Book Reviews of Light on Snow

There's no doubt the writing in this novel was powerful and conveyed a lot in very little time, but there almost seemed to be nothing to the book. Aside from being predictable, the story was told in first-person, present tense, which is irritating, considering the narrator tells us she's 30 years old as she's relaying this.

The main character is a very believable 12-year old, but she annoyed me with her constant questioning and second-guessing herself and others. The events in the story are realistic and depict a situation that is plausible and could really happen.

I'm not impressed enough to read more of this author, and I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone but Shreve fans.

Shreve's writing is crisp, compelling and evocative, as always ~ her story engrossing. I found it difficult to put this one down, especially as I got to the sections dealing with what lead to the baby's abandonment. Shreve writes of grief and hope with undeniable skill.

I really could not get into this book. I have never read any other of Shreve's books but this one seemed trite and predictable.

A father and daughter go walking in the woods just before Christmas and find a newborn wrapped in a sleeping bag. One of Shreve's best, this book deals with love, loss, and family responsibility.

I enjoyed the author's writing, but not the story. Great characters, good descriptive writing, and an enchanting setting. However, the story itself was not believeable to me and I was often annoyed at the direction the story went. I really felt this COULD have been an outstanding book.

My first book by this author and I'm kind of hooked! This was a really sweet story that shows us what it's like for a father and daughter who are dealing with a horrible loss to go through something in life that brings that loss and pain back again. Very touching...

Although I thought the story was a bit predictable, I fell in love with Nicole, the 12-year-old and I could not put this book down because the characters drew me in. It was an easy read and I would definitely recommend it.

I love Anita Shreve. A 12 year old and her father find a baby abandoned in the snow...an unexpected visitor shows up at their house in the days following. Good read.

This story is about a father and daughter whom hiking in the snow come upon a baby in the woods and how they cope with taking care of the baby and a young girl that stops by.

Wow! This book was so much more than I expected it to be. A father and daughter find an abondoned infant in the snow. It's a story about love and its consequences. Hard to put down!

Light on Snow is the story of a man grieving for his lost wife and his daughter's need for her lost mother. It's told with sympathy and compassion, in a way that leads the reader to feel their loss, and also to feel the healing that begins after they find a baby abandoned in the snow. Anita Shreve has written another wonderful story!

Another great story by Shreve. I was hooked from the start and could not put it down. Shreve does an excellent job creating and exploring different layers in her characters. It may seem like a simple story, but there is so much more going on under the surface.

I loved this book. Great story.

A differrent consept and writting style.Easy reading and holds your interest. Refreshing
in her lack of the need to use sex, profanity, and complicated mystery or plot.She tells the story of average people whos lives are changed by circumstances. How they interact with each other as well as their own lives . Very insiteful, shows emotions
intertwined.

This was a very fast read. The characters and the story were very capivating. I would love to read some more books by this author. I did not want to put this book down until the end.

Very Good Book. Kept me interested to the end, wondering who done it. It ends but make a person think there could ever be a sequel?

A very qiuck read.The story seems like it could really happen. Would love a sequel to this story.

I have liked other Books she has written but I have to tell you this one kind of made me mad. The book was good I read it quit quickly however nothing really happens, no real ending!!!! I hate to admit that I am one of those people that like my ending wrapped up in a neat little bow. THIS WAS NOT IT.

Just a story...and a great story at that! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it in just a few days...a fast reader could read it in a day. It is a sad tale, an engrossing novel, a book that I am very glad that I had the opportunity to read. Anita Shreve is a wonderful writer. I wouldn't say that this is the most compelling of her books, but it is a fine accomplishment of a very fine author. I liked it. I will always remember the story line and the characters. A great read for a leisurely weekend!

I liked this book but I wish it had a different happier ending

Great book. A little girl and her father find a baby alive in the snow and rescue it, then the mother shows up needing their help. I could hardly put this book down once I started it. It left me wanting to read more by this author.

I heard a lot of good things about Anita Shreve, but this book did not impress me at all. The plot was weak, the characters were not very well developed, and I just kept waiting for something interesting to happen...and it never did. I was very bored by this book, but plowed through it hoping it would get better.

A very good book. Easy to read. Read it in a day. I had to find out the outcome of a baby left on a doorstep!

A tale of grief and lose, redemption and family.. The wintry New England landscape parallels the physical and emotional isolation of her father-and-daughter protagonists, and her writing, spare and unshowy, has near-perfect pitch.

Twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon (short for Nicole) and her father, Robert, are snowshoeing along on a walk in the woods when they find an abandoned baby in the snow, a girl. They rush her to the hospital, and her life is saved. But the major emotional event of the story has occurred before the book even begins, for Nicky and Robert are outsiders both by virtue of their location (the farmhouse they live in is at the end of a long, badly rutted road) and because of the car accident that killed Nicky's mother and her baby sister, Clara, three years ago. In a series of flashbacks, we become acquainted with the family, before and after. One day Nicky was a normal kid in Westchester; the next, she was moving with this grim, silent man to an old New Hampshire farmhouse.

The symmetry is inescapable --- one child lost; another rescued --- and it is not lost on Nicky. She mourns partly through fantasy, imagining what Clara would be like if she were still growing; she also pictures what would happen if she and her father adopted the baby they found in the snow. Robert, however, remains almost unreachable in his grief: "[It] has no texture now --- no tears, no ache in the throat, no rage," Nicky observes, watching him in his workshop in the barn (a former architect, he makes limited-edition furniture). "It is simply darkness, I think, a cloak that sometimes makes it hard for him to breathe."

Nicky is very much on her own; except for Christmas, when her grandmother comes to take care of them for a few days, she accepts that she must be the one who remembers to buy food or reminds her father to shave and wash his hair. At the same time, she yearns not only for her mother and sister, but also for a sense of normality: They have no TV, they don't read newspapers; they eat in the den, on trays; people rarely come to the house. Nicky goes to school, reads, knits and makes bead jewelry, and works on the mural of mountains that she is painting on her bedroom wall. She is an entrancing character, weirdly grown-up, yet also a kid who wants Drake's cakes, Ring Dings, 20 colors of nail polish --- and a woman to confide in.

Enter Charlotte, a young woman who comes to the house claiming to be a customer for Robert's furniture but who soon confesses that she is the mother of the baby they found --- she has read about the rescue in the newspaper and is desperate for news of her daughter. A blizzard traps Charlotte in the house, and gradually we learn the truth behind the horrifying discovery in the snow. In this respect, the book is a bit of a suspense novel, an imaginative reconstruction of what might lie behind those lurid newspaper headlines about teenagers dumping their unwanted infants in the garbage. Shreve maintains the tension well, making us curious to know the exact nature of the parallel tragedies that afflicted Charlotte and the Dillon family, letting out the answers a little at a time.

But it is on a deeper level that the book really succeeds. With Charlotte's presence in the Dillon house, we see Nicky's profound hunger for a friend. Although Charlotte is nearly as crushed by despair and regret as Robert, she is also younger and more resilient, and she responds to Nicky's obvious need. Emotional possibilities open up: "My father and I are technically a family," Nicky muses, "but it's a word neither of us would ever use. Yes, we are father and daughter, but because we were once members of a family that was torn apart, we think of ourselves now as half a family or a shadow family. As we sit there with our trays on our laps, however, I feel, or perhaps only imagine, a 'family' consisting of my father, Charlotte, and me." Perhaps it is only when a family is destroyed and must rebuild itself that we become aware of what it means to have one.

back cover - What makes a family? That's what twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon wonders after she and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home. Through the days that follow, the Dillons and the unexpected visitor who soon turns up at their door - a young woman evidently haunted by her own terrible choices - face a thicket of decision, each seeming to carry equal possibilities of heartbreak or redemption.

I think this could be a wonderful book if I had the inkling to analize all of it. I don't.

what a powerful theme... that people find those they need to find in life... great characters...

Excellent book.. My first Anita Shreve read and I loved it.

Absolutely loved this book, intriguing, couldn't put it down.

Another Great Anita Shreve novel!

Touching story of a young preteen and her dad, who stumble upon a newborn baby girl in the woods behind their house. As the story unfolds, the girl and her dad find healing from their own personal tragedy.

Engrossing and typically Anna Shreve. If you liked The Pilot's Wife, you'll like this one.

This was a beautifully written book. I really enjoyed this. A 12-year old girl and her dad find a baby left out in the woods in the winter. Thankfully, the baby is alive and survives. The young girl and her dad lost the mom and baby sister in a car wreck. They moved to New Hampshire. Every evening they take a walk together in the woods on snow shoes. That is how they discover the baby. The mother of the baby turns up at their house. Nicole has so many questions to ask her. The dad isn’t friendly to the girl. She ends up staying with them for a few nights because of a snow storm. I really like Shreve’s books. One of my favorites.

I just read the a review of this book and the reader was not impressed. Well, I was! Now this is not classical literature, but it is engaging. I've had this book on my nightstand for a while now. Winter is almost upon us, and this past Saturday was cold and rainy outside. Thinking this was an appropriate title for this time of year, I picked the book up and began to read. About two hours later, my husband poked his head in the bedroom door and jokingly asked, "Is this what you are going to do all day?" I gleefully replied, "Absolutely!"

My heart ached for every character in this book, and I quickly felt at home inside the young girl’s thoughts. Her (and her father’s) pain is very present upon the pages, but there is joy found within, as well. There’s no real suspense here, just warm, beautiful people who you wish were close by so you could hug them. Also, the description of the small town and surrounding landscape made me feel like I knew the place.

The whole book is a story of salvation, told through wise, 12-year old eyes. A very worthy read for a day spent in bed! Loved it!

Very good book, the voice of the 12 year old, while she of course is very wise, is refreshing to read. Too short though

This book was a quick read. I started it and couldn't put it down. It gave a lot of insight about the grieving process after loosing a spouse and how that can effect a child. It also dealt with teen pregnancy. I recommend this book!

I usually love Shreve's books but this one is a dud. I tried repeatedly to finish this book but I couldn't. I read several chapters, put it down, tried to come back to it several days later but the book hadn't magically gotten better as I secretly hoped. It was still boring. The characters weren't interesting. The story didn't grab me. Then I realized I'm not in school anymore so why am I forcing myself to finish a book I don't find interesting? There's no book report and no test so why not give up which is what I did.

This book held my interest right from the start. I couldn't wait to sit down and keep reading and find out the ending. I would recommend this book.

Love it!

I love all of Anita Shreeve's books!

Thought provoking

Wonderful story.

enjoyed the engrossing novel by Anita Shreve.

I like how this author writes

Great read.

WHAT MAKES A FAMILY? THAT'S WHAT 12 YEAR OLD NICKY WONDERS AFTER SHE AND HER WIDOWED FATHER FIND A WAILING NEWBORN IN THE SNOW. NEAR THEIR HOME. THROUGH THE DAYS THAT FOLLOW, AND AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR WHO SOON TURNS UP ATH THEIR DOOR-A YOUNG WOMAN EVIDENTLY HAUNTED BY HER OWN TERRIBLE CHOICES-FACE A THICKET OF DECISIONS, EACH SEEMING TO CARRY EQUAL POSSIBILITIES OF HEARTBREAK OR REDEMPTION.

Loved this book, as with all of Shreve's writing.

Very enjoyable - reads very quickly! Really delves into what it means to be a family

This was a very touching book. Hard to put down!

A good story that keeps you involved.

Twelve year old Nicky Dillon wonders what makes a family after she and her father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow filled woods near their home. Through the days that follow, the story unfolds weaving the Dillon family and the other characters involving the baby together. A fast, great read!!

New Hampshire in winter--a 12 yr old girl and her grieving widowed father discover an abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their home. National Bestseller. Emotionally resonant, paced, with memorable characters.

Very well written book. Easy to read. Ending was not what I expected, but it is a break out of the mold. Everything in life does not end up in the pretty little package we expect.

Moving story. I really enjoyed this book.

A close up portrait of a father & daughter thrown together in their grief. The questions of what led to the babys abandonment and how the plucky, smart, but still childish narator will come to terms with such human evil maked it difficult to put down. A story of memory and love.

Fabulous read!

Nicky Dillon and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their new hampshire home. deeply moving and surprisingly funny in exactly the right measure.

This is such a great book and a very fast read! I highly recommend this book!

I loved this book! It was an easy, fast paced read.

I read this book in one afternoon. Just loved it!!!

Great story. Nice read.

This family drama focuses on a father and teenage daughter trying to cope with the death of their family {mom, sibling} about a year ago. Dad's hiding in a small town when suddenly they come across an abandoned newborn in the woods. What follows is interesting and changes their lives forever.

What makes a family? Nicky Dillon wonders after she and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home. Through the days that follow, the Dillons and the unexpected visitor who soon turns up at their door--a young woman evidently haunted by her own terrible choices. Will this meeting carry heartbreak or redemption?

I'm an Anita Shreve fan and loved this book. Her main character,Nicky is a charming,intelligent girl who learns some painful lessons about life. She reacts with grace and wisdom beyond her years making her a very likable character that one would like to befriend. I would love to see this one made into a movie.

A moving story, makes you think.

A nice story about a young girl learning some life long lessons.

This was very moving. Sad, funny, and heartwrenching at times. Really loved it.

Engrossing book, Couldnt put it down.

I enjoyed this book about interaction between father and daughter in unusual circumstances. Easy to read and follow the story line.

Another excellant yarn by AS. Love her books as I also live in New England

Book Club read, most members enjoyed it. About a baby who has been abandonded and discovered by adolecent girl and her father. Story is told by young girl and how the baby became abandonded. Good heart warming story. 1 reader, book is in excellent condition.

Another WONDERFUL book by Anita Shreve. She is a master!

What makes a family? Thats's what twelve-year old Nicky Dillon wonders after she and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home. Through the days that follow, the Dillons and the unexpected vistor who turns up at their door-a young woman evidently haunted by her own terrible choices-face a thicket of decisions, each seeming to carry equal possibilities of heartbreak or redemption.

I LOVED this book. It was moving and I couldn't put it down. I've lost a child, so it meant a lot to me as I read it. The characters are very real.

Good, quick read. It really pulled me in!

Wonderful story, beautifully written! Fast Read.

an easy read

Great story!

Enjoyed

A single dad and his daughter find a baby in the snow. This is the story of how they begin to live again after a tragedy changed their lives. Another great Shreve.

What makes a family? That's what twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon wonders after she and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home. Through the days that follow, the Dillons and the unexpected visitor who soon turns up at their door- a young woman evidently haunted by her own terrible choices - face a thicket of decisions, each seeming to carry equal possibilities of heartbreak or redemption. Writing with all the emotional resonance that has drawn millions of readers around the world to her fiction, Anita Shreve unfolds in Light on Snow a tender and surprising novel about love and its consequences.

Great book, lots of detail, read it all in one sitting!

A good subway read

The setting is the snowy woods of New Hampshire. A good book to curl up with on a cold winter evening.

This book was a quick read. I enjoyed it, but I wanted it to continue on. There could definitely be a sequal to this story. I love all of her books.

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