Count the Ways

Ginger says: Eleanor falls in love with a farm as a young single woman, in part because of Old Ashworthy, the big old gorgeous tree on the property. As she marries and her family grows, that tree plays a part, watching over them all until a series of culminating events made me call my best friend and beg her to tell me how it ended, lest I not be able to bear how it finished. She wouldn’t tell me the specifics, but she assured me that it has a satisfying ending, and she was right—tree included. This was my first Joyce Maynard, but it certainly won’t be my last. How the Light Gets In, out just last summer, continues the story of Eleanor’s family.