Books like people are so different. I picked this book up after I read Anna and the French Kiss – what a contrast. This book by Elisabeth Tova Bailey is a book to be read slowly and taken in. It is a book about life, survival and resilience. It is the true story of Bailey who convalesces as she watches a snail.

Bed-ridden due to a mystery illness, Bailey moves away from home and is missing her old life. A friend brings in a small snail and a pot of violets and her life changes. She finds a will to survive watching the snail. She learns, reads and discovers about these snails.

It is quite an interesting book – a bit slow and dragging at times. Especially when Bailey discusses the biology of snails. But it was a book I was able to relate to. I spent 7+ months bedridden a couple of years back and let me tell you it was no fun. The book tells a story – a story of how much we can learn and derive from nature and the world around us – the world that we usually rush past in a hurry.

A beautifully written, touching book with a few dragging chapters.

I picked this book after hearing about it on NPR