Solomon's Oak

There was no other tree like it in California, yet estimates suggested the tree was 200 years old. Here, Glory took in dogs from the shelter and trained them for new homes. Here she and her husband, Dan, had taken in foster sons. Here Dan had built a chapel. Now, Dan is gone, and Glory is left alone until the day the pirates had a wedding in her chapel. On that day, the social worker, Caroline, brings her a lonely teenage girl, Juniper. The wedding seems to be going smoothly, until a sword fight brings an ex-cop onto the scene, and Glory asks him to take photographs. All three - Glory, Juniper, and Joseph - have been battling their demons, and slowly begin to form relationships with each other.

I haven't read this sort of fiction in show more awhile, but it has all the elements I loved in stories as a teenager - especially a foster child and grieving characters. There are no easy answers for any of them, but they each have to deal with tragedy in their own way and decide if and how to move on. As their relationships grow and more of their back stories are revealed, I grew to care very much about what happened to the Glory, Juniper and Joseph. Though it may seem at first glance to be a run-of-the-mill contemporary fiction, questions about loss and closure and what God thinks of human tragedy (if he exists) give you food for thought. show less

So, right away these three hurting souls cross paths. You know some kind of relationships are going to develop. You know they'll have to deal with a crisis (or crises) separately or with each other. You may even have an idea how things will turn out in the end. But Mapson paints such vivid pictures of these three suffering characters that you don't worry about all that - you just ache with them; root for them; get exasperated with them, and celebrate with them. There are sections which I couldn't read and turn the pages fast enough to satisfy the need to know, and sections where I just wanted to let the words slide over me. Beautiful language, rich characters, gorgeous setting with lots of history - Mapson has created a gem in a small, show more deceptively simple package.

Os. show less

I'm guessing the publisher/pr firm was trying to get more buzz about this book since I received it over a year after it came out. It finally may its way to the top of my to-read pile and I am certainly happy it did. I have never read a book by Mapson, but I plan to add a couple of hers to my list.
This story reminded me a bit of THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS because of the way it involved a women who was hurting and a foster child needing to be loved. But, beyond the foster child story, were so many pieces to the lives of these characters that you were rooting for them from the very beginning...even without knowing the whole story.
Grief, anger, hope, family dynamics, friendship, love, photography, nature, and animals are just a few of the show more tags that could be attached to this novel. This novel is also rich with book club discussion topics. Mapson wrote so beautifully that it was almost poetic at times. Places were so descriptive that I could imagine them. The character's faces appeared in my mind and I could smell the food that was being made.
I appreciated the honest way the author gave the character's feelings. My heart ached for them as I turned the pages, but I still believed there was hope for them. My most favorite part of the whole story was when Glory finally calls her sister, Halle for help. Even though their relationship was contentious and difficult, Glory swallowed her pride and called her sister. Halle, didn't even blink an eye and came immediately to her aid. That's was love is all about.
Even though the story drug a bit in the middle, I was interested enough to keep reading. The long chapters also made the pace of the novel move a little slower for me. Sometimes the story was held up a bit by the descriptions. But, I hated to see it end. I'd loved to hear more about the lives of Glory, Juniper, and Joseph. show less

A story of romance and introspection, Solomon's Oak looks at three lives that become entangled with one another through a need for love and understanding. Glory Solomon, a young widow, tries to hold onto the farm that she and her husband made by hosting wedding ceremonies in the chapel under a giant oak tree; Juniper McGuire, a fourteen-year old who has run away from a broken family after her sister's disappearance; and Joseph Vigil, a former police officer who was shot during a meth lab bust, which also took the life of his best friend. All three of these individuals come to the farm with a plan of self healing of some sort, and all try to reach peace under the great oak tree, Solomon's Oak.

Another beautiful book from Jo-Ann Mapson! Solomon's Oak is an ancient white oak, growing in California, where no white oak should be able to grow. When Glory Solomon is widowed at an early age she unwittingly becomes its caretaker. Her new foster daughter, Juniper, arrives just as Glory is hosting her first wedding in the chapel her husband built under its branches. Close on Juniper's heels comes Joesph, an injured cop who is there to photograph the famous tree. Together, the three of them will weave a story of healing under the patient gaze of the ancient tree.

I absolutely fell in love with this book from the very beginning! The background is laid with rich California history, it is fleshed out with flawed, realistic, deeply felt show more characters, and finished off with a perfectly paced plot. I was especially impressed with the rendering of Juniper, a deeply troubled teenage girl. Jo-Ann Mapson gets just right the fierce emotions, hot and cold temper, striking intelligence and complete lack of common sense that is a teenage girl. Everything that is infuriating and lovable is there. She also perfectly captured how three emotionally wounded people can together pull each other out of the pain and find the way back into life. Sorry if I'm gushing, but I loved this book! Arguably one of Jo-Ann Mapson's best! show less

Solomon’s Oak is a tree in the wrong place.

Everyone says so. The tree shouldn’t be here; it’s not the right species for the area; it shouldn’t have taken root here and it definitely shouldn’t have survived here for more than two hundred years. It’s easy to see why people are drawn to Solomon’s Oak – it would be a beautiful tree had it been standing just about anywhere, but here, huge and inviting, in the open? It is breathtaking.

But the beauty of the tree isn’t the point. It’s the unlikeliness of it that’s striking. It shouldn’t be standing there in the field, but it is, and because it’s there, Glory Solomon and her husband farmed the land and built a beautiful chapel there, and eventually a man named Joseph show more wanted to photograph it. Glory’s husband shouldn’t have died, but he did, and as a result Glory offered the chapel for a private wedding the same day Joseph happened by to shoot pictures. A young girl named Juniper shouldn’t have suffered a horrific series of traumas in her young life, but as a result she also ended up at the oak tree on that wedding day and was put to work serving the wedding guests.

And with this unlikely confluence of events begins a story of hope, of finding support in the most unlikely places. The story of a family while it forms from nothing but raw emotions and loss. A story of trust, built little by little as each of the family members prove, through the smallest actions and words, that they can be trusted. And a story of renewal, as each of the three find, first, a tiny bit of themselves worth hanging on to, and finally, two other people who love them, flaws and all. show less

I was lucky enough to receive this book through Goodreads' Give Away program, and I am so, so pleased I took a chance on entering.

This book is wonderful. It came as no surprise to find out that Mapson is from the Southwest; she captured California and New Mexico's culture and beauty in a way that made me feel that I was right there with Glory and Joseph and Juniper, and as if I'd had Lorna for my own grandmother. The plot was very well put together; I love it when an author can intertwine related plotlines without the story becoming jumbled and confusing, and Mapson managed wonderfully. The only part that I think could be improved would be the end; it felt a little rushed in terms of plot. However, the very end of the book was perfect; show more not too vague, and not detailed enough so as to leave nothing to the reader's imagination.

This book is a great novel altogther, interweaving hope and grief into a beautiful tale of love and acceptance against a stunning backdrop of the Southwestern United States. show less