Of all the books we read, over the year and a half of Book Club, Spoon River Anthology stayed with me the longest. I liked that the ordinary dead spoke for themselves at last, even if someone else had engraved different words on their stone. I liked that they told stories about each other. And I liked that so many recalled not how they died, but how they lived. Lydia Puckett was the real reason Knowlt Hoheimer died a soldier. Herbert Marshall broke an engagement, forsaking Louise for Annabelle. Elmer Karr gave thanks to the loving hearts that took him in again. I’m guessing that Lydia and
...more
