Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

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The healing power of relationships

Stories That Bind Us by Susie Finkbeiner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A beautiful story of how relationships have the power to heal.

When Betty Sweet loses her husband, she loses some of her passion and purpose in the world. But when her sister shows up with a child Betty has never met, purpose returns as Betty cares for the both of them.

Betty and her nephew Hugo heal something in each other in the quiet, ordinary days of their life in 1960s Michigan. This is what I love about Finkbeiner’s storytelling: it is gentle and tinted with dramatic moments that don’t overpower the story. She has a way of making the ordinary lives of her characters page-turning compelling. I couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

I received a free copy of the book in advance. Review reflects my honest opinion.


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Why I’m worried you won’t read this book: Review of Light From Distant Stars by Shawn Smucker

I have to be honest: I’m having a hard time figuring out how to tell you about Light From Distant Stars by Shawn Smucker. And that’s not because I didn’t like it. I loved it. It’s unique and captivating and I couldn’t put it down.

I just can’t guarantee you’re going to love it as much as I did, and that makes me uncomfortable. I want you to love this book, but it’s an unusual story, and it leaves some questions unanswered. It’s like life in that way. Not everything is explained or neatly wrapped with a bow on it at the end. This is not a flaw of the story but part of its beauty.

Still, we readers can be fickle when it comes to unanswered questions. So I’m worried you’ll avoid this book.

I’m going to try my best to convince you otherwise, anyway.

From the first line, pictured below, I was hooked.

Light From Distant Stars is a tad bit eerie but not necessarily scary. It’s haunting but not in a ghosty kind of way. I don’t know if any of this is making you want to read it, so let me just say that I started the book thinking one thing and by page 35, the book was headed in another direction completely, and if I wasn’t already interested in the story, I’d have wanted to keep reading to find out where it was headed.

The book jumps back and forth between present day and Cohen’s childhood. In some stories this can be jarring but I found the transitions seamless in this book. I was never unsure which timeline I was reading about and I was never left hanging for too long from one time period to the other.

If you’re looking for something different, this is the book for you. Just remember that it might not answer all of your questions to your satisfaction. It is like life in that way. Maybe I enjoyed this book because I no longer need as much certainty as I used to. Or maybe I just appreciate a book and an author that is willing to be different from the norm.

Shawn Smucker is one of my absolute favorite storytellers. (You can read reviews of his other books I’ve read here, here, and here.) He has a way with words and themes that inspires my own writing, and I’ve been cheering on his writing for years now.

When I read a new author or an author I haven’t read before, I want a guarantee that the story is going to be good. I have too many books to read to spend time with a story that isn’t. So, I’ll understand if this book sounds too risky to take a chance on. But I hope you’ll be brave and give it a chance.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher. Review reflects my honest opinion.