I was in Las Vegas for just a couple days and all I wanted to do was read. I thought about bringing work with me but decided it would be more relaxing to sit with a book and let the kids play by the pool.
I polished off My Life with the Lincolns and read Delta Girls right after without pausing. Okay, I did page through Oprah’s O magazine for a few minutes. But then I jumped into Delta Girls!
Gayle has been busy…two books out at the same time! I’m very lucky, I got a sneak peek at the manuscripts as Gayle was writing. Its very cool to have a brilliant author as a friend!
In Delta Girls, I was captivated right away by the intertwining stories of Izzy and Karen. Izzy is a drifter, going to orchards and farms, picking fruit under the hot sun, as needed. She goes where the wind takes her, along with her precocious daughter. Karen is a figure skater fighting to win competitions and work with her charming, dangerous new partner under the watchful eye of her overbearing mother.
Gayle takes us into the pear orchard where Izzy finds work and something unexpected -a family. With Karen, we are on the ice trying to do a perfect triple axel and tension mounts between her and her partner. You just know something is going to creak as Karen is pressured to do better and better with each time out on the ice.
The books wouldn’t have Gayle’s own stamp without a depth and seriousness to them. Izzy receives a little visit from a mother and baby whale as she lives on a houseboat and one of the subplots of the story is how to humanely guide the whales back to where they need to go. Is there is a little parallel between the characters and the whales?
I love her smooth and poetic writing, the way she describes even the most mundane items have a magic to them. I eagerly read everything Gayle writes and hope to glean just a bit from them. You can visit her site for more information, http://www.gaylebrandeis.com/
