At the Scent of Water

At the Scent of Water by Linda Nichols follows Sam and Annie, separated and grieving after the death of their daughter. It's about them coming to terms with the tragedy and finding a way forwards, with the help of their families and friends.

I really enjoyed this book - much more than I thought I would because it's billed as Christian Fiction and I was worried I would find the religious aspects off-putting. But I went with it and it was a beautiful story overall, extremely well told and very involving.

I wasn't 100% sold on all the decisions reached by the characters, but the ending was largely satisfying and came together in a very sweet and heartwarming way - but still acknowledging the complexities of the situation and that there would likely be more hardships and difficulties to overcome, which was pleasing.

I would definitely read more by this author.

Rashomon and Other Stories

As with most books of short stories, I liked some of these and not others. I certainly didn't understand them all, and a few were pretty grim and unpleasant. But there were two in particular - Green Onions and Horse Legs - which I really enjoyed, particularly because of the meta aspects and the absurd humour of them. A lot of the writing was vividly descriptive - which made the less pleasant aspects even more horrible, but also provided a fair few beautiful pictures of landscapes or amusing portraits of specific characters. Very varied in terms of subject matter and tone, so an interesting collection in terms of how they were grouped together.