The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Truth? This book is a little too woowoo for me. Why is it that women of a certain age have to *dance* in the moonlight and *weave* special friendship knots to throw into the ocean and *paint their feelings* and swim naked and make out with hunky forbidden men that are not their husbands? Good god, it's all so . . . pat. And why does there have to be a convoluted tragedy -or the realization of a past one- to bring a woman to her senses? I just think we women in our middle years are so much more evolved than that. Tear-jerkers are not necessarily required. Ehn, I dunno. Maybe I'm being glib but I just think the whole story was over-plotted. I would say read Anne Morrow Lindbergh's A Gift From the Sea instead - it gets right to the heart of personal growth as natural, organic process and not something that has to be forced.

I would still give this three out of five stars, though, as I did appreciate some of the more thoughtful insights Jessie had about life while caring for her ailing, aging mother. And life on an isolated barrier island sounds pretty idyllic to me. So, yes, it was an engaging if somewhat cheesy read.