The Simple Life
Join Christie Purifoy as she journey’s through the first year of life after her family moves into an old farmhouse–which they call Maplehurst–located on the edge of suburbia. She vividly describes the beauty she finds in the ordinary. This book is divided into four seasons, and those sections are divided by each month. Faith in God is a part of Ms. Purifoy’s everyday life, and she writes about the way the words of the Bible come alive in her family’s daily routines.
Roots and Sky is filled with her personal thoughts about the things she experiences during her first year at Maplehurst, and she is very honest about her feelings. Shortly after making the move, the author gives birth to her fourth child. She then walks through a dark time of postpartum depression, and is very transparent about the difficult, sad thoughts she deals with.
From the month of December, the author shares a very sweet description of her family recreating the journey to Bethlehem in search of the newborn king, Jesus. Instead of the Holy Land, the Purifoy family makes their journey crunching through the snow in their yard, while searching for the flickering light that will guide them to the place the baby rests. Once they find him, the entire family joins hands and sings, “Silent Night.”
During the month of April, the Purifoy family considers holding a gargantuan Easter Egg Hunt as an attempt to reach out to the suburban dwellers who live around them. The author shares her thoughts of wanting to meet her neighbors, yet shyly wanting to hold back–whether from a sense of possible rejection, or something else. Ultimately, they decide to go forward with the hunt, purchasing two thousand plastic eggs they must fill. The author shares the outcome.
This book is not quite poetry, and not quite a memoir. It is almost like reading someone’s personal thoughts that have been jumbled together into a diary, with lots of rabbit trails of thoughts. I will be honest and say I could never quite connect with this book , and that made me sad, because I really wanted to. It is well-written, and there are some beautiful descriptions of the landscape and people, but a lot of the writing was too disjointed for me. Although this is not the style of writing that appeals to me, for this genre, I believe it is well-done, and would captivate those who do.
The publisher has provided bookreadingtic with a complimentary copy of Roots and Sky, through Revell Publishing for the purpose of review. I have not been compensated in any other manner. All opinions expressed are my own, and I was not required, or influenced, to give anything but an honest appraisal. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
The Author’s Blog: www.christiepurifoy.com
The Author’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChristiePurifoy
The Author’s Facebook: www.christiepurifoy.com
