir is donated to survivors and the underserved. Richardson owns the Shy Rabbit, a tiny home out in the hollers of Kentucky as a writer’s retreat and workshop. There’s no internet there, so be warned if you suggest your writer friends apply for the retreat. It’s for solo working time, no friends, family, or pets are allowed…. It makes me wonder if Knox McCoy of The Popcast with Knox and Jamie could handle the solitude, but I digress.

Now that we have discussed the author and her personal and professional background I want to spend my words discussing what I consider to be the main theme of the book: Freedom. I don’t want to be spoilery about very important plot points, but every woman (and some of the men) of Troublesome Creek are just wanting the freedom to live their lives free from the tyranny of discriminatory laws and bigoted, hateful people. Honey wants not to be sent to the Kentucky House of Reform, a children’s prison that would keep her working for the state until age 21, 3 years past the age of adulthood, after her parents are taken into state custody. Cussy Mary and Jackson Lovett just want the freedom to be married and to love each other without fear of the law and their neighbors. Pearl, Honey’s newest friend and the newly appointed firetower lookout, just wants to be free from harassment and be left alone to do her job to keep the people of the mountains safe from forest fires. Several other of the women on Honey’s book route want to be left in peace, too, with freedom from the violent attentions of men. There are so many tragedies that occur in a 336 page book, but overall it is a testament to the resilience of the mountain women of Kentucky. A story of perseverance and hope when much feels hopeless.

I, like Nikki, am giving The Book Woman’s Daughter four bright stars. I want to leave you, darling readers, with my two favorite lines: 

“Books’ll learn ya,” [Retta] said, her ol’eyes twinkling with mischief and merriment… Books’ll save you, my troubled heart knew.

That’s exactly what makes such an emotionally heavy-themed read a comforting one at the same time.

~Ashley

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