Grandma Crabby's Book Review Corner.

And this time, a double header!  Two lovely, complicated books about people, written for grownups.  Lives, relationships among the young, the middle aged, the seniors, the damaged, and not romanticized, messy, complicated, but worthwhile.

 The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel  Lovely book.  Sweet, funny, heartbreaking.  A small story about an ordinary retired guy that sucks you into his small, ordinary world, as he does something totally Forrest Gump level charmingly, blessedly nuts. (He sets out to mail a letter and decides on the spot to hike to the other end of the country to deliver it.) A small story, so crazy, lovely, heartbreaking in many places, unreal and nutty in the entire concept, but also real.

 Beautiful Ruins: A Novel
The audio version of this book took me home from Asheville and carried me through the week of dog walking and chores, and I had to yank the earphones off my head and get back to work way too often.  This isn't a small and simple story; it's a saga. It's woven together across 50 years, several lives and a couple of continents, and yes, also Richard Burton.  It kept me hanging, watching the stories come together, the lives intersect, and the title is very apt.  Crabby Grandma gives it Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and clear your schedule - expect to get sucked into the rich, colorful, messy, beautiful ruins.

Hot Damn, I am on a streak here - two fiction books written by people who really can write!  (I know it when I see it, I can't reproduce it.)