Review - The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

The Lace Reader

*audio version

by: Brunonia Barry

narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan

Length:
11 hrs and 43 mins
Audible Release Date:
07-17-08

Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (July 29, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061624764
ISBN-13: 978-0061624766
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches

I had been wanting to read The Lace Reader for so long, that I knew it would be forever before I could get to the book itself, therefore, I opted to listed to the audio version. For me, it is a bit more difficult to get as much from a story listening to it, as opposed to actually reading it. That being said, the beginning of The Lace Reader was a little difficult for me to get into, however I think that was simply because of outside distractions while listening. After the first couple of chapters, I truly felt myself pulled into Towner Whitney's story. I had never before heard of lace reading, but I find the idea to be very intriguing. Also, with the audio version it took me a bit of time to realize that the author refers to snippets directly from The Lace Reader's Guide, written by Towners Aunt Eva. These snippets correlate with the chapters contents and are quite interesting.

The narrator does a marvelous job breathing life into Ms. Barry's characters, including Towner, Eva, Mae, Ann and Jack Rafferty. Between Ms. Barry's writing and Ms. Bresnahan's narrating, The Lace Reader is a true entertaining gem. The reader is easily and quickly drawn into the trauma and torment of Towner. The Lace Reader is a story of the unthinkable, a story of finding your place and finding out who you really are.

When I wasn't listening, I found myself longing to be. The Lace Reader is a very engrossing story, which once it has you in it's grasp will not let go - until long after the story has concluded. I greatly look forward to more by this author and my curiosity about lace reading has been piqued, so perhaps one day I will do a bit more research into this art form.

*overall rating 4/5

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Synopsis:

Every gift has a price...Every piece of lace has a secret...

My name is Towner Whitney, no, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time...

Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of The Lace Reader, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations, but the disappearance of two women brings Towner home to Salem and the truth about the death of her twin sister to light. The Lace Reader is a mesmerizing, tale which spirals into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies and half-truths where the reader quickly finds it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction, but as Towner Whitney points out early on in the novel, "There are no accidents."

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Please be sure to stop by the author website (click here) for a truly remarkable experience!

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Excerpt:

Chapter 1

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time.

I am a crazy woman, . . . That last part is true.

My little brother, Beezer, who is kinder than I, says the craziness is genetic. We're from five generations of crazy, he says, as if it's a badge he's proud to wear, though he admits that I may have taken it to a new level.

Until I came along, the Whitney family was what the city of Salem fondly refers to as quirky. If you were old Salem money, even if that money was long gone, you were never referred to as crazy. You might be deemed unusual, or even oddball, but the hands-down favorite word for a such a condition was quirky. Throughout the generations, the Whitney men have all become famous for their quirks: from the captains of sea and industry all the way down to my little brother, Beezer, who is well known within scientific circles for his articles on particle physics and string theory.

Our great-great-grandfather, for example, parlayed a crippling preoccupation with ladies' feet into a brilliant career as a captain of industry in Lynn's thriving shoe business, a company that was passed down through the generations all the way to my grandfather, GG Whitney. Our great-great-great-grandfather, who was a legitimate captain in his own right, had a penchant for sniffing cinnamon that many considered obsessive. Eventually, he built a fleet of spice trading ships that traveled the globe and made Salem one of the richest ports in the New World.

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To read/download the first 2 complete chapter of The Lace Reader, (click here)

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