Valley of the Moon by Melanie Gideon

I enjoyed reading Valley of the Moon by Melanie Gideon; it provided a chance to join Lux in escaping the pressures of modern daily life and time travel to an earlier, simpler time. 

Living in San Francisco in 1975, Lux is a single mother of five year old Benno.  When he heads East to spent time with her parents, Lux heads to Sonoma’s Valley of the Moon for a camping trip.  There, she finds “the fog” and crosses through into 1906 and the meadow of Greengage Farm where a few hundred people were trapped in isolation after the famous earthquake. Lux becomes enthralled with the community and looks forward to her visits which can only occur on the day after a full moon – if the fog appears.  She embraces the hard physical work and builds strong relationships with Greengage’s founder, Joseph Bell (who shares the narration with Lux), his wife, Martha, his sister, Fancy and other residents.

This novel is as much about Greengage and the life there as it is about Lux’s relationship with Benno, with her extended family – especially her estranged father – and with her supportive friends and neighbors in San Francisco.  If Lux inadvertently stays too long in Greengage, time shifts in the modern world and she can miss months or years in her child’s life.  Although one has to obviously suspend belief due to the time travel and often craziness of Lux’s lifestyle, Valley of the Moon is an easy to read story – perfect for an enchanting summer escape.