whatkarireads 's review for:

West with the Night by Beryl Markham
5.0

I am eternally grateful for my trusted, go-to book sources, but there is something to be said for broadening your reading network.

At the recent Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club Reading Retreat we participated in a paperback book exchange. My new friend Raelene brought West with the Night and I snagged it based on the cover alone.

I would not have picked this book on my own. I am grateful I did because it is marvelous. I was captivated. I savored every word. Beryl Markham was something else- no-nonsense, feminine, ahead of her time. This memoir reads like fiction- snippets of her life told through impeccable writing set against the lush setting of Africa in the 1930's.

I could keep gushing, but I'll let Ernest Hemingway chime in. He said (about Markham) " ... can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book."

This is all to say that sometimes interacting with readers whose taste differs from yours can be such a wonderful thing. I encourage you to reach out to those readers that are unlike you every now and then. They may send your next favorite book your way.