Dear Reader:

You know you are reading a memorable book when you find yourself relating your life with the story!

First of all… I find this author’s style of writing smooth, comfortable, with two stories involving the same main character ( heroine) over a fifty-year gap of time from pre-Nazi France -a librarian working in the American Paris Library to a small town in Montana in the 1980’s . Two parallel time- line stories that mysteriously connect one amazing WWII hero to a lonely teenage girl named Lily and the secrets that start unraveling between this unlikely two-some.

In other words… I can’t put the book down .

As Lily interviews her mysterious neighbor, Mrs. Gustafson, (after much begging and pleading) about Paris during WII (a school assignment) she asks…” Do you like to read?” ( expecting the usual ” I love it” since her house resembles a library) the answer quietly but determinedly comes back as ” I LIVE to read.” Lily feels shivers run down her back. This is a woman with a story to tell.

Thus begins an amazing bond that will change both their lives forever.

When asked by Lily if Mrs.Gustafson missed Paris and how she would describe it… she hears ” Paris is a place that talks to you/ hums along to it’s own song. ”

Wistfully adding ” The best thing about Paris- it is a city of readers.”

I am discovering for myself that it is true , like the title today, ” Sometimes heroes can be found in the quietest places.”

As I have slowly begun branching out more and more from my room… I am discovering that every resident has their own personal life story to tell and love having someone to talk to and tell it.

These stories are so poignant and everyone, in their own way… has risen to overcome the deepest personal losses to be where they are striving to begin life again… alone… all heroes and heroines!

Smiles greet me and warm conversations ensue about how blessed they are to have a place to live in the here and now… but oh what a life they had along the way and how much they miss their loved ones … but life continues.

Yes… I am surrounded by these quiet heroes , especially the ones who are left alone to finish the journey.

I must stop now… my book, like the sirens of old, is calling me back to start a new chapter… a new world to succumb happily into for hours.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh