Peace Like a River

Ladies,

I enjoyed reading KT's, Laurenda's and Katrina's responses to the book. (I decided to sneak a peak before I posted my response.) We can all thank Rod for the choice of this book. (He knew I would love it. Thanks, Rod!) I found the message to be powerful and the characters interesting. (Swede reminded me of a girl in my ward growing up.) And the presence of miracles in our lives . . . Rod and I have started calling them, "tender mercies." I have noticed God's tender mercies more in the past few months than I ever did before and I feel such gratitude. Like Katrina, I just think that there aren't many coincidences any more.

There is another reason that I loved this book in addition to all the reasons I have already described and that is the incredibly beautiful way the book is written. Every paragraph . . . even some sentences . . . were works of art in and of themselves. How did Leif Enger ever learn to write like this?!?! page 103 ". . . he was up, sitting in the kitchen with frayed King James--oh, but he worked that book; he held to it like a rope ladder." page 111 "Winter was a train crawling north." page 213 "It shot through me that I would not see him again--that the horse with every upward plunge bore us nearer a ruthless parting I was bound to keep secret." page 297 "Not one of us asked about Andreeson, though he lit on my heart, staying there like a guest on the porch you hope will give up and leave." page 299 ". . . we cleared our throats and armored our hearts and stepped out into the sunrise." page 304 "Dad held my hand, and I felt the music growing in his fingers."

Rod convinced me to choose this book by simply reading the first 3 pages to me. Enger puts images and phrases together in such an unexpected way . . . it is mind boggling. Someday, I would like to be able to write that powerfully. There were times, like Laurenda, when I wanted to get on with the story, but I didn't want to skip ahead because I didn't want to miss one of those amazing sentences :)

I am glad you enjoyed reading it. Thanks, KT for putting together Les Liseuses and for providing us the opportunity to read interesting books and share each other's observations.

--Karen S.