Chalet Shelves • Reading Recs 2.18.26
/I’ve enjoyed these truly brilliant reads recently friends and needed to share them in an article because they are that good! I’ve also updated my favorite books article: Get Your Read On! Enjoy!
All the Colors of the Dark: This incredible tale of a boy with an eye patch - an unlikely hero of sorts who’s split second act reverberates for years to come. This book is gripping, sad, and brilliant. When I finished it I was sad to leave these wonderful tortured selfless souls behind. It’s a missing person mystery, a thriller and a love story that leaves you blown away.
The Correspondent: Sybil Van Antwerp a 73 year old retired lawyer lives alone and communicates to everyone via letters three mornings a week. The story opens in 2012 with Sybil at her desk. She writes to her brother, her best friend, the dean of the department of the university who will not allow her to audit a class, the authors Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. She uses letter writing to connect with others and reflect on her life. The letters reveal her humor, regrets, and personal growth. I found Sybil a captivating person - and the getting to know her through not only the letters she writes but through the ones she receives so enjoyable.
Broken Country: Beth and her sweet husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying in the past. When Frank’s brother shoots a dog that is going after their sheep - the past comes back because the dog belonged to Gabriel Wolfe. The man Beth loved as a teenager and who broke her heart. This story is so layered and you feel every emotion of the characters so deeply. I found it gripping. Its a love story with the pace of a thriller.
Raising Hare: A wonderful true story of what happened when Chloe Dalton stumbled across a baby leverete near her home in the English countryside. Imagine saving a sweet little baby hare, bottle feeding it and watching it grow while never treating it as a pet. Imagine two years later the animal still ran in from the fields when you called it and it slept in your house. The relationship so unusual was wonderful to glimpse. I truly enjoyed this tale of caring.
Til next time friends Happy Reading or Listening! I’ll see you on the Gram!
