Prayers for Sale (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 2009; vuoden 2009 painos)

I ( )

Prayers for Sale is the story of a friendship between Hattie Comfort and Nit Spindle in a small mining town in Colorado in the early to mid twentieth century. Hattie has lived in Middle Swan, CO for seventy years. She has had a long and mostly fulfilling life in the mining town, however her daughter has been pressuring her to move in with her in her home on the Mississippi River in Iowa. When Hattie meets young newlywed, Nit Spindle, she befriends the girl and helps her adjust to life in the harsh environment. Hattie and Nit do a lot of quilting together and Hattie tells Nits stories of her past and others in the mining town. I really liked the stories told in the book as well as the interesting characters in the town, but something seemed off with the way it was written. The stories and flashbacks did not always seem integrated smoothly into the text. I was distracted that the stories that Hattie told about herself were not told in first person. There was a lot of heavy handed foreshadowing that was more annoying than suspenseful (Hattie often referred to an unnamed problem she had to resolve before moving away), I think that the ending would have been more effective if she hadn't referred to it so much earlier in the story. Overall, I liked the story, but wished the actual writing didn't seem so forced and disjointed. It was nice portrait of characters in a turn of the century mining town and I will probably give the author another chance to see if this is a problem overall or just an issue with this book. ( )

I really enjoyed the storytelling through out this book. They were funny but yet humbling and had a lesson to be learned. I enjoyed the character relationship between Hennie and Nit as well. I will be looking to read more of her books! ( )

Prayers for Sale is a series of short stories linked together with a book length narrative about the relationship between two women living in the Colorado mountains during the gold rush years. One of the women is 86 and has lived in Middle Swan for many years. The other is a young woman who has just moved to the small mountain town with her husband. The younger is lonely and needs a friend, while the older needs someone who is interested in hearing the stories of her life. Both women have experienced similar tragedies and have a need to share the pain.

The book's strength is in Sandra Dallas' ability to capture life among the women of this small nineteenth century town: their language, their quilting, their gossiping, their society class levels, and the way they forget all these things to help each other during hard times. The plot that unifies the story is a little spotty, with elements that are introduced, then forgotten, then brought back in ways that could have been handled better. Also, the overall narrative doesn't come into its own until the end of the book.

Steve Lindahl – author of Under a Warped Cross, Hopatcong Vision Quest, White Horse Regressions, and Motherless Soul. ( )

Sandra Dallas drew me in, I connected with the characters, and the story was thoroughly enjoyable. ( )