"This Side of The Sky" by Elyse Singleton

This is such a wonderful, insightful, thought-provoking novel that I just have to write about it. I had never heard of this author until last week, when my sister called me to say "Get to Barnes & Noble and buy this book!" My sister and I have spent enough in Barnes & Noble bookstores to have an entire section dedicated to us. Or, at the least, one of their cushy armchairs should have a little plaque with our names on it. So when she called to tell me this book was an absolutely-must-must-read, of course I didn't think twice about buying it.

Elyse Singleton has written a novel to beat the band. "This Side of The Sky" will let you look at the world with different eyes. And isn't that what a book should really do? This story is about two young girls growing up in Mississippi. Their friendship begins when they're young and doesn't end when they leave school. The time-frame is during WW II, which adds a great dimension to the story. I don't even want to say too much about the story itself because giving it away will spoil it for you. I'm not even finished with the book yet. I could've been, had I not slowed myself down a bit. I'm more than three-quarters through it and I'm savoring every chapter because I know it will be ending soon. But, as my sister said, this one is 'a keeper,' one for our own book shelves, so it can be read again.

I am enjoying this book so much that I sent an eMail to Oprah this afternoon, via Oprah.com. I don't know if Oprah has read this book, but taking into consideration the other books she has picked for her Book Club, I don't think she would want to miss this one. It's a shame, too, that Oprah stopped picking current authors and their books for her Book Club selections. We all have the author of "The Corrections" to thank for that. I don't remember that author's name, and I wouldn't waste space typing it if I did. He was the author who got upset because Oprah's Book Club logo was added to the cover of his book when she selected it for her Book Club.

Stupid man. Didn't he realize that her logo would send millions of people out to bookstores looking for (and buying!) his book? I had ordered his book via Amazon.com but before it got here, the media announced the author's 'problem' with the logo. I was so furious that he was mad at Oprah and her Book Club that I shipped that book right back to Amazon and got a refund. I can't tell you how many copies of his book I've seen at local yard sales--- they can't even give them away for free. No one wants them.

I hope Oprah gets to personally read the eMail I sent to her today. More than that, I hope she reads Elyse Singleton's book and loves it enough to say something about it either on one of her shows or on her Oprah.com site. With Oprah's recommendation, Elyse Singleton will be selling more copies of this book. And I sincerely hope that Elyse Singleton is hard at work on another book. Even for the book-lovers who don't read much fiction, "This Side of The Sky" is not one to ignore. As I eMailed Oprah, this novel is written like a symphony.

Oprah's current selection for her Book Club is "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck. The first time I read that book, I had checked it out of the library. The second time, I was reading my own copy. The third time was just this past summer, so I'm not re-reading it with Oprah's Book Club now because I read the story such a short time ago. "The Good Earth" is timeless. If you've never read it, you will be asking yourself what took you so long. And more than likely, you will want your own copy. Some books are like that. Just so very good that you want to know that you have your own copy close by to go back to again and again.

I've been collecting just such books for a long time now. We have massive built-in bookshelves in both the living room and in the TV room. All of my must-read-and-read-again books are on the living room shelves. I hope I don't ever run out of shelf-space because it would be hard to decide what to part with. And don't think I'm spending such a fortune here. I don't ever pay full-price for a book. Most of my books come from Half.com, or our local Half Price Bookstore, or the bookshop at our local library where hardcovers are just one dollar each.

A lot of my books were rescued from yard sales-- perfectly new-looking hardcovers for under fifty cents each, if you can imagine that. The books that I've read that I don't want to keep for my shelves are given away to friends. We have frequent house parties here and I make up little gift-bags to give to our friends as they leave. When I can match a book to a friend, into their gift-bag the book will go, along with other party surprises.

I had a bookmark years ago that was printed with the following: "A book is the gift that keeps giving and giving, long after other gifts are either forgotten or outdated." Such a great, true thought. I used that bookmark so much that I plain wore it out. So.... give a book to someone you know! But first, buy one for yourself--- either "This Side of The Sky" or "The Good Earth" would be a great place to start.