While my husband yelled at the t.v. and then he and the kids laughed as they did belly bumps during the Redskins game, I did one of my favorite things of all time: Read a good book while cuddled up on the couch with a blanket. aahhhhh.
The best kind of characters are full of quirks, problems and mistakes while still pulling you in and making your adore them. Joyce Hinnefeld accomplishes this with In Hovering Flight.
As the book opens, we see Tom, his grown daughter Scarlet and Addie's two best friends handling the first hours after Addie's death. Hinnefeld weaves past and present excellently to tell the story of Tom and Addie's marriage, Scarlet's childhood in a not so usual family, the hardships of Addie's friends and ultimately, the question of the book, where they will lay Addie to rest.
Birds are an important character in the book. The author does well to not give the reader too much insignificant information but enough to enlighten and add interest.
Hinnefeld laces the story with environmental issues the main characters began dealing with in the 1970's. And, we see a different side of overdevelopment and its affects on birds.
As the author says on her book's site In Hovering Flight, "It’s a novel about mothers, daughters, and art; about illness, death, and burial; about fragile eco-systems and tenacious human relationships—all explored through characters who are inspired by the lives, and particularly the songs, of birds."
This is the author's first novel.
Sounds like a good one to add to my leaning tower.
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