Archives for May 2017

 “At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a reclusive orchardist, William Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. A gentle man, he’s found solace in the sweetness of the fruit he grows and the quiet, beating heart of the land he cultivates. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit at the market; they later return to the outskirts of his orchard to see the man who gave them no chase.

Feral, scared, and very pregnant, the girls take up on Talmadge’s land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Just as the girls begin to trust him, men arrive in the orchard with guns, and the shattering tragedy that follows will set Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect them but also to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.

Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, Amanda Coplin weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune. She writes with breathtaking precision and empathy, and in The Orchardist she crafts an astonishing debut novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in.”

“Four lives knit together… 

There’s a little yarn store in Seattle called A Good Yarn. It’s owned by Lydia Hoffman, and it represents her dream of a new beginning, a life free from cancer. A life that offers a chance at love… 

Lydia teaches knitting to beginners, and the first class is How to Make a Baby Blanket. Three women join. Jacqueline Donovan disapproves of the woman married to her only son, but knitting a baby blanket would be a gesture of reconciliation. 

For Carol Girard, the baby blanket brings a message of hope as she and her husband make a final attempt to conceive. 

And tough-looking Alix Townsend (that’s Alix with an i) is learning to knit her blanket for a court-ordered community service project. 

These four very different women, brought together by the age-old craft of knitting, make unexpected discoveries—about themselves and each other. Discoveries that lead to friendship and acceptance, to laughter and dreams. Discoveries only women can share…”