A Spool of Blue Thread

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
304 Pages

From the book description ..
"It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The whole family--their two daughters and two sons, their grandchildren, even their faithful old dog--is on the porch, listening contentedly as Abby tells the tale they have heard so many times before. And yet this gathering is different too: Abby and Red are growing older, and decisions must be made about how best to look after them, and the fate of the house so lovingly built by Red's father. Brimming with the luminous insight, humor, and compassion that are Anne Tyler's hallmarks, this capacious novel takes us across three generations of the Whitshanks, their shared stories and long-held secrets, all the unguarded and richly lived moments that combine to define who and what they are as a family.


I have long been a fan of Anne Tyler and find most of her books deal with families and family relationships.  There isn't necessarily a lot of action or fantastical events occurring in the book but you become engrossed in the characters and get to know each member of the Whitshanks.  This book is coming out in Feb 2015 and I strongly urge people who like realistic portrayals of the family dynamics to put this title on their hold list.