Twenty wishes

I just finished a book -- this has nothing to do with Runnemede, by the way -- and I want to recommend it. It is funny and it is somber -- it will make you laugh and cry.

I read anything Debbie Macomber writes -- her early books are not worth the paper they're written on, but her books written after 2000 are. I think in an effort to get notice she wrote books about men and women and added the really personal stuff to get attention -- the "personal" information -- steamy bedroom scenes, let's admit it -- did nothing to enhance the plot or enjoyment of the books.

Now, however, her books are really good. Yes, there are still the personal encounters, but they are written in a general sense and not specific.

So her newest book, Twenty Wishes, is one I grabbed as soon as it hit Kroger's bookshelf. This is part of her series on the Blossom Street store owners, and how their lives all intertwine. And I can see and almost guarantee what the next book will be based on this one. But I digress.

Twenty Wishes is about a group of recently widowed women who get together on their first Valentine's day without their respective spouses. All are depressed -- a couple more than others. And one of the women suggests that they start a list of wishes -- and they choose the number 20 -- and since they meet on a regular basis for lunch or to attend a function that is near and dear to one of the other ladies -- they discuss these wishes and how they are progress in getting these wishes granted.

These aren't hokus-pokus wishes. They are things they wish they had now or had receive prior to the losing of their spouse. And these were spouses they lost, not "significant others." So, the main character, the owner of the book shop -- a book shop like I would like to have owned at one time in my life -- leads us through these wishes made and granted with her friends, and it is a delightful book. I really did enjoy it.

It is NOT a Christian book -- in other words, it's not Karen Kingsbury, but there is some "religion" in the book. Debbie Macomber's later books show a definite turn around about life and God, another reason I like her books.

I have linked to her website in the title of this BLOG if you want to see what else she has written. I do recommend any of the books that have to do with Blossom Street.