Now read this: "Together Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place"

The Cape Girardeau Public Library's adult services coordinator Paula Fetherston recommends you read "Together Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place" by Susan Wittig Albert.

Susan Albert may be better known for her herbal mysteries featuring China Bayles as the lawyer turned herb shop owner and amateur sleuth, the latest of which is Holly Blues. As a rule, I don't read mysteries, but I do enjoy her lighthearted, herb-centered mystery novels, which even include a recipe or two. Susan Albert has actually presented programs at the Cape Girardeau Public Library. Having met her and found her to be a very down-to-earth, likable person, I was interested in reading her memoir.

I love reading about people who leave the fast lane to find a way of life off the beaten track, and this story did not disappoint. Although I haven't a desire to live in Texas, Susan's stunning descriptions of the land and its natural history in the area near the Texas Hill country she calls home are really quite fascinating. She encourages us to have a sense of "place," as she puts it, and learn all we can about the locations of our own homes and surroundings, wherever those may be. I appreciate that, and clearly understand how it can give one a feeling of belonging and a heightened awareness and sensitivity to physical location.

While writing about the geography of her region, its natural history and that of the people there, Susan also talks about her marriage to writer Bill Albert, their writing partnership, and the gradual creation of their home on the acreage they call Meadow Knoll. She also describes an important aspect of that partnership as a need for solitude and individuality. Susan talks about how she fulfills that need by spending time periodically at the monastic retreat, Lebh Shomea, where silence and solitude are upheld by residents and visitors alike.

Susan is not only a talented writer of fiction, but also a complex woman, unconsciously able to be introspective in a moving and beautifully written memoir. This is a book that can be taken up and read in between those fast-paced stories, when the inevitable need for calm and quiet arises. If you enjoy memoirs and biographies, find other titles at Cape Girardeau Public Library, and visit our website at www.capelibrary.org to find more titles on the readers advisory database, Novelist.