My new favorite book!

I mentioned a book that I liked in a blog post Read More - Here's my stack of books (from January 2014). The book is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. I loved the book and have read it twice already so I was extremely pleased to hear that that author Rachel Joyce wrote a companion book to the Harold Fry book titled The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.


The book was due to be published in the UK last year but was not coming until February 2015 in the US. I didn't want to wait to read the new book - but I had no choice! I placed a request at my local library to be the first to read the book when it came out - and I waited impatiently for it to arrive.

Well, I got the book from the Northfield Public Library a few weeks ago and read it right away. I loved it! The story is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Fry book. Rather, Quennie's story parallels what is going on in Fry's story. A person can read the Queenie book without having read the Fry book - but I think the new book is richer if you read the Fry book first.

I won't give anything away but this book left me stunned by the end of it. The story is beautiful and so is the writing. I loved the cast of characters - the care staff and residents of the hospice where Queenie is living out her final days. I liked reading about the events of Fry's pilgrimage through Queenie's eyes. I also like that the book is somewhat of a mystery novel as well and that it's set in England and roughly covers the terrain of another book I've been reading, Mud, Sweat and Gears: Cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats (Via the Pub) by Ellie Bennett.

I enjoyed The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy so much I ordered my own copy from my local bookstore, Content. I picked it up today and am looking forward to reading it a second (and third, and fourth) time. I'll likely read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry again first, though, so it's fresh on my mind when I read The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy again.



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