August Read/Sherri

Fall of the Marigolds

“Fall of the Marigolds” is written by author Susan Meissner. Susan writes her books with an object that pulls two time period together. There are many correlations between both stories. In this book, the object is a scarf with a print of marigolds . The first time period takes place on Ellis Island in September 1911. The second time period is during the 9/11 fall of the Twin Towers. The two stories intertwine and eventually are pulled together by the story of the scarf. What I liked most was Susan’s storytelling techniques. I like reading a story, that leaves you wishing for the rest of the story and curious as to how it will unfold yet not wanting the story to end. The characters are revealed by their choices and actions. This book is about family, friendship, love, bravery, fear and humanities view of two difficult times in American history. The big lesson here is the beauty of perception and how we all have a choice in our perceptions in life.  Given we don’t always know all the information or sequences of events to know if our perception is correct. Knowing the other sides of the story can make all the difference in our truly understanding the challenges we all meet in life. Sometimes if we are lucky as our characters, we learn, with time, the whole story and  how our influences in helping others to meet their challenges, will be reviled to us.