You know those books that have been on your bookshelf (or, in this case, on my e-reader) for so long that you have no idea how or why they got there in the first place? This is one of those books.
It's a short novel set at the turn of the twentieth century, right in the period of The Music Man, and it has a similar sensibility. It's about a woman who manages a farm in New England with her brother, but once he starts writing and publishing books he has less and less time (or interest) in keeping up his half of the bargain of running a farm. So when a traveling salesman comes by with a horse-pulled bookstore (the titular Parnassus) and tells her he's looking to sell the whole business, she buys it with her savings to prevent her brother from doing the same once he returns. And then she goes off and has some adventures, to the consternation of her brother, and the salesman, while not the scam artist I kept expecting him to be, sticks around for a variety of reasons as well.
It is a charming enough read, one I thought (correctly) was written in that era, rather than being a historical novel; it's just a novel. There wasn't a ton of suspense or intrigue, but enough to keep me happily reading it on my commute, which is about all I can ask of that sort of story. I still don't know why or how I obtained that book in the first place, but I don't regret reading it.
Grade: B
It's a short novel set at the turn of the twentieth century, right in the period of The Music Man, and it has a similar sensibility. It's about a woman who manages a farm in New England with her brother, but once he starts writing and publishing books he has less and less time (or interest) in keeping up his half of the bargain of running a farm. So when a traveling salesman comes by with a horse-pulled bookstore (the titular Parnassus) and tells her he's looking to sell the whole business, she buys it with her savings to prevent her brother from doing the same once he returns. And then she goes off and has some adventures, to the consternation of her brother, and the salesman, while not the scam artist I kept expecting him to be, sticks around for a variety of reasons as well.
It is a charming enough read, one I thought (correctly) was written in that era, rather than being a historical novel; it's just a novel. There wasn't a ton of suspense or intrigue, but enough to keep me happily reading it on my commute, which is about all I can ask of that sort of story. I still don't know why or how I obtained that book in the first place, but I don't regret reading it.
Grade: B
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