You’re right - I see it on my screen but it’s not really there. Metaphoric.
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I’m trying to figure out the formatting before we start suggesting books for our next discussion. I like the Italics and other special formatting for book titles.
Harry’s Trees Italics
Harry’s Trees Bold
Harry’s Trees Bolded Italics
Harry’s TreesThe pre-formatted text
Next is to try to post a link and then to post a screenshot. Ok, I can’t post a screenshot — the system won’t let me. So why have the ‘add an image’ button?
Here’s hoping at least some of these show and not just in the preview pane.
Crossed fingers emoji
ETA: None of the formatting worked but the link came through. Oh well!
Also I just earned this badge, which may explain how my link posted.
This badge is granted the first time you post a link on a line by itself, which automatically expanded into a onebox with a summary, title, and (when available) picture
The emoji reactions work at least.
I absolutely, completely love this book!! I was just okay about it when it was chosen, but the more I read, the more I was sucked in. I don’t care that it was fantasy. It was a love story, and I really needed something sweet and lovely during this terrible time.
I had tears in my eyes reading about Beth and Dean’s deaths. I was rooting for Harry and Amanda. I loved Olive. I loved it all.
I bought the hard copy on e-bay with the intention of giving it to our library. Well, for me this one is a keeper, so I ordered another one on e-bay and will give it to our library. (Our library only has $100 a month for acquisitions, so this book would not be on the purchase list.)
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Yea–I finally finished a book in time to join the discussion! But I was also very happy to read The Street, so belated thanks to the person who picked that one.
This book was a little too predictable and magic-y for my taste, but I enjoyed it anyway. This may sound blasphemous coming from a librarian, but books with quirky libraries and librarians annoy me. So the Olive sections were my least favorite. Also Big Bad Brother Wolf was a bit over the top.
On the other hand, I think the author got a lot of the emotional stuff right.
“Harry , Oriana, Amanda and Ronnie are all suffering the profound loss of a loved one throughout the story. What message does this novel send about the process of grieving? Can you relate to how Harry grieves?”
As a widow, I liked how Harry and Amanda understood each other, even though they responded to their loss differently–Harry going inward, guilty, and suicidal, making big changes; and Amanda powering through, craving sex, and making dating mistakes. I’m part of an online grief group, and both approaches are pretty common (sometimes within the same person). I liked that the author didn’t put both characters in the same box.
There was a lot of other grief and loss in the book, too. Oriana’s, of course, and Ronnie. But also Olive (romance loss), Wolf (loss of parental love), Stu (“life in general was a string of constant defeats”), Cliff (loss of his brief relationship with Amanda), the EMT guys and Green Gables guys who are so fixated on Amanda. And there was guilt, magical thinking, acceptance, helping others, avoidance, revenge, meanness–the full range of responses.
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@buenavista, you’ve mentioned the themes of loss, the message of redemption and hope, which is at the heart of this lovely story.
But, I don’t view Olive as you do, and hope this makes you feel better about her.
Olive was a character Who moved me to tears and laughter, yes, at times she was comic relief, but she was always at the heart of this story filled with hope.
We left the gritty,heartbreaking Street, for nature, and beauty in people and in the world, I liked this book a lot, it may be a simple story but it’s themes run deep. In one interview, about Cohen’s screenwriting skills he commented, “ As an ICU nurse for so many years he knows what is important in life. Isn’t that what this book is about, as @buenavista mentions above,
Back to Olive - she made me laugh and cry.
Olive, made me laugh when she manipulated Ronnie into helping make renovations to the library, when he returned his long overdue library book. Her lack of a filter, old and cranky and utterly delightful.
Olive moved me, when totally heartbroken, having lost her GREAT love, , she greeted each new day with gratitude, the sun would rise, life goes on and so did she, a survivor. Cohen reveals Olive’s strength in the scene just before she sees the gold on her front step.
Olive made me cry, as she read, Ronnie’s book on the front steps, for all the world to see and hear. It was a lovely moment.
As you know Jon’s mother became a school librarian, and he honors her and librarians, in his books, and for me, Olive is depicted with respect.
From an interview :
*PL: **What role have libraries played in your life?/**strong text
JC: It’s not so much libraries, as librarians. One librarian in particular was central to my life. When I was in third grade my mother became the elementary school librarian. And I was so proud, it was so stunning, to walk into that library and see my mother surrounded by children, all of them wide-eyed and in awe as she read stories aloud. In her throne-like chair, surrounded by her subjects. She seemed like such a force, like she had her pulse on the essential magic of the world. No one moved a muscle the whole time she spoke. All these squirmy kids, absolutely still. Here’s what I know: librarians enthrall./> Blockquote
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@stradmom I also looked up Oriana, ( gold and light) and other names,
After all, Jon was an English major at Connecticut College, his father an esteemed, renown English prof at Swarthnore, and his mother a book loving librarian, names, books and authors mentioned , can’t be random.
Especially, Treasure Island,
Orania is a name of several origins. It is a Hebrew and Spanish name, but as well a feminine form of the Greek name Orionand a form of Urania.
Possibly derived from Latin aurum “gold” or from its derivatives, Spanish oro or French or.
Meaning of Oriana
Orania means “golden” (from Latin “aurum” or Spanish “oro” = gold)
and in Hebrew “light”, “sun”. [Orania](https://charlies-
names.com/en/orania/) as well means “daughter of the light/fire” (from Orion) and “heaven”, “heavenly” (from Urania)./
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@silverlady, your post made me feel so happy! I love it when a book hits a person in just the right place at just the right time.
@jerseysouthmomchess, thank you for the name analysis. Oriana = gold, of course! I didn’t pick that up while reading, but now it seems obvious. I would add that it also reaffirms the fact that it is Oriana herself that is the treasure Harry wins, not the actual gold.
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Yes, but he got to have it both ways, since he gave Amanda the treasure.
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True, although technically Cliff and Hoop gave her the treasure. But Harry will get to enjoy it, presuming that he, Amanda and Oriana become one big happy family. She got one of the bigger drops, right – $1 million?
I understand Harry’s desire to divest himself of his legal settlement, but I could never do it randomly the way he did. I don’t trust the invisible hand of the universe that much. I would do the research and make some worthy non-profits (and a few Olive Perkins types) very happy.
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@Mary13, I totally agree. Why give it to random people who might be slime? So many worthy charities.
I think the randomness was part of the “leap of faith” Harry had to take in order to be healed. Anything that involved a personal decision or research on his side seemed to be verboten, at least according to Oriana’s rules.
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Wasn’t the randomness also a way to not be traced? Although, it didn’t work that well considering Wolf found him.
I love that Oriana’s name means gold. That is perfect.
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However, the randomness also goes along with the randomness of lottery tickets (and the randomness of death) and ultimately another way to assuage Harry’s guilt.
Amanda doesn’t get 1 million. Amanda’s gets the last 350,000 bag. Harry and crew need to get rid of the remaining gold coins quickly, so they combine the last two bags. Olive gets 2 million. Well, minus the gold coin Stu has. Does Wolf end up any of the loose coins?
Also I noted Oriana’s unusual name but didn’t connect the dots to its meaning. As @Caraid notes: perfect.
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My boss just signed off on a 1.2 million dollar rehab job at work–for a building that didn’t actually have the ceiling falling in like the Pratt Library–so I can tell you that Olive will go through that money in a flash!
My recollection is that Wolf ended up with a fair amount of gold. Stu’s pockets were stuffed with it, and Wolf took it all from him (except those last few coins that Harry let Stu keep).
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Yes, but online donations also poured in for the library after Olive’s story and her reading to children hit the internet.
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I thought that the random bag deliveries (granted the tree was picked out) matched the random chance of being hit by construction or having a brain aneurysm. All unpredictable and have nothing to do with being a good or bad person.
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I think Olive and the library were deserving of the money. And Amanda was owed by Cliff and Hoop for the gross invasion of her privacy etc.
I can’t quite remember if the people with the dog tied outside with the bark box removed (all horrible things imo) got a share of the pot but if they did, they surely didn’t deserve it.
Wolf probably got a nice chunk of coins to keep him going for a while. That seems like a fair reward for saving the dog from its bad owners.
Harry’s method of choosing beneficiaries for his tainted insurance money was too random for me much as I would like to believe that a mysterious divine hand guided Harry by using trees as a sign from above. But I guess that the randomness is supposed to mimic how a lottery ticket winner is chosen.
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To me Cliff’s bedroom camera seemed out of character… and more so that he’d share it with Hoop. Honestly I was surprised he even mentioned their relationship to anybody else. I did cheer when Cliff stood up to Stu.
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Actually delivery of the bags of gold skewed from random to intentional before all was said and done. Hoop took his bag to Cliff and together they decided to make amends: Amanda got the gold. And then Ronnie (a favorite character of mine) knew exactly to whom he delivered the last two bags of gold.
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