Book Club: Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

Somehow I have found myself in charge of a local book club.  We will have our first meeting soon.  Our first book is Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. 

I have found that book annotation (writing in the margins, underlining etc) really helps keep my attention on the book.  Growing up, that would have been a sacrilegious act, but honestly a book is only $15 these days and I am using erasable Frixion pens so whatever.   

My synopsis of the book so far (at 2/3) complete: 

Two sisters have a loving father and an absolute icebox of a mother.  She is so removed from them that they don't even know her birthday.  When they grow up, this manifests in the older sister with her taking responsibility for everyone and everything around her.  In the younger, it results in her running away as fast and and as far as she can manage.  They both struggle in their romantic relationships, neither wanting to be vulnerable with the men they love.  

Dad dies, and the girls are trying to work through taking care of their grieving, still distant mother.  They are trying to connect with her, to understand her.  But the mom is so emotionally crippled that the only way she can communicate with them is through telling them what she calls an old Russian folk tale.  

... but is it a folk tale? Or is it her story? 

I have cried several times so far reading this book, mostly at the relationship struggles of the older sister. It really hit home, and I found myself yelling at the character JUST SAY IT.  JUST TELL HIM.  

I may come back and update this when I finish the book.  It is really engaging, and as someone who has been struggling to rebuild a reading habit, I really recommend this book!