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What books should everyone read before they die?Add Book
Crossing to Safety
Wallace Stegner
Literature
Janice Badger Nelson
Jan 18, 2019
This is my favorite book of all time. I know you chose Angle of Repose, but Wallace Stegner wrote this towards the end of his life and it is truly autobiographical. A wonderful read. Like a warm cup of tea on a cold winter day.
Author Elissa Altman spoke eloquently about Crossing to Safety in our virtual Battle with Byrd's Books of Bethel, CT on July 14, 2020. Here's an excerpt taken from her book talk: "This book hinges on the very magnificence of the mundane. . . . There's no murder, nothing titillating, nothing extraordinary. Instead, this is a novel about the vagaries and universality of friendship, wrapped around a core of dignity and intimacy, truth and kindness, loyalty and the creation of a life of meaning and beauty. Crossing to Safety is a quiet, stunning, lovely work of fiction. A classic for the ages."
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Anne Bogel, creator of the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog and the popular "What Should I Read Next" podcast, won our 3/18/2021 Battle with Cuyahoga County Public Library with her advocacy of Crossing to Safety. Critics often describe this, Stegner's last novel, as "a quiet novel." Bogel would beg to differ. "It's not quiet, and it's not boring; it invites you to read your own relationships and it holds up to rereading." This book about a lifelong friendship between two couples—the Langs and the Morgans—is "what we're all looking for: a good story well-told."
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