Your New Summer Book Obsession

Before you even read the rest of this blog go buy this book, right now. Look amazon link right HERE.

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Okay, so we all know I am literally obsessed with books. Not sure what it is, but I love reading for hours and hours on end and this book was torn apart within 36 hours. There is a reason it has been on the NY Times best sellers list and is apart of the Target Book Club. So lemme let you read what the plot line is before I discuss it further.

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Welcome to Little Wing.

It’s a place like hundreds of others, but for four boyhood friends―all born and raised in this small Wisconsin town―it is home. One of them never left, still working the family farm, but the others felt the need to move on. One trades commodities, another took to the rodeo circuit. One of them hit it big as a rock star. And then there’s Beth, a woman who has meant something special in each of their lives.

When all of them are brought together for a wedding, Little Wing seems even smaller than before. Lifelong bonds remain strong, but there are stresses―among the friends, between husbands and wives. There will be heartbreak, but there will also be hope, healing, even heroism as these memorable people learn the true meaning of friendship and love.

Nickolas Butler’s Shotgun Lovesongs is that rare work of fiction that evokes a specific time and place, yet movingly describes the universal human condition. It is, in short, a truly remarkable book―a novel that, once read, will never be forgotten.

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Five characters share the narrative in alternating chapters. Hank – who inherited his father’s farm, Beth – Hank’s wife, Lee – an international music artist, Kip – a successful broker and Ronny -an injured rodeo star. These people speak and we think that we know them, who they are and what they dream of, but each are capable of surprising us as the story unfolds.
I have read few books that feature male friendship, and it was something that I really enjoyed about Shotgun Lovesongs. The bonds this group formed in childhood remain intact through a decade of physical separation and sporadic contact, but when they reunite in Little Wing they learn none of them are the boys they once were and their relationships with each other are now complicated by the men they have become. I can relate to this book on a personal level, being as I come from a town where everyone wants to escape. Big dreams pull some of us out, while some people stay and keep living with the same faces and places they have always lived.

In the 7 books I have read this year ( part of a book a month challenge) I would say this is one of the better books. Easy to read and leaves you wanting to know more.