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Loading... Wish you wellby David BaldacciLibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This book was so unlike any Baldacci book I have ever read. It was so so different. The book just shows what a wonderful writer he is. This book was such a great read and carried you through till the end. (  ) joinutica | Nov 7, 2009 |  A heartwarming read that deals with reconciling generational differences. I took this to Hawaii with me in November, and finished the entire thing in a day. (  ) colleengreene | Sep 17, 2009 | Very good story, believable, uplifting ( ) pollysmith | Aug 13, 2009 | Lou and Oz Cardinal lose their father in a car accident and their mothr is left in a catatonic state. The children and their mother move from New York to the Virginia Mountains where their father grew up and their great grandmother still lives. The children's life is changed dramatically and, as their story unfolds, they experience the hardship, the tragedy and the sacrifice that are hallmarks of life in the mountains. The story is somewhat predictable but Baldacci's characters come to life on the page. I dislike efforts to "write" dialect and this books is no exception. Even that flaw, however, could not spoil my enjoyment of this sweet, simple story. ( ) turtlesleap | Jul 31, 2009 | "How" and "why" he wrote this book is described by Balducci in his own words at the end of the audio version---a wonderful taste of his view of one's place in family history. I would be curious to know how some of his thoughts, although not written too long ago, would change with the current economic conditions (2009). This was a listening experience that held your attention completely. His other books do that, too, but this was very rewarding in a different way. ( ) nyiper | Mar 1, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0446610100, Mass Market Paperback)David Baldacci has made a name for himself crafting big, burly legal thrillers with larger-than-life plots. However, Wish You Well, set in his native Virginia, is a tale of hope and wonder and "something of a miracle" just itching to happen. This shift from contentious urbanites to homespun hill families may come as a surprise to some of Baldacci's fans--but they can rest assured: the author's sense of pacing and exuberant prose have made the leap as well.The year is 1940. After a car accident kills 12-year-old Lou's and 7-year-old Oz's father and leaves their mother Amanda in a catatonic trance, the children find themselves sent from New York City to their great-grandmother Louisa's farm in Virginia. Louisa's hardscrabble existence comes as a profound shock to precocious Lou and her shy brother. Still struggling to absorb their abandonment, they enter gamely into a life that tests them at every turn--and offers unimaginable rewards. For Lou, who dreams of following in her father's literary footsteps, the misty, craggy Appalachians and the equally rugged individuals who make the mountains their home quickly become invested with an almost mythic significance: They took metal cups from nails on the wall and dipped them in the water, and then sat outside and drank. Louisa picked up the green leaves of a mountain spurge growing next to the springhouse, which revealed beautiful purple blossoms completely hidden underneath. "One of God's little secrets," she explained. Lou sat there, cup cradled between her dimpled knees, watching and listening to her great-grandmother in the pleasant shade...Baldacci switches deftly between lovingly detailed character description (an area in which his debt to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Harper Lee seems evident) and patient development of the novel's central plot. If that plot is a trifle transparent--no one will be surprised by Amanda's miraculous recovery or by the children's eventual battle with the nefarious forces of industry in an attempt to save their great-grandmother's farm--neither reader nor character is the worse for it. After all, nostalgia is about remembering things one already knows. --Kelly Flynn (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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