I Heart Lily King’s FATHER OF THE RAIN: or, How A Bookseller in Colorado Almost Inadvertently Killed Me

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I am a HUGE fan of Twitter. It was on Twitter last year that I met Joe B. Foster, my personal book guru. A super-smart, fantastically sardonic bookseller in Colorado, Joe has never let me down with a book recommendation. I blindly follow all of his suggestions. But, a few months ago, I balked at one of his picks.

“Father of the Rain, by Lily King,” he told me. Now, I had heard good things about King’s first two books, but had not read her myself.

So I looked the book up. It’s the story of Daley and her alcoholic father, and the affect their relationship has on her, both as a child, and an adult. While I was sure Joe was right about it being good, admittedly, this did not sound like the usual kind of book I read. I like dark and twisted.

“Hmmmm,” I thought, “No murder. No anthropomorphic animals. No pictures. I’m not sure.”

“Read it,” he told me again the next day.

“But I don’t even like parents!” I whined to myself. “And I haven’t read her first two novels – maybe it’s a series. About alcoholic vampire dads.”

“READ IT,” he repeated.

So I did. And it nearly killed me. Lily King is AMAZING.

Now, I have always prided myself on being tough. (I have several tattoos and I once worked for six hours with a fractured pelvis – RAWR!) But this book! I had to keep putting it down because practically every ten pages I would read something that would kick me in the heart and make me sob like a baby. ME!

I got angry. I swore I wouldn’t pick it up again. But Lily King is such a compelling storyteller that I couldn’t stay away. You can tell she loves Daley so completely - I genuinely cared about what was happening to her. The book kept punching me in the heart, over and over - in a really awesome way.

So, I would start reading it again, and, yep – WAAAAAAH! There went another night.

When I finished it, I told everyone I knew about it. And then I immediately started to worry. What if it was me? What if I’m just a really big baby? Would it have the same effect on others?

The answer is yes. I’ve received feedback from several people who have read it, and they all say the same thing. “SOB! It’s SO good.”

I begged Michele, our events coordinator, to try and book Lily King for an event at the store. I HAD to meet the author who reduced me to a mascara-streaked ball of mush night after night. I want to study her under a microscope. And my wish has been granted! Lily King is going to be joining us here at RiverRun on Wednesday, August 4th at 7pm. I’m so happy I could cry.