We insist you read The Laws of Harmony by Judith Ryan Hendricks – which is today’s book giveaway!
We will randomly select 25 winners from the entries received. No purchase necessary. The last entry will be accepted 2 days after this posting. Approximate retail value of each prize: $13.99. Estimated total prize value: $349.75. View rules here: Download Librarylovefest-blog-sweepstakes Leave a comment below for your chance to win!
If you’ve never read Judith Ryan Hendricks, you’re in for a real treat with her latest novel, The Laws of Harmony. If you have read her, then you know why Booklist writes that this author “calls to mind Barbara Kingsolver in her affinity for wise women and the power of close female friendships.”
Her first book, Bread Alone was a Book Sense ’76 pick and really put her on the map. Next came the eagerly awaited and much beloved sequel, The Baker’s Apprentice. (We wrote about Judith in an earlier post. Check it out here.)
Now comes The Laws of Harmony, an emotionally gripping tale of one woman’s struggle to remake herself in the wake of loss and deception.
Thirty-two-year-old Sunny Cooper lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she struggles to make a living voicing radio spots, to hold on to her floundering relationship, and to forget the first eighteen years of her life spent on a hippie commune in northern New Mexico. There, when Sunny was eight, a freak accident took the life of her younger sister, Mari, leaving her family fragmented and scarred.
Just when it looks as if the “normal” life Sunny craves might be within reach, a second accident—the sudden death of her fiancé Michael—will turn her world upside down. In Michael’s absence, Sunny begins to discover how little she truly knew about him. Reeling from a series of surprising revelations about his questionable business practices and a family he never discussed, she uncovers evidence that he was also having an affair with her best friend. The shocking news sends her life spinning in a different direction as she decides to travel west, settling in the town of Harmony on San Miguel Island. There, she takes a new job, learns to ride a motorcycle, and makes more than a handful of new and surprising friends.
But Sunny’s past is never far behind. To her shock, she soon learns that she is pregnant with Michael’s child—an all-too-tangible link to a man she had tried to erase from her memory. When her mother arrives in Harmony on a surprise visit, an intense emotional encounter ensues, causing both women to reexamine their memories of their commune lifestyle and Mari’s death. Ricocheting from resentment to hopefulness, Sunny resolves to embrace an unknown future and step out from the shadow of her past—not only for herself, but for her newborn daughter, as well.
Hendricks writes commercial women’s fiction that appeals to all age groups—perfect for reading circles and book clubs.
The Laws of Harmony offers a revival of interest in 70’s culture. Music, clothing and culture, the parallel disillusionment of Vietnam and Iraq, and the present energy crunch have led to a resurgence of interest in the hippie movement—how hippies lived, their perspective on society, what they were trying to accomplish. Hendricks spent a year researching hippie communes of the 1960s and '70s to create a vivid, detailed portrait of commune life.
– Virginia