The Hatbox Letters

This weekend I finished reading The Hatbox Letters by Beth Powning.  What a wonderful book!  It is a novel about a woman who was digging through some old hatboxes full of letters, diaries, and other items from her family's past.  She learned more about her family's history while she was working her way through the grief of losing her husband over a year ago.  Powning's writing style is descriptive - she describes things so well that you can really picture the scene.  She uses surprising phrases, metaphors and similes to get the atmosphere of her scenes across.  In addition, she gets so into the character's heads that I felt immersed in their reality.  She explored grief, acceptance and renewal in a realistic and fascinating manner.  I had a hard time putting this book down.  Saturday I had large chunks of quiet hours to read uninterrupted, and it was so satisfying to be able to immerse myself in this book.  Already I want to read it again, to catch things I may have missed the first time.  But, I think I'll let it sit for awhile and start on the newest book I treated myself to, Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  I'll keep you posted!