Charity's Reading Log

Here I am, in the waning days of November, and I have not written about my reading since September. Do not take that lament to mean that I have read so much as to be throroughly drowned with work in order to catch up. Much to the contrary. The fall of 2011 has not afforded me much time to escape in my love of literature. However, as is often the case, I heretofore solemnly vow to change that trend. Hopefully, someday soon, it will snow, ice, sleet, hail, and flood...all at once...and I'll be forced to retreat to my couch with a warm cup of coffee, a nice snuggly blanket, and a stack of books just yearning to be cracked open. Until then, let's catch up...

South of Superior by Ellen Airgood is a feel-good

book which I quickly identified with as a nearly life-long

resident of smalltown America. Set in the Upper

Peninsula of Michigan, the setting itself almost acted

as another character in the book with which the reader

became quickly enamored. A beatiful yet brutal

dichotomy, the UP is both friend and foe as Madeline Stone
quickly discovers. After walking away from her life in Chicago
and into the small, remote town of her forefathers, she is not
fully prepared for just how much her life is bound to change.
As the caretaker for her an aging pair of sisters bound by the
loose ties of her long-lost family, Madeline becomes bound by
ties of frienship. Both Gladys and Arbutus win her love and devotion as they endure the
drama and hardships in this town where tough-times abound but frienship and loyalty are
the threads that keep their close-knit tapestry woven tightly.

Althouth Airgood leaves much room for character development, she does a mighty fine job
of capturing the beauty and foboding that is the UP of Michigan. Many of her characters will
stick with the reader and will be easily compared to those you or I might know from our own
hometowns. Airgood hones in on the real-ness of caring for one another, truly focusing on the
fact that true happiness comes from the small things in life and from the relationships we create
no matter what the circumstance of our lives.