Katherine Valentine's Holiday Gift Suggestion

Katherine Valentine is the author of a series of novels set in the New England town of Dorsetville, which she says has certain similarities to her home in rural Connecticut. The second and third books in the series, A Gathering of Angels and Grace Will Lead Me Home, were both published in recent months (by Penguin and Doubleday, respectively) and invite comparisons to the inspirational fiction of authors such as Jan Karon and Phillip Gulley. She turns to a fellow New Englander--and a bestselling author with proven popularity--for her gift suggestion.

A Women's Place by Barbara Delinsky has long been one of my favorite books, perhaps because I have experienced the horror, rage and ultimate journey of forgiveness associated with the subject matter. Like the character in Ms. Delinsky's book, I, too, once lost my young children to a system that seemed more concerned with placing blame on a woman's inability to keep a marriage whole, than defending my children against a vengeful husband. In my case, a sudden hospital stay had given my ex the opportunity to take my children and place them in a foster home. It would take two years of legal red tape to finally have them returned. Like me, the woman in this novel never saw it coming and, once it arrived, just assumed that the legal system would right itself, see its mistake and return her children. But her husband's need to punish her for his own failings leads the reader into a legal labyrinth of which modern day women should take note. Think it can’t happen to you? Think again.

My definition of a great piece of art is that it sparks conversation. A Woman's Place does just that. Not in a simple, formulated solution, pseudo-type narrative, but in the carefully plotted introspection of a woman’s rights in today's society.