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ClareR (5589 KP) rated The sentence in Books

May 1, 2022  
The sentence
The sentence
Louise Erdrich | 2022 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I don’t envy whoever has to narrow down the books on the Women’s Prize 2022 from the long list to the shortlist this year. The books I’ve read so far I’ve enjoyed all equally.

The Sentence is, amongst other things, a book about books. It’s also a book about Tookie, who works in a bookshop and is haunted by a deceased customer. Tookie has a colourful past, which involves imprisonment after it was discovered she had smuggled drugs over county lines, strapped to the corpse of a friends boyfriend. She didn’t know about the drugs, but she certainly knew about the dead body! Prison gave her plenty of time to read, and she leaves prison with a huge knowledge of literature.

On release Tookie gets a job in a Native American bookshop, and marries the Police officer who arrested her. Like her, he is also Native American.

This is a book of two halves: before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ghost of the customer, Flora, remains in the bookshop for most of the book, whilst Minneapolis sees a lot of important things going on: the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter marches, the Covid-19 epidemic, isolation from friends and family, illness, near death experiences and the importance of heritage.

I loved this book. Like I’ve said, I’m just glad that I won’t have to decide the Women’s Prize winner. I still have some books to read from the long list, which I still want to read even though the shortlist has been announced - so watch this space!
  
The Inn at Hidden Run (Tree of Life #1)
The Inn at Hidden Run (Tree of Life #1)
Olivia Newport | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Hidden Run is a B&B in the small town of Canyon Mines, just outside of Denver, Colorado. When a stranger comes to town looking lost, Jillian and her father Nolan are determined to help her find her way. Meri comes from a family of doctors, but that is not what she wants to do. Maybe coming to Colorado, a place she last felt like herself will help her to find the future that is best for her.

Thank you to NetGalley & Barbour Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The title of this book really isn't fitting for what it contains. It's much more than the Inn. That is where Meri is situated while in Colorado, but it's really about the people in the town that help her when she is lost. Meri loves her family, but doesn't feel the calling to be a doctor like everyone else for generations has been. When she comes to Canyon Mines, Jillian, who is a genealogist, helps her to find her family roots and maybe explain while she feels the way she does.

I gave this book three stars, because it didn't grasp my attention right away. At times it felt as if the story line kept repeating the same things, like the author copy and pasted a line from one chapter to all the other chapters in the book. Overall the book is enjoyable, trading from modern day Colorado, to 1800's Memphis during the yellow fever outbreak. This is a good book for those the enjoy historical fiction. I did learn a lot about that epidemic which includes some very factual details in this story.