Hello, readers! How is your February going? Mine has been flying by! I have been more social this month and have been doing a little less reading. Nevertheless, I couldn’t let another week go by without a new post. So without further ado, here’s my top fiction recommendation for the month of February
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
With spare prose, underplayed emotion, and true-to-life dialogue, this brief small-town novel about two older adults seeking companionship is incredibly moving and a pleasure to read. Widow Addie Moore reaches out to her neighbor, Louis Waters—also a widower—with a bold proposition. Might he want to come and sleep over at her house sometime so the two of them could have someone to talk to before bed? As they begin their unusual arrangement, Addie and Louis find real friendship, talking about their lives and their pasts as they fall asleep side-by-side. Then they start spending time together during the day and word spreads in town—and gossip starts circulating. Things get more complicated when their adult children make their opinions known about their friendship. Throughout the book, the dialogue between Addie and Louis is companionably easy yet poignant. They discuss hard memories with frankness and trust. I love how quiet Our Souls at Night is. There is little action, but there is depth and truth.
I listened to the audiobook of this novel, which I highly recommend. It is read by a gentleman with an even, kind of grandpa-like voice. The narrator, Mark Bramhall, could not have done a better job. As the novel is mostly dialogue, it is an ideal book to listen to and is only three and a half hours long.
What have you been reading lately? Let me know in the comments!
annahenke 