From the Bookshelf of Around the Year in 52 Books …
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
This book is really a series of inter-connected stories about a small town in Massachusetts over the past 300 years, a few of which are very good. Several of the stories (particuarly the more modern ones) simply did not interest me or seemed out of sync with the tone of the town and book. Hence the 2 stars.
This book is a collection of interlocking short stories set in fictional Blackwell, a small village in the Berkshire Mountains in Western Mass. from early America to the late 20th century. As is the case in Hoffman's novels, the short stories are peppered with tidbits of magical realism, including a bear that nurse humans, a specter of young woman who runs along a lake, and a garden that only produces vegetables in red. Although I enjoy this author's novels, I had difficulty with her short stori
...more
I liked it. I don't get it. I don't know what the point was or what lesson we're supposed to learn from it. But I liked it. I'd probably give it a solid 3.5.
...more
This was the most readable intergenerational saga set in the wilds that I've read so far. So readable, I was surprised when it ended.
...more
Nov 01, 2010
Kim
marked it as to-read
Jan 19, 2011
Anne
marked it as to-read
Jan 31, 2011
Deedee
marked it as to-read
Feb 21, 2011
Allison
marked it as to-read
Mar 03, 2011
Lauren
marked it as to-read
Jun 11, 2011
K
marked it as to-read
Jul 20, 2011
Ann
marked it as to-read
Mar 25, 2013
Melissa Seng
marked it as to-read
Jun 19, 2014
DeeAnn
marked it as to-read
Feb 17, 2015
Beth F
marked it as owned-and-unread
Sep 06, 2015
Libscigrl
marked it as to-read
Sep 21, 2016
Jillian (Peapod Historical Bookery)
marked it as to-read
Nov 02, 2017
Meg
marked it as to-read
Nov 19, 2020
Jenny
marked it as to-read
Aug 18, 2021
SibylM
marked it as to-read
