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4.41 AVERAGE
4.41 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Spoiler.
I left the reading of this book with my mind and heart full. I enjoyed all the characters in this novel, but especially Theo, Ellen and Simone. I wanted to move to Golden with it’s simple natural beauty. The writing was excellent and caused me to reflect on various subjects. On an upcoming international travel itinerary, Theo has made me rethink some of our activities. I love the idea of bestowals. (He intended to move along, to see Asher‘s other works, but he remained at the drawing of the woman, obedient to his conviction that it is better to see one thing well than many poorly.) In my gut I knew Theo was not going to make it through the book but I was not expecting what happened. The only thing that bothered me was, why was the railing never raised? Would it not have been historically accurate if they had?
I left the reading of this book with my mind and heart full. I enjoyed all the characters in this novel, but especially Theo, Ellen and Simone. I wanted to move to Golden with it’s simple natural beauty. The writing was excellent and caused me to reflect on various subjects. On an upcoming international travel itinerary, Theo has made me rethink some of our activities. I love the idea of bestowals. (He intended to move along, to see Asher‘s other works, but he remained at the drawing of the woman, obedient to his conviction that it is better to see one thing well than many poorly.) In my gut I knew Theo was not going to make it through the book but I was not expecting what happened. The only thing that bothered me was, why was the railing never raised? Would it not have been historically accurate if they had?
I could not put this feel good, thought provoking read down. It had me hooked in the first sixteen pages.
Page 30 - What was that phrase you used the other day about the homitss woman on the bike benign eccentricity maybe that is it.
Page 45 - I never met him, but I think he was very much brain and not very much heart.
Page 46 - The good sadness, I think, is always trying to tell us something very important.
Page 51 - I remind you, this face belongs to one who is strong and brave and kind. It belongs to one who is capable of saintliness. You, my dear, are Gammy‘s pride and joy, the gold of Golden, the wine of the Chalice, and for an old man new to your town, a great blessing. I present to you this, the portrait of Saint Minnette.
Page 53 - Good morning, Saint Minnette. You are strong. And you are brave. And you are kind. Even when you are sad.
Page 54 - He finally decided to be led by two considerations: first, sheer intuition — which one felt right, which one seemed more colorful or interesting, in some indefinable way; which one, at first glance, made him say to himself, I think I would enjoy meeting that person. Second, he would look for faces that had suffered loss, those who seem to be weary or worried or troubled somehow. Theo hoped that a gift to them might be particularly helpful or encouraging.
Page 84 - God sees. The eye of God sees. The Lawd God sees it all. He’s keepin’ sco’. That’s why the grass don’t grow up under dem trees.
Page 111 - A cloud of birds — starlings and red wings, thousands upon thousands of them — flew with synchronized precision, a dancing funnel, undulating in perfect unison. Theo had learned somewhere in his past that the spectacle was called a murmuration.
Page 122 - The porch ceiling was painted powder blue. An old superstition held that such a practice was effective at keeping bad spirits from entering a house and also at keeping spiders from spinning webs in the corners.
Page 127 - He would remark later that the old man listened in a way that made one dangerously willing to talk.
Page 28 - But I guess if a work of art makes us see something familiar in a new way or makes us feel something we ought to have felt all along or shows us our place in the world more clearly, maybe then it qualifies as good. If it makes us better somehow, maybe that’s what gives it value.
Page 129 - It might not make a lot of sense, but for anything to be good, truly good, there must be love in it. I’m not even sure I know fully what that means, but the older I get, the more I believe it. There must be love for the gift itself, love for the subject being depicted, or the story being told, And love for the audience. Whether the art is sculpture, farming, teaching, lawmaking, medicine, music, or raising a child, if love is not in it — at the very heart of it — it might be skillful, marketable or popular, but I doubt it is truly good. Nothing is what it is supposed to be if love is not at the core.
Page 133 - He intended to move along, to see Asher‘s other works, but he remained at the drawing of the woman, obedient to his conviction that it is better to see one thing well than many poorly.
Page 161 - Maybe not. But maybe, yes. Ellen, the older I get, the more convinced I am that every hurt the world has ever known is somehow the fault of every person who ever lived. Maybe not directly and never entirely, but somehow, I fear we own all of the worlds hurts together.
Page 176 - I’m not sure what to call it. I grew up, listening to all kinds of music — my parents’, music, my grandparents’, music. Blues, rock, big band, Motown, crooners, country, folk, classical, movie soundtracks. Really I love it all. If they’re such thing as ‘gumbo music,’ where you just put in a little bit of everything and see what comes out, maybe that’s the category. Whatever it’s called, it’s a lot of fun and you sure can go broke doing it.
Page 211 - Herbivores eat, Brussels sprouts, carnivores eat birds, cashivores eat dollar bills, and verbivores eat words.
Page 217 - I would guess you’ve read Mr. Wadsworth, perhaps in a literature class at some point in your studies. He onve wrote that the best portion of a good person‘s life is ‘the little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.’
Page 220 - Then I propose that we make a trade? Give me that old picture in your head, and take this new one home with you.
Page 224 - There’s no virtue in advertising one sadness. But there’s no wisdom in denying it either. And there is the beautiful possibility that great love can grow out of sadness if it is well-tended. Sadness could make us bitter or wise. We get to choose.
Page 228 - She even became giggly at times about belonging to his cabal of generosity.
Page 249 - He was moving forward in space and backward in time.
Page 250 - Sometimes she wrote in pursuit of a sense of peace (“motion is lotion for the soul too), but she rarely rode for sheer pleasure in the way children do.
Page 252 - Ellen pointed across the river. Look at all the shade. And at the end of every day, the shade crawls out from under the five billion trees and gets above the trees, and that’s what makes nighttime.
Page 253 - He would add that to his own thesaurus of bird flight: Martin’s dance, (they fly in in cursive), meadowlark explode (they rise like geysers), and starling sprint (as do those with a guilty conscience, though no one pursues).
Page 265 - Baby, they’s, justice and they’s mercy. If you’re not sure what to do and you gotta choose one or the other, I say always go the mercy way. If you make a mistake, make it for mercy. Bad mercy don’t hurt, nearly like bad justice, and always remember, the eye of God can see.
Page 290 - Tony? I read something years ago that I still think about. A man who loves all women loves no woman. A man who loves only one woman loves all women.
Page 330 - An ocean in a thimble.
Page 345 - Each with mind and heart full.
Page 370 - For a year, he was in our midst and now, looking back, can’t we say that, when we were with him, our hearts burned within us, our soul stood on tiptoe, our eyes recognize something good and true, and our minds could believe, if not fully then ever so slightly, that love and heaven and forgiveness are the most real things that we can know in this world
The most beautiful story! I’ll never get over it. There has never been a book that’s made me think more about how my little actions on this earth can make such a huge impact. Theo truly came like Jesus, not to be served but to serve others.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
The best thing I can say about this book is that the writing is not bad. Despite the glowing reviews from other readers, I think the story plods along with the writer trying hard to make it an inspirational parable. I found it to be preachy and overly religious, with Christianity as the focus to the detriment of any other religion. It felt as if the “sermon” in the book was being shoved down the reader’s throat. As another reviewer stated, it was saccharine and boring. The dialogue seemed unrealistic and forced. I was ready to DNF half-way through, but a good friend recommended it so I felt obligated to see it through.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
10 stars