A Grandmother Begins the Story

 Book 53 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from July 4 - 17

A Grandmother Begins the Story

by Michelle Porter

published 2023

Summary (via the book jacket)

Carter is a young mother on a quest to find the true meaning of her heritage, which she only learned of in her teens. Allie is trying to make up for those lost years with her first-born and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she've never met to help her get to her ancestors in the afterlife. And Genevieve is determined to conquer her demons - before the fire inside burns her up - with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. Meanwhile, Mame, in the afterlife, knows that all their stories began with her; she must find a way to cut herself from the last threads that keep her tethered to the living, just as they must find their own paths forward. And a young bison wants to understand why he keeps being over and whether he should make a break for it and run for his life.

My Opinion

4 stars

This book caught my eye at a bookstore.  I didn't buy it but noted the title to check out from the library.  I very rarely buy new books and am trying to reduce my buying in general so this is a fairly regular thing for me to do.

The length of time between the date I started and the date I finished isn't a true reflection of how I read this.  I started it, realized I needed to be in a focused mindset to continue, had that time yesterday, and finished it in one sitting.  Even with the gap in between I didn't struggle with the multiple viewpoints which is amazing because there was a lot of switching.  There were multiple characters, human and animal and even grass.

I'm sure there were things I didn't catch on a deeper level but I enjoyed the journey.  I didn't want to book to be longer but I did continue thinking about the characters after I finished.