Lolly’s Yarn is a delightful collection of stories from the life of author Anna Laurene Arnett. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her childhood, her courtship with the handsome Charles Arnett, their wedding, her child birthing experiences, and their many moves across the US and even to Japan. Even before I read the last page, felt like part of the Arnett family.
I didn’t barrel through Lolly’s Yarn all in a few days as I usually do when reading a novel. True, Anna’s account of growing up and going back east to work, then meeting and falling love with Charles, played out like a romance novel and kept me reading. After that, I read a few of her stories each day and savored them—relating them to my own life. I loved that Anna enjoyed being a mother and wife--refreshing for today. I appreciated her willingness to accept the role of stay at home mom. You could feel her love and devotion to her seven children. And when they were all grown, Anna went to college and became a teacher.
Anna's son Mark made a documentary about Charles' service in WWII and named it after his father's fighter plane--"Baby Boomerang." This interesting hour interviews and real footage and photographs from the war puts you right in time period. Mark tells the story of his father’s World War II experience to the spoiled, pretentious, and ungrateful baby boomer generation that he belongs to. He succeeds in drawing us into a very personal story that explores faith, courage, love, and the inescapable fact that, in many ways, we all turn into our parents in the end.
