A New 4.25!

Back on April 24, 2014, I added a 2nd All-Time Top 12 to my original All-Time Top 12.  And then on September 24, 2015, I put a 13th book in the 2nd ATT12.  Well, almost 6 years later, I'm adding #14 to the 2nd ATT12. The book is called The Clover Girls, by Viola Shipman.  I absolutely loved every minute of it.  Instead of posting the book cover synopsis, I'm just going to tell you what it's about:  4 young girls meet at an all-girls camp in Michigan.  They become best friends and keep coming back year-after-year until they are actually camp counsellors.  36 years after that 1st camp, the 4 women are no longer friends.  What happened, and is there any way it can be fixed?  I am giving you NO hints.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I teared up or just flat-out cried.  We all know that I'm not exactly stoic after I make an emotional connection with a character or 2.  Well, this time I connected with all 4! And it lasted throughout the book.  But there is so much more to it than just emotions.  There is humor.  There is (perhaps) romance.  There is even another takeaway for me.  And, above all else, the writing is superb.  Here is just one example of an analogy that really resonated with me.  And it concerns one character's mother who has been fading for a very long time and is finally near death:

"The body is like a baseball stadium after the last out is made.  Every living thing begins to stream out of it, it grows quiet, calm, cool, and then the lights begin to shut off, one section at a time, starting with the feet."

How cool is that?  I have read one other Shipman book, called The Recipe Box.  I liked it a lot.  But this one has just joined a very special group.  I welcome you, The Clover Girls, to the top 26 books I have read. Feel proud.