Where the Heart Is
by Billie Letts
About the book
A young pregnant woman finds herself unexpectedly left behind at a Walmart in a small Oklahoma town, and slowly starts to build a life among the eccentric, kind, and imperfect people who take her in. Billie Letts follows her over several years as she moves from survival to something that begins to look, quietly, like belonging.
What I thought
There was something very comforting about how much heart this novel carries without ever tipping into sentimentality. What stayed with me most was the sense that "family" can be assembled from whoever actually shows up — coworkers, neighbours, strangers who become something more. It's warm, gently funny, and quietly resilient, a bit like the characters themselves. A perfect book for evenings when you want something tender and human without needing anything too heavy.