Laura mentioned she liked this one a while back; I looked for the specific post, but granted not very hard, so I didn’t find what excatly she wrote about it that led me to check it out. At any rate, I’m glad I did. It’s a beautiful, simple book. There really isn’t much to say about it: it’s a fictional (based on one of the author, Nancy Taylor’s, ancestors) journal of a woman, Sarah Prine, from 1881 to 1901. There isn’t anything really remarkable about the story; it’s just her jottings from life. Yet, she is one remarkable woman. She is honest, just, fair, hard-working, admirable in just about every way. And yet, she isn’t lofty or unreachable. Sarah is a woman I’d love to know and spend time with. And I was with her through all her trials, her marriages (she was married twice; her first husband died!) and loves and births and deaths. And I admire a writer who can capture that.

Books like this are wonderful for the soul.