Guest review by Janelle Bailey, avid reader/ever-an-educator/lifelong learner…and also now 7th grade teacher and part-time bookseller

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave

Though not new (2015 publication), this book’s themes are classic: family and relationships and love and commitment, as well as vineyards and winemaking are all complex and hard work…heart work.

Georgia and Ben are to be married very soon and at her home, her family’s vineyard, about 500 miles away from where they now live. But a pretty big secret prompts Georgia to flee there sooner, only to find things a bit of a mess there as well.

It’s a tangled web they all–we all??–weave and live, and in the de-tangling of this one, relationships are questioned and their truths revealed, painful in processing. And due to the family vineyard and winemaking business, a reader learns much about that as well. Subtle connections between the complexities of grape growing, and even the soil mattering, to “growing” a family and building relationships mattering from the ground up were also detected by this reader. Knowing the history and building the “story” of it matter to both. Living through the tough times and persevering matter, too.

I enjoyed the visit to The Last Straw, the family vineyard established in 1979. For this reader who happens to appreciate as favorite beverages, water, tea, and wine, learning how important the first two are to making the third well at this vineyard was additional and educational enjoyment.

And I appreciated the focus, also, on synchronization, simultaneity, rhythm…and how little we understand as it’s happening why things are exactly as they are but seemingly are…as they are to be.

I say read it! I think you’ll be pleased that you did.