Learning to Breathe

Learning to Breathe
by Karen White

Learning to Breathe
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Book Summary Information

Author: Karen White
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-06
ISBN: 045122034X
Number of pages: 309
Publisher: NAL Trade

Book Reviews of Learning to Breathe

Book Review: Better than I thought.
Summary: 3 Stars

Since I've found Karen White's books I've wanted to read them all. As I picked this one up I wondered if there wasn't going to be any sort of mystery in it like her other books. I don't feel it was as mysterious as, say, On Folly Beach, but I do think Learning to Breathe had it's own charm to me.

I didn't really get into it at first and thought I would have to force myself to finish it because I had gotten two more books in the mail and had wanted to read them so badly but when the letters started to get read aloud, I found what I was looking for in this book I think.

The main character is Brenna O'Brien, who has her heart in a box of steel so it seems. She's constantly set up on horrible dates by her four older sisters who just want her to get married already. When a man she used to date (Pierce McGovern) comes back into town she is very hurt because she felt he never answered her calls or her letters.

Pierce is back in town to move his aging father into a nursing home. Due to certain events (not having a room big enough being the first) Pierce stays around to help his father.

As the old post office the girls' father used to work for goes down, they find a metal box full of old letters to Pierce's father, sent from a "Me". And to me that was where the story really picked up. It's amazing the parallels between Me and Andrew, and Brenna and Pierce. It's not hard to figure out what happened if you really think about it.

The ruin of a once beautiful theater, the abandonment of a mother, an unknown half-brother, and the death of a tired old soldier with the heart of a poet really tied the book together. I haven't cried over one of Karen's books like I did this one since reading The Lost Hours.

As usual I loved her character work. I could find no one I really disliked as a character, even though all four of Brenna's older sisters seemed very pushy to me. But my favorite was Aunt Dottie. A little batty and seemingly with a touch of Alzheimer's, she is none-the-less very important to the story and someone I found myself to like a lot. Her love of hats, her wanting to fill herself with marbles to fill the empty spaces, her bits of seemingly confusing advice, it was what made her a great character to me. So in all it was a pretty decent read. Not my favorite Karen White book but it's still pretty good if you can get into it.

Summary of Learning to Breathe

Brenna O'Brien doesn't believe in happy endings. Not since the love of her life, Pierce McGovern, left her years ago without a word. Now, she leads a quiet life surrounded by her four matchmaking sisters, running a historic movie theater and collecting old wartime letters. But she leaves the letters unopened, preferring to imagine their possibilities rather than risk being disappointed.

Then Pierce comes back to town, shattering Brenna's hard-earned peace-and forcing her to re-examine everything, and realize that if she doesn't come to terms with the life she let slip away, she may never have the courage to go after the life she wants.

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