After reading my last book, I was really in need of something lighter, something a bit frivolous. I found the perfect thing in Reading the Sweet Oak by Jan Stites. This book mostly features Tulsa, a young woman who lives on the Sweet Oak river in the Ozarks with her grandmother, Ruby. The two of them, along with Tulsa's half-brother Guy, run a canoe business. Living on the river is all Tulsa ever wants in her life, but Ruby would like her to add in a little romance as well. With this in mind, Ruby asks Tulsa to read a romance novel, something that Tulsa scoffs at but does to please her grandmother, then surreptitiously begins a romance book club in their home. We are then introduced to Pearl, Ruby's childhood friend; BJ, Guy's mother; and Jen, Tulsa's friend. Each of these women is in their own time of life, romantically, and we get to hear each of their perspectives. This all happens as Tulsa and Ruby struggle to keep their business afloat.
I don't read romance novels. I think they are silly and I really don't enjoy reading the more... amorous descriptions they usually include. I prefer a fade-to-black approach to love scenes. This book itself was very light on those scenes, but the characters did discuss some of those descriptions in the books they were reading. As I said, I was looking for something easy and silly and I found it in this book. If romance novels are your thing, you may really enjoy this. If not, you still may like it as a beach read. I like multi-generational stories about women like this, so that's what I took from it.
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