You should not let me loose in a used bookstore. I just come out with the fattest book imaginable and start devouring it. That’s what I did with Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends. It’s the first book I read by this author, and now I want to read all of them. Of course, it’s the characters. The story lets us nestle in with them, learn their strengths, their foibles, their inside jokes. This book just enveloped me and transported me to Ireland in the 1950’s and early 60’s. It only took me a week to finish. Every time I had to put it down, I just wanted to go back in there and see my friends, especially Benny and her best buddy, Eve. Although not everything worked out happily every after, it was as happy as life usually gets, and that was fine with me. Excellent work. I loved it.
