Thanks for the sweet Christmas cheer Erinn! I thought I better start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year too! What a great holiday that was: I finished Room and Cocktails for Three and am halfway through Escape...and the best part is that I love all three!
Cocktails for Three ended in the predictably happy way that the rest of her novels do, but it was a pleasure reader and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I just love the way she writes (as a Brit) and uses smart language that makes me giggle and sometimes has me reading with an accent in my head...LOL - have you ever done that?!
Anyway, I'm well into Escape right now and cannot put it down. I was up past midnight last night (after heading to bed at 10) and had to force myself to stop so that I could be a good, patient teacher today! What an interesting story - Carolyn Jessop really opened the doors to what was/is happening in the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and it is quite scary to read. To wonder why and how anyone would want to stay in such a "cult," yet you read the chapters on her childhood, and when you really don't know any better from birth, or believe that anyone or anything beyond your walls and beliefs are evil, what difference does it make to you? As a school teacher, I am especially touched by the beatings which occurred in the schools and the deliberate alterations of fact and science. As a woman, I am touched by the whole story - her dreams of becoming independent like her aunt and working as a pediatrician, her enslavement in an arranged marriage to a man her grandfather's age and her courage to escape.
Powerful stuff...looking forward to discussing further at book club. Click here for a link to Carolyn discussing her story and book.
xoxo R-Fab
