The Thirteenth Tale

   The Thirteenth Tale is one of my all time favorite books. First of all the main character is a girl that loves books. Margaret Lea and her father have a bookstore and live a pretty pleasant (books and tea and such) but uneventful life when Margaret is summoned by the well known and reclusive author Vida Winter to write her biography. The Tale Miss Winter tells makes it impossible to stop thinking about the story even when the book itself is out of sight.

I came across this a few years back when it just released and put on the Barnes and Noble recommended read of the month list. After reading it once I had immediate intentions of reading through again, but other books came along so I took some time to forget the details before delving back into it. I have to say here that the first time I read it I finished the second half of the book in one sitting. Hours and hours straight through the middle of the night. The second time around I listened to it on cd. The audio version is very well done and read by two separate people to distinguish between the present day as told by Margaret and the past related to us by Miss Winter. I wasn't even through the book before I was thinking of listening (or reading) it again to look for the important details that seemed minor the first (and second) time through.

If you love books for the stories but don't quite as much love the feel and smell and weight of the actual book, don't get bogged down in the first few chapters as Margaret describes herself. Other have told me they had this problem and after not "getting into the story" near the beginning they put the book away and missed out on an interesting tale of a secluded household and it's twins.