Hello Beautiful People,
Sometimes, I think books find you.
I know, it sounds crazy.
But I really think that when you visit in a bookstore in search of a perfect title, well, the book that you need at that moment in your life will find its way into your hands.
But hey, there are crazier things in life, right?
This past Friday, I was stressed. It happens around this time of year. Plenty of shows, plenty of deadlines – scripts to be written, books and shows to be reviewed and read, classes to be taught – it’s nonstop.
So, needless to say, my brain was about to explode.
And so, I went to my local bookstore.
I perused the aisles, taking in the titles, the quiet majesty of the shelves and shelves and shelves of books.
Be it bookstore or library – I’m always in paradise when surrounded with pages of text. I get swept up in the titles, the words, and the countless stories that are just waiting to be plucked from the shelves. Because, after all, stories are my elixir of choice.
Once again I digress.
I was wandering around the aisles, when a title on a table book display quite literally jumped out at me – How I Came to Sparkle Again. At first I was just intrigued because it was a seemingly “grown up” novel with the word sparkle in it. But then I realized that this had long ago been on a Bookshelf Picks List at The Write Teacher(s), and I had never actually gotten around to reading the gem of a title that I suggested to all of you. (Sometimes, that happens. So many titles, so little time – ya know?)
But here it was, literally right in front of me.
It was a sign from the book Gods. Pick me! Pick me!
And so I did.
This is what I will tell you –
Kaya McLaren has a gift with words. Her character jump off the page and become good friends. They weave their way into your heart – and you’re completely and utterly sucked into the story. And that, for me, is a treasure. A gift. One of life’s simple pleasures.
Here’s what the press packets will say –
Set in a Colorado ski town, Kaya McLaren’s How I Came To Sparkle Again is a remarkable breakout novel that chronicles three people and their journey from loss to love; heartbreak to hope
Jill Anthony spent her young adulthood in the ski town of Sparkle, Colorado. But more than a decade has passed since she left when, only weeks after a very late miscarriage, she finds her husband in bed with another woman, she flees Austin, Texas for the town she knows: Sparkle.
Lisa Carlucci wakes up one morning after another night of meaningless sex, looks in the mirror and realizes that she no longer wants to treat her body like a Holiday Inn. She’s going to hold out for love. The only problem is, love might come in the form of her ski bum best friend, who lives next door with his ski bum friends in a trailer known as “the Kennel.”
Cassie Jones, at age ten, has lost her mother to cancer and no longer believes in anything anymore. She knows her father is desperately worried about her, and she constantly looks for messages from her deceased mother through the heart-shaped rocks they once collected in the streams and hills of Sparkle.
Three people at the crossroads of heartbreak and healing. Three lives that will be changed one winter in Sparkle. One tender, funny, tear-jerking novel you won’t soon forget.
Here’s what I will say –
Life is unexpected. You can plan and plan and plan as much as you want, but, sometimes, life doesn’t work out according to your plans. And when that happens, the people who you surround yourself with are the ones who help shape your next chapter. It’s the beauty in the simple things that you should hold close, the friendships that withstand the tests of time, the people who love you so much that they’d give you his or her kidney should you ever need it. That’s what matters. And that’s what this novel is about. Kristin Hannah called it a gem of a novel, and I couldn’t agree more. I cannot wait for the next gem that McLaren has in store for us all – I have no doubt it will be fantastic.
Live, Love, Learn,