I Hope You Made Time to Read This Summer

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We are all asking the same question — where did the summer go? I hope my summer books, which I have recommend to you, where suggestions you took me up on.  This is my last review in this series – Summer Time and the Livin’ Is Easy.  I’m sure you read  “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.”  The story of a clandestine book club living on the Nazi-occupied Channel Islands during World War II.  Mary Ann Shaffer, the author, fell ill before the book was ready for publication. Her niece Annie Barrows, a children’s author, completed it. I just watched the movie on Netflicks and loved it too.  Drawing inspiration from her late aunt’s home state of West Virginia, Barrows has written her first adult novel, “The Truth According To Us”

The story takes place in 1938 in the fictional town of Macedonia, W.Va. It’s a novel about a family with well-written characters, an intriguing plot set in the south with its social sensibilities. The one problem I had with the book was reading it on the last hot and humid days of August, combined with the oppressive heat in Macedonia, the book became a sweet tea must.

Layla Beck, daughter of a U.S. senator, is exiled to rural Macedonia by her father after she turns down a marriage proposal he thinks is suitable. She finds employment through the Federal Writers’ Project, which creates jobs for historians, librarians, and writers during the Depression.  She’s there to write a history of the town in honor of its sesquicentennial. While collecting material for her book, Layla revises her opinion of what small-town West Virginia people must be like; the story unfolds in a satisfying and well-written fashion. I highly recommend you add it to your late fall reading after things cool off.

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