By Leigh Infield

t took my tumbling down the stairs three years ago before I would alight upon a different genre of reading. Recovering at home, I thought to while away the long idle hours with my BFFs (best friends) — books!  But one weekend I found that I had nothing more to read. I panicked.  The library was closed.

My partner offered to walk down to the Tin Horn store on Main Street and peruse the bookcase on the side porch, filled with books for the taking. He came back with two intriguing paperbacks by a popular author I had heard of, but had never read before.

The books were by Danielle Steel, author of 210 popular novels that have sold over 460 million copies world-wide. “Everybody Reads Danielle Steel,” the books proclaimed on the back cover.  What had I been missing?  I set forth to find out.

Reading a Danielle Steel novel is like “chicken soup for the soul.”  From the very first chapters, my own problems began to melt away as I entered a different realm where problems are solved and dreams come true. I literally devoured her books, often finishing them in a day or two. Steel’s female protagonists pleased me no end—strong, independent, beautiful women; ambitious, hard-working achievers. Life for these women wasn’t always a piece of cake. The challenges they confronted—emotionally turbulent and transformative—made for mesmerizing reading. I couldn’t wait to see how it all turned out,.

In a Steel novel, the heroine always gets her man. And he is not only handsome and successful, but often downright rich. The new man has everything she has been missing in a partner. He is a keeper—supportive, passionate, thoughtful and caring without asking her to give up what she has achieved and values in life. Wow!  Who wouldn’t fall for a man like that?

But, there is more to a Danieille Steel book than meets the eye. In her novels, she skillfully combines heart-warming romances with serious real-life challenges.  In Lost & Found, her main character, a single photographer at the height of her career, falls from a ladder in her studio.  Alone at the time, she is not found until her assistant comes into work the next morning.

The Fall is a life changer.  Distressed to the “max” when her daughter pressures her to move into assisted living, this lively fifty-eight-year-old dynamo responds by setting out on a car trip that turns into a journey of self-discovery. She asks herself whether she could have made better choices in her life. Sound familiar?

Domestic abuse, both physical and verbal, is the focus of Steel’s novel, Journey.  Its protagonist, a successful female television anchor, has it all–a fulfilling career plus marriage to the wealthy, handsome man who owns the station. Behind the veneer of a seemingly blissful marriage is a husband who has controlled and verbally abused his wife for years. In a very personal foreword to the book, Steel reveals how her own journey—at times dark and at other times joyous—inspired the naming of this book.

My passion for escapist reading has led me to discover more of these literary gems. Barbara Taylor Bradford’s 755-page, rags-to-riches saga, A Woman of Substance, was popular with readers worldwide, selling over 90 million copies. Bradford, quite the woman of substance herself, went on to write thirty-nine more novels—all best sellers. However, it is this first novel of a young woman’s indomitable spirit and unremitting drive to become a woman of means that remains Bradford’s best. I loved it!

This summer, take a vacation from your daily grind to enjoy some “me time” and discover the joys of escapist reading!   When you finish your first book, I’m confident you’ll be back for more.~