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I can certainly relate to recent grief of one's dear Mom. This short story by eloquently compassionate fellow Canadian, Amal El-Mohtar, is poignant to me from the getgo.

A fine Canadian gave this to me precisely two years ago and it is time to read it.

I am going to freak out if I receive one more empty "like button" click. Surely the work I do on my reviews is comment worthy.

A new Canadian talent discovery! Amal is in Ottawa, our nation's capital in the province just east of ours. I am invested and intrigued in this story straight away.

So slow and boring! I am giving a hated protagonist a second chance, already owning this second hardcover and another sundry one or two. I win a great prize for this from the reading challenge hostess, who generously rewards such efforts.

Beautiful writing, pleasant people and moods, glorious landscapes, and peaceful good humour abound.

I liked the story with Anne and Marilla on equal family ground. I didn't want another story about disciplining or dealing with kids in the home and one of the two is naughty, which Anne never was. She was falsely accused by Marilla most of the time and never caused mischief by intent. Ah well, the rest of the story is lovely. Why do authors think stories need angst! Teaching school is all the challenge it needs.

I am glad to return to Maud's beautiful writing, thoughts, and people with morals and manners.

Yes, you would think I could gallop onward and finish a novel that has reached this exciting point, which has been entirely engaging. I would have but one of our dear cats had been ready to cuddle for awhile and is too cute to resist. Spirit & I thus had wonderful cuddle time, so comfortable that we fell asleep good and early. The denouement of this wonderful hardcover of a magic circus family will continue today.

I have to see how this ends. This is creativity, mysteriousness, and compelling personages and atmosphere to the max. I hope one of my favourite characters is not dead after all.

If you are a card person and would like to share in the tradition of exchanging Christmas cards: I invite you to e-mail with your address! RIEDELFascination(at)Gmail(dot)com. If you are outside of Canada, please do not abbreviate anything. Full county, state names etc.

My dear Mom started me on my own cards when I was 8 and I have adjusted that list, as new friends and penpals came along. :) Sincerely, Carolyn.

I love the unique approach to storytelling, all characters' gradual relationships, how everything is unknown; every step a mystery to readers. Fathers wanted pony-trained rivals but instead got respectful, mature, admiring magic peers. I value originality! You can't predit anything about Erin Morgenstern's story. I don't seek what is popular; this novel just happens to be. I am invested in seeing where it goes!

I am jogging along and I guess the people we have met are going to intersect. Some are circus fans, some are in the circus, some created it but awareness is dawning that there are hidden realms. Others love the people involved. What they will do with where this story goes is the most intriguing thing. I suppose they represent us laypeople who don't do magic. Need you be born with it or may anyone learn to do it?

This novel needs to be appreciatied for the journey it constructs in progress - for the reader. Lord knows how débutante Erin Morgenstern worked out the parts to complex, rich, completely original storytelling like this. You are carried along by the atmosphere of peeking behind the curtain of the story. Events are largely chronological but readers glimpse how things were made and what things become for spectators.

Happy birthday to our dear Mom today! She was here on Earth this year and I think of her with a smile. It is a colourful, warm, autumn day that will keep me glad and bright, even though I miss her physical form. Love, Carolyn.

I have grown invested imperceptibly more and more. I had to close these covers and bedcovers at 4:00 AM. Each of Amy Tan's stories describes how someone feels and that is the heart of gaining any reader's interest.