Good Harbor by Anita Diamant: I started this one on the heels of another Diamant novel, The Last Days of Dogtown. It wasn’t intentional: I had a last-minute drive up to New Jersey and I needed something to listen to should Dogtown end before I got home. I picked up The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, figuring I should be familiar with it before the BookCrossing Convention in Washington, DC, next year, but I only got about two discs into it before realizing that it was far too stupid to be enjoyable. Not only has Brown evidently never stepped foot in DC, the so-called “facts” he relies on in his narrative have been so often disproved I couldn’t even suspend my disbelief. Life’s too short to read crappy books.

But anyway, this is not a review of that excreble book. This is a review of a very nice book. So let’s start over.

Good Harbor by Anita Diamant: Joyce is a romance writer who recently purchased a vacation home near Good Harbor, Massachusetts. Kathleen is a children’s librarian living in the area who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The two meet at Synagogue one week (both are Jewish, though Kathleen converted from Catholicism before getting married) and become fast friends. Together they journey through many changes in their marriages, children, and selves. It’s beautifully written, and has instilled in me a desire to see this magical place called Good Harbor. It sounds just lovely. I was also a little spooked by this book, because some of the details hit pretty close to home. Kathleen’s experiences with breast cancer, for example, are almost identical to my mother’s – who also used to work in an elementary school. The details of a child’s death described later in the book is eerily similar to a friend’s child who recently died. But despite some chills that aren’t really related to the story itself, this was a very pleasant little journey through two women’s lives. It’s not exciting or suspenseful, but it would make a good beach read.

Also posted on BookCrossing.