Read With Us: It's A New Book!

It's time for us to announce our RWU Fall book and it's a good one; maybe almost as good as our Summer book!

It's Partita by Barbara Kingsolver.  

I can't say I'm wild about the cover design, but I will say that the story between those covers is brilliant. If you've read Demon Copperhead, you might be expecting another story in a similar vein, but let me tell you right up front: Partita is a completely different book. And, in my opinion, so much better! While I recognize that Demon Copperhead has plenty of admirers, Partita struck me as a much more intimate, thoughtful, and beautifully constructed novel. It's a book that drew me in and gave me plenty to think about, and I found myself appreciating Kingsolver's writing in an entirely different way.

At its heart, Partita is a story about life, art, love, and the choices we make along the way. Livia Cable has settled into what appears to be a comfortable life in the farm country of Tennessee where she grew up. But a phone call from someone in her past sets in motion a reconsideration of the life she's built and the person she might have been. As the story moves between past and present, we get a closer look at the relationship between the lives we imagine for ourselves and the ones we actually live.

Kingsolver has given us plenty to talk about here: the compromises we make, the pull of the past, the role of art in our lives, and the sometimes complicated relationship between personal happiness and the responsibilities we take on. There's also much to appreciate in the way she develops her characters and allows their lives to unfold.

And isn't that what we enjoy about Read With Us? We don't have to agree about everything, and we certainly don't have to come away with the same interpretation. We just need a book that gives us something to talk about, a few questions to wrestle with, and perhaps a different perspective or two.

The hardcover and audiobook versions have a (somewhat) manageable hold queue at my libraries, so I hope that is also the case for you. The book is just being published today, so I urge you to get your hold requests placed early. I read the Kindle version (and by read I mean that I raced through it in two days). I will be rereading it by listening to the audiobook version.   

Kym, Carole, and I will be talking about the book, giving additional information, and doing promotional posts throughout July. Discussion day for Partita is scheduled for Tuesday, January 12, 2027 at 7:00 pm Eastern time, so mark your calendars. We'll ask questions on our blogs that day and then host the always educational and illuminating Zoom discussion. This is one of my favorite novels this year, and one that is also very discussable, so I hope you'll Read With Us!