Solomon's Oak [Kindle Edition]

Jo-Ann Mapson (Author)

Book Description

Solomon's Oak is the story of three people who have suffered losses that changed their lives forever. Glory Solomon, a young widow, holds tight to her memories while she struggles to hold on to her Central California farm. She makes ends meetby hosting weddings in the chapel her husband had built under their two-hundred-year-old white oak tree, known locally as Solomon's Oak. Fourteen-year-old Juniper McGuire is the lone survivor of a family decimated by her sister's disappearance. She arrives on Glory's doorstep, pierced, tattooed, angry, and homeless. When Glory's husband Dan was alive, they took in foster children, but Juniper may be more than she can handle alone. Joseph Vigil is a former Albuquerque police officer and crime lab photographer who was shot during a meth lab bust that took the life of his best friend. Now disabled and in constant pain, he arrives in California to fulfill his dream of photographing the state's giant trees, including Solomon's Oak. In Jo-Ann Mapson's deeply felt, wise, and gritty novel, these three broken souls will find in each other an unexpected comfort, the bond of friendship, and a second chance to see the miracles of everyday life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mapson's (Hank & Chloe) latest is an emotionally genuine if predictable story of three lonely, damaged people who find solace in one another. A year after the untimely death of her husband, Dan, Glory Solomon is adrift, in financial trouble, and unable to find much meaning in a world without her mate. But when she opens a wedding chapel on her historic California ranch (known for its ancient oak tree), she attracts a variety of couples in search of unconventional nuptials--and two lost souls. Juniper McGuire, an angry teenage girl, is still reeling from the tragedy that put her into the foster care system. And a former crime scene photographer, Joseph Vigil, suffers chronic pain from an on-the-job accident. Together, the three grievers form a tentative support system that could--if they'll let it--be called love. As in her previous novels, Mapson seems most at ease describing the relationship between human and animal--especially dogs and horses--and in rendering the Western landscape. Her facility with dialogue, however, is less impressive, but most readers will be too involved in the sweep of loss and recovery to stumble for long over awkward talk.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Newly widowed, Glory Solomon is barely holding on to her feelings or her finances when she begins hosting destination weddings in the rustic chapel her late husband built in the shade of their towering, historic white oak. On the day a pirate-themed ceremony takes place, however, Glory embarks on a bigger adventure than any saucy bride or her swashbuckling groom could imagine. Having raised foster sons in the past when Dan was alive, Glory finds herself totally unprepared for the tattooed, pierced, and ill-tempered 14-year-old girl who is put in her care. Juniper’s family fell apart when her older sister disappeared, and her raw emotions at being abandoned by her loved ones prove to be more than fragile Glory can handle. Fortunately, help arrives in the form of Joseph Virgil, a wounded ex-cop with significant emotional baggage of his own. With abundant compassion and soothing humor, three damaged souls are rescued in Mapson’s delicate tale of renewal and healing. --Carol Haggas

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 606 KB
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; Reprint edition (October 19, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0040GJ53I
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,623 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 78 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Quietly brilliant, wise and memorable. October 15, 2010

By Cold reader

Format:Hardcover

No vampires, apocalypses, or talking dogs here (well, they almost talk). Mapson gives us what Faulkner insisted upon: the human heart in conflict with itself. In fact, she gives us three very large and troubled hearts. These characters drive the novel and their great appeal is that we recognize their ordinariness, and somehow, we come to understand just how remarkable that ordinariness is. The novel felt believable (a necessity) and wise (a bonus). Beyond that, it was knowledgeable, and about a wide variety of things: dogs, horses, trees, food, just to name a few of the "things." But larger issues, too, are handled with deft assurance: foster care, rescue dogs, missing persons. And none of this is forced, it's all so natural I felt sometimes like I was reading a kind of memoir.

When I reached about the two-thirds point I realized I was reading too fast and deliberately slowed myself down, just to live in Mapson's world a little longer. I finished the book a few days ago and the characters are still with me. In this strange moment in publishing, when techno-gimmicks and hyper-/meta-reality seem to rule, one can only hope a book like this reaches the large audience it deserves: smart and beautiful should be enough.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching October 17, 2010

By Silver's Reviews

Format:Hardcover

"The chapel had been Dan's final project. One summer morning over his oatmeal he'd said, "I've got a bug to build myself a chapel. Nothing fancy, just a place to worship out of the rain." Page 9

Thanksgiving day, the oldest white oak tree on the Solomon property, a chapel built by Dan Solomon, a wedding, and now a foster child dealing with grief just like Glory Solomon.

Glory had to do something since Dan died...her savings was gone, and her part-time job didn't really pay the bills.
One day she was asked/begged if a wedding and a reception could be held in the chapel that Dan had built. Glory hesitated and then decided the $3,000 she would get would definitely help pay the bills that were mounting. The wedding party wanted a Thanksgiving dinner and also a reception with a pirate theme and a sword fight.

The wedding was a huge success and brought a few surprises as well.....a former policeman who happened to be photographing the oak tree and a new foster child that unknown to Glory had some connection to her family dog. The connection was too close to home, and Juniper wasn't going to be too bad to have around or so she thought, so Glory told Caroline she would keep the new foster child.

Joseph the policeman was also pretty interesting...his grandmother had lived a few miles down the road from Glory when Joseph was a child, and he remembered the oak trees of California and especially the one on the Solomon property.

Solomon's Oak told the life stories of the three main characters who definitely fit and worked well together even though the connection was through their misfortunes. The book was a cozy read for me......family life, real-life situations, talents we all have hiding inside and waiting to emerge, and just plain heartfelt warmth in the book.

You will fall in love with Glory, Juniper will drive you crazy, and Joseph's patience will amaze you.

Enjoy the book....I definitely did. Solomon's Oak was very touching....it will make you smile, it will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will restore your faith in mankind's goodness.
5/5 Read more ›

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Solomon's Oak" October 19, 2010

By Dorothy C. Judd

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

You'll be sorry to reach the end of this book because you will feel you are leaving true friends behind. Each and every character is brought to life. Mapson describes the setting so well that, for a time, you will think you are there. You'll love the animals and wish you could rescue a dog yourself. If all that weren't enough, you'll get snippets of information about food, native lore, superstitions, plants, and animals.
I just wish she had included recipes and that I could Skype Glory, Joseph, and Juniper to check in on what is happening now!

34 of 41 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Promising, but ultimately not believable November 1, 2010

By B. Case VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I love books about extremely vulnerable people trying to cope with the everyday pain of life after great loss. That is what drew me to "Solomon's Oak," by Jo-Ann Mapson. What intrigued me even more was the promise that three such wounded people could be thrown together by circumstance and somehow succeed in healing each other's broken hearts. I started the book eagerly, but soon lost interest. The book failed to deliver because the characters remained flat and unbelievable. Try as I did to suspend belief and make the fiction come alive, it did not happen. The drama devolved into melodrama. Yes, the plot had enough subtle snags and stumbling blocks to pull me along toward an inevitable "happy" and very sentimental conclusion, but it was a struggle to finish.

What kept me partially engaged was the interesting description of life in the modern rural Central California town of Jolon. I also enjoyed all the charming animal characters; they had in spades the pop-out reality that the human characters lacked.

This novel will most likely appeal to readers who yearn to escape into fiction and be enveloped in a story with a strong message of hope. That is not my type of fiction. I seek fiction that uncovers universal truths about the nature of man and life. If you long for raw realistic fiction about vulnerable characters, you won't find it here.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars lovely writing, great story October 31, 2010

By Judith Barrington

Format:Hardcover

I've read several of Jo-Ann Mapson's previous novels and liked all of them, but this one is so far my favorite. Many reviews here already tell something of the story, so I won't repeat it. The characters, though, are memorable and, having just finished the book, I feel sad at having to leave them behind. Well - not exactly, as they will stay with me too.
One of the things I admire most about Mapson's writing is her ability to create fully rounded, complex characters on a very wide spectrum of humanity as well as from other species. Her dogs are characters just as her people are, and she seems to understand entirely different kinds of humans and breeds of dog. Annoying as one or other can be at times, they are annoying only in the way of the well-loved people in our own lives. And they are also admirable, brave, vulnerable, and funny.
I thoroughly recommend this book as a good read and a substantial slice of several lives.

More About the Author

I'm a native Californian transplanted to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I live with my husband and our pack of dogs. Check out my videos to learn more about me.

My novels include: Hank & Chloe, Blue Rodeo (a CBS TV movie starring Kris Kristofferson), Shadow Ranch, Loving Chloe, The Wilder Sisters, the Bad Girl Creek trilogy, which includes Bad Girl Creek, Along Came Mary, and Goodbye Earl, The Owl & Moon Cafe, and Solomon's Oak. My eleventh novel, Finding Casey, will be published by Bloomsbury USA and UK in October 2012.

In 2000, my husband/artist Stewart Allison and I (and our four dogs--do not try this at home!) loaded up the car and drove the Alcan highway to Anchorage, Alaska. We lived there eight years, enjoying the Northern Lights, visiting moose, amazing glaciers and the occasional bear. We now live in Santa Fe, New Mexico in a little pueblo-style house on the prairie with our dogs. Stewart and I have been married thirty-eight years. We have a grown son, Jack, who is an RN in Bethel, Alaska.

Writing has been my dream since I was old enough to read. Thanks to all of you who read and buy my books, it's a dream come true.