Sonderbooks Book Review of Good Harbor

Reviewed February 18, 2004.
Scribner, New York, 2001. 253 pages.
Available on Amazon.com for $13.00 in paperback.
Available at Ramstein Library (F DIAMANT).

I read about this book in the catalog of Daedalus Books (www.salebooks.com), had heard of the author, and wanted to give it a try. I discovered that Ramstein Library had it, and requested a chance to read it. Sembach customers, it’s now much, much simpler to borrow books from Ramstein and Vogelweh libraries. We are now all connected to the same circulation computer, so you can see on our computer if a book is available, and when you make a request, the computer lets the library with the first available copy know that there has been a request. The drawback to this is that now some of our most popular books are constantly being checked out by customers from Ramstein and Vogelweh, but the advantage is that now all of Ramstein’s and Vogelweh’s collections are available to our customers as well.

“Good Harbor” is the story of a good friendship between two women. One is a children’s librarian and one is a romance novelist.

The two women, Kathleen and Joyce, are going through some hard times, and their friendship helps sustain them. Kathleen has been diagnosed with breast cancer, just like her sister. This isn’t, however, a book about dying of breast cancer, but a book about dealing with the treatments. I don’t think I would have wanted to read about someone dying of cancer just now.

Both ladies are wondering about their marriages and their children. They have some issues from the past to work through, and Joyce is struggling with writer’s block.

Mostly, the book is a nice story of two women going through some hard times and surviving emotionally because of the sustaining power of friendship.

I’m going to look for more books by Anita Diamant.

Review of another book by Anita Diamant:
Pitching My Tent

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****Good Harbor*

by Anita Diamant