Monica Wood

Oh. Oh, how I loved this book. It captured my imagination immediately, and it didn’t let go - not even for a moment - the entire time I was reading it. The writing is lyrical, poetic, and breathtaking. The plot heartbreaking, uplifting, and hopeful. The characters genuine, likeable, and so very, very human. I haven’t read a book like this in ages. I wanted to live inside the world Wood created. I wanted to be friends with Ona, and Quinn, and Belle. And most of all, I wanted to know the boy the way they knew him, because I’m sure my life, too, would be enriched by his presence. The One-In-A-Million Boy takes an honest, sweet, and lovely look at the challenges of loving someone with a developmental disability - while never naming the boy’s disability, or the boy himself. An absolute triumph of a novel. I can’t wait to read more of Wood’s work.… (més)

This is a book of interwoven stories about folks in a mill town in Maine. There's a strike and the town is suffering both due to the lack of wages but also the usual angst and pains that are part of life. This was the first book I've managed to finish in months as I've been too distracted to stay focused. So, yes, this is a very easy, approachable book. I am not sure to think of it as a novel or a book of short stories. I liked the stories and the primary story about Ernie and his ark, but I didn't feel that the reader got closure with all the characters. There's a lot of threads left unpulled. That said it did a good job of laying out the scope of the impact of strikes and closures in one-employer small towns. I wish there had been more description of place since Maine is of interest to me.… (més)