A Soft Place to Land

One of my daughters gave me A Soft Place to Land the day it came out and I spent a delightful few hours reading it, even though the untimely death of Phil and Naomi, the natural parents of Ruthie (Phil was Julia's stepfather, whom she loved dearly), brought many tears to my eyes. Let me tell you, the book is not just for sisters. All parents live with the specter of "who'll take care of the children if we die together?" In the case of divorced parents, presumably their surviving ex-spouses, who are the living natural parents of the children, will take over. But what about children, such as Ruthie, born to the deceased couple? Ruthie had no surviving natural parent. The painful, gut-wrenching factor which comes into play in Soft Place is this: what legally happens to the half-siblings and step-siblings almost always separates them from each other. No law says the new parent is required to allow half-siblings and step-siblings "visitation" rights. Separated children may never see their brothers or sisters again. Ms White shows us how Julia and Ruthie dealt with their heart-rending separation. And what a great job she does. She skillfully reveals and develops the angst and heartache that accompanied the separation. The sisters' sense of loss is palpable. Happily, Ms White reunites them after taking them through many of life's growing pains, without each other to lean on. I'm sure Phil and Naomi would have approved. Caring step-parents and step-siblings will love this book.

I really enjoyed this touching story about two sisters separated by tragedy and how their lives are affected. The authour captures the details of life in Atlanta and San Francisco in a way that had me craving some of the meals! I especially found the stories of the marriages that surround the girls fascinating as they showed so many ways to love or maybe just endure. Humorous but poignant moments too and a real sense of how teenage girls think. Try it!

A Soft Place to Land wrestles with important themes in a sensitive and thoughtful way. The two main characters, Ruthie and Julia, seem so real and full of life that their story is laugh-out-loud funny in many places as well as poignant, moving, and thought-provoking. The book is a wonderful portrait of the vital but often difficult relationship between sisters, and it's also a knowing and fascinating portrayal of the cultures of present-day Atlanta and San Francisco, two places that emerge almost as characters in their own right. This is a book to read and savor and to discuss with family members as well as book clubs. I loved Susan Rebecca White's smart, funny, charming first novel, Bound South, but this time White has addressed harder issues--and done so brilliantly.

omfg, I *know* this world Susan Rebecca White has written about! It's like I lived it myself. Julia and Ruthie start off in the crazy/wonderful "new south" of Atlanta, right alongside the "no white shoes after Labor Day" Old South that will always be there, especially in the tony part of town the girls live in. SRW is spot-on in her portrait of these two half-sisters (they have the same mom, but different dads) trying to figure out HOW TO BE within this world of BMWs and fine champagnes and prep school girls who tsk and tug you away if you try to help the poor misfit who spills her tampons in front of everyone in the junior high parking lot. Just that alone would make a frickin' great story, right? Just wait. The girls' madly-in-love parents die, and the super-close sisters are separated. Good girl Ruthie goes to live with her hip aunt and uncle in San Francisco; wild child Julia, on the other hand, is sent to live with her still-living dad and her stepmother in a small southern town that's as different from Atlanta as San Fransisco is. It's wrenching to watch the two girls as they navigate their new situations, but completely engrossing. While the story is told from the POV of Ruthie, the "lucky" younger sis who draws the better hand in terms of life-after-the-death-of-her-parents, it's Julia my heart goes out to. Um, can anyone say "Christian Reform School"? Uh-huh. Just try imagining the trials she endures when she's sent there to "be straightened out," and then know that you're ten percent there, because Julia's reality is so much worse (and yet better, in terms of storytelling) than you can possibly predict. The bottom line is that this is a sister story...and I LOVE me a fabulous sister story. People change, *sisters* change, and it's hard and painful and wonderful and sweet to read their story, cheering them on as they grow into two very different women who nonetheless love each other intensely. For anyone who has ever struggled with maintaining an important relationship, this book is for you. If you like to laugh and cry and snort-giggle while you read, all the better. You'll come away a changed person, but in a good way. The best way. Your soul will be lighter, your faith in the world affirmed.

In her second novel, Susan Rebecca White expands her territory to include not only the modern South but San Francisco, suburban Virginia, Manhattan, and the worlds inhabited by loving parents gone too soon, second marriages diminished by vindictive beliefs, and most importantly, two sisters who adore and admire one another, separated by circumstance, grown up changed from who they thought they'd be, longing to reunite but finding that not as simple as it should be. White writes with humor, a deft touch for sorrow, and delight in the beauty of small things. This is a book not to be missed, and to be given to those you love.