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Title: Ernie's Ark: Stories by Monica Wood ISBN: 0-8118-3461-1 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: March, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (5 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Another Winner for Monica Wood!
Comment: I *discovered* this writer when I read "My Only Story" which I absolutely loved. I then followed up with "The Secret Language", an entirely different but equally rewarding read. So when I heard about "Ernie's Ark" there was no doubt that I would read it! And it was a joy.

I always enjoy reading books of connected stories and this was one of the best. Wood created a foundation with the first story and proceeded to build on it until she finished constructing a marvelously detailed structure. I loved how each story started anew but then incorporated some character or event from a previous story, creating one of those "a-ha" moments.

Abbott Falls, Maine could have been Anytown, USA and showed Wood's familiarity with this kind of environment and with the effect that a mill, a union, and striking workers can have on the town. The wonderfully developed characters are people we have met before in our lives. Perhaps we did not know all their secrets, but we have known them, I am sure.

This is a book of life, death, love, hate, fear, anger, joy, and most of all, about redemption. I cannot wait for her next!

Rating: 5
Summary: Mesmerizing
Comment: Mesmerizing

Ernie's Ark is a joy to read and reread. Unforgettable characters and the seasons themselves weave in and out of these nine connected stories. Author Monica Wood clearly knows small-town life, but the stories reach well beyond geographical boundary. A paper-mill strike defines the fictional Maine town, but all of the characters, even the CEO, have a distinct story to tell. A youngest brother, darling of the family, who must choose between crossing the picket line and defying family loyalty. One "heartbreaking eighth-grade girl" and a grieving widower who form an unlikely alliance. A young man reaching for a lifeline that will enable him to break away from the father who has simultaneously controlled and ignored him.

Wood's prose is golden: "A SIMPLE REQUEST FROM A NEIGHBOR GIRL, THE FIRST REQUEST FROM ANY HUMAN BEING SINCE MARIE'S BREATHLESS 'HOLD ME, ERNIE' WHEN HE'D FELT WHAT WAS LEFT OF HER LIFT FROM THE EARTH." And succinct: "WE USED TO BE A CLOSE FAMILY. BARBECUES AND BIRTHDAY PARTIES, LOTS OF BAD JOKES AND BELLY-LAUGHING, EVERYBODY'S KIDS MARCHING IN AND OUT OF ALL THE KITCHEN." And full of discovery: "HE STOOD ALONE FOR THE NEXT FIFTEEN MINUTES WATCHING THE OWL IN THE COLD. AT ONE POINT IT RAISED ITS PONDEROUS WINGS AND LIFTED FROM THE EARTH, DRIFTING DOWN A FEW FEET TO THE WEST. 'STAY, STAY,' HE WHISPERED, WHOLLY BELIEVING HE'D BEEN SUMMONED TO THIS PLACE BY A DEAD MAN TO WITNESS A MARVEL IN HIS STEAD."

Tempered with humor and moments of high suspense, the stories trace the multifaceted paths that lead to forgiveness and redemption. Wood explores the human heart in all its complexity. Throughout the book the ark stands tall, suggesting a myriad of subtleties as varied as the characters themselves.

Rating: 5
Summary: Delight and insight!
Comment: This work compares very favorably with Richard Russo's Pulitzer-winning EMPIRE FALLS and covers much of the same territory. Like Russo, Wood is intimately and intricately familiar with the people she characterizes so well. Some of these stories could happen anywhere; some only in smalltown Maine. The stories are loosely connected and characters overlap in what in the hands of a lesser writer, might seem a contrived structure, but which here adds a depth of patterning to the already complicated relationships between these entirely lovable, if foible-full creations. You won't find Abbott Falls on any map of Maine, but towns and situations of similar ilk about everywhere, especailly in the smalltown Maine of the human heart.

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	Title: Secret Language by Monica Wood ISBN: 034544907X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 28 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95
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