Between the Tides

If you're looking for a good beach read, anything by Patti Callahan Henry would be a great choice. Sure, she's probably not the next Shakespeare, but her writing is definitely a few steps up from the highly overrated Nicholas Sparks or Jodi Picoult.

I was first introduced to this author a couple years ago when I picked up her novel "The Art of Keeping Secrets" and read it on my honeymoon in August of '08. At the time, I found it to be the perfect airplane/poolside/beach read. So when I saw another of her books on a recent trip to the Book Barn, I decided to pick it up.

I finished this book in just a couple days; it was a very quick read. Just like the last book I read by this author, "Between the Tides" takes place in the Coastal Carolinas, presumably where the author is from. The landscape figures prominently in the novel (I always seem to notice when this is the case). The book is about 30 year old Catherine, who is at a point in her life where she seems to be looking for answers. Her beloved father, a literature professor at a local university, has recently passed away, and her boyfriend, with whom she's been for 4 years, doesn't seem to be in any hurry to pop the question. 

Catherine's father's dying wish was to have his daughter scatter his ashes over the water in the town of Seaboro, where she grew up. The only problem is that Catherine has not stepped foot in Seaboro since she was 12 years old, when a tragic event forced her family to move. This tragic event has haunted Catherine ever since, and she does not want to return to town. But after some prodding by Forrest, her father's assistant professor and protege (and also Catherine's ex boyfriend), she decides to go back to Seaboro to honor her father's last wish. 

What ensues is a journey of self-discovery. Catherine encounters people and places from her past and is forced to think about a painful time in her life that she had kept buried for a long time. The author skillfully switches back and forth between present and past tense throughout the book, allowing us to understand more and more about Catherine's past. 

So if you're looking for a book to read by the pool or at the beach this summer, check out Patti Callahan Henry. Not exactly great American Literature at its finest, but a vast improvement over a lot of the junk that's out there now.

--- Emily