Publisher: She Writes Press (September 8, 2020)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 163152741X
ISBN-13: 978-1631527418
Praise for THE BEST PART OF US
“Sally Cole-Misch’s novel is a lush and lovely homage to the natural places where her protagonist grew up. . . . The plot spanning past and present kept me enthralled and engaged throughout my reading of this exceptionally good book. The Best Part of Us is most highly recommended.” —Readers’ Favorite
“This is not just storytelling, it’s a lived experience. Sally’s description of the cold, crystal waters and magnificent landscape of the North Country is so vivid I feel as though I paid it a visit. The story’s depth and vivid characterization are unforgettable. At a time when we seem to have lost our way in navigating the human relationship with place, Sally has provided a true compass to help us find home. ” —Dave Dempsey, 2009 Michigan Author of the Year, author of ten books and renowned Great Lakes environmental policy expert
“With exquisite descriptions of Canadian lake and forest country and the Ojibway life rooted there, Cole-Misch expertly weaves the elements of those differing cultures, fraught but tightly bound family relationships, young love, old love, and the wonder of coming of age—at every age—into a luminous novel. The Best Part of Us is a beautiful story that will keep you up reading, and then keep you company for a long time afterward.” —Barbara Stark-Nemon, award-winning author of Even in Darkness and Hard Cider
“A story so evocative you can smell the lake and hear the loons. . . . The Best Part of Us draws in lyrical strokes the many shades of grief and the healing magic of place.” —Jenni Ogden, bestselling author of A Drop in the Ocean
“Place plays a key role in this novel, with an island in northern Ontario lovingly observed through the eyes of our protagonist, Beth. Troubles come in the form of her family’s attachment to the land and issues around who rightfully owns it—their Welsh ancestors or the Native peoples of earlier times—and the book raises and explores these important, contemporary questions with care and sensitivity. Their resolution is complicated—at once hopeful and messy, like all imperfect decisions. The Best Part of Us is a lovely, engrossing book about place, family, history, and cultural sensitivity.” —Angela Pneuman, award-winning author of Home Remedies and Lay It on My Heart
But that bond was threatened and then torn apart, first as rights to their island were questioned and then by nature itself, and the family was forced to leave. Fourteen years later, Beth has created a new life in urban Chicago. There, she’s erected a solid barrier between the past and present, no matter how much it costs—until her grandfather asks her to return to the island to determine its fate. Will she choose to preserve who she has become, or risk everything to discover if what was lost still remains?
The Best Part of Us will immerse readers in a breathtaking natural world, a fresh perspective on loyalty, and an exquisite ode to the essential roles that family, nature, and place hold in all of our lives.
Ten quotes from THE BEST PART OF US
1. The earth
under her felt warm and comforting despite its granite base, the moss her
fingers caressed without thinking offered an opposing tenderness and subtle
aroma of must.
2.
She
knows he’s pulling Kobi into the conversation to reach her deepest regret—that
it feels normal to her son to grow up in a grit-filled city of concrete and
steel, the skyscrapers crowding together like a forest of silver spikes
reaching for the heavens in a decadent illusion of grandeur.
3. Taid caressed Beth’s head with his burly hands and pulled her into a
tight hug. “Two guarantees in life, pain and happiness. Sometimes one brings
the other.”
4. The damp air fingered its way through the narrow space and hovered above her
until it collided with the indoor air’s tense voltage and dropped in a mist
onto her face.
5. It happened in an instant, but like every other momentous event in life, the
actual seconds lingered.
6. “We’re all like one of these fireflies,” Taid said. “We shine a million
times in our lives, but we may not recognize when it happens unless we shine so
brightly that others notice and celebrate our good fortune, our kindness, or
our success. But we have to believe that, just like these fireflies, our
glowing has value and meaning. Even if no one sees it but us.”
7. The whole fiasco felt like a massive boulder rolling faster and faster
downhill, destined to send them hurtling into the water to be pinned forever on
the lake’s floor.
8. “Life happens so fast. I woke up a young man, at lunch I was middle aged,
and by dinner I could imagine my own death, I long ago finished my wine, ale,
and hors d’oeuvres, the main course was mostly a grand feast. Coffee has been
served, and I hope for one last sweet taste of dessert.”
9. She reaches for the smooth silver beech and
the white birches’ curled bark to pull her along, and stops to hug the wide
trunk of the rare chestnut tree still holding court in the middle of the path.
“Hello, old friend,” she whispers, grateful for the break to catch her breath,
inhale the aroma of pine, fir, and cedar into her heart, and hear the chatter
and caw of gray jays and gulls floating across the morning sky.
10. Maybe
everything had to happen for her to look in and remember that a place can be as
much a part of her as the air she breathes, that it matters as much as the
people she loves, and when she honors her own path is when she is truly home.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.