The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

I have a pile of books to read for my other writing life - books to review and books to judge, yet I took the time this past two weekends to indulge in The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald which came in off my hold list at the library. I had seen it advertised and decided to request it. So many times when that is the case, I am disappointed. I read several chapters in the book and then put it away to return. But this one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Originally published in Sweden, it features a young Swedish woman named Sara who has been carrying on a correspondence with Amy, an older woman from Broken Wheel, Iowa. When Sara loses her job due to the bookstore where she worked closing, she takes Amy up on her offer to come visit her for a couple months in small-town America. Unfortunately, when Sara arrives, she discovers that Amy has just died. The people of the town tell her to stay in Amy's house because that is what Amy would have wanted. Sara, and her love of books, help to transform the town, which has seen better days. Meanwhile, the people of the town change her as well. It is a wonderful novel about how reading and books can change lives.

It also made me want to pick up my own novel again as well. I hadn't been intentionally ignoring it. It was just that other things had been taking precedence. I had two writer friends beta-read it back in January. I took their suggestions to heart and made some changes. Now, I needed to proof-read. I had thought that there were probably only a few things that needed to be changed. However, that was not the case. I started this process several weeks ago; I had the time to finish on Sunday. As you can see by all the folded-down pages in my copy below, I have lots of changes to make. So, that is the next step.




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