I just finished reading Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. When I started reading the book I almost stopped, it did not seem to be something that I would enjoy reading, but I did not have another book handy so I stuck with it and was happy with that choice as it did not take long for me to connect with the story. It follows the lives of two women who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. While I did not have much in common with the characters, the author painted a pretty accurate picture of what life was like for me as a child, teen and young adult. I found that I could relate to the women in the story and started to enjoy the book. When I realized that it was going to have a sad ending, I was ticked off. I invested my time, my thoughts and my energy into this book; I do not like stories with sad endings. Maybe I grew up listening to too many Fairy Tales….and they lived happily ever after. I lead a real life with its ups and downs, I like stories that have a happily ever after endings. If I had known, I probably would not have read the book. I want to come away from a book feeling better about myself, not sad or depressed. While not giving anything away, I will say that finishing the story right before my husband was to leave for the week, was not a good idea.
Was it worth the read? I guess so. I am going to use a few selected paragraphs to share with my own daughter to show her what life was like for me growing up and how times have changed, how she has so many more opportunities because women of my generation and my mother’s generation lived and fought to make life better for women. I will also teach her the signs of inflammatory breast cancer as it is the author’s wish to teach others of that often misdiagnosed cancer.