It was fun. Charming. Interesting. Based on a true story. Who knew that I would fall in love with a cantankerous, 105-year-old narrator who is trying to write all of his story before his death, fighting off the staff of the nursing home where he lives when they tell him to stop? He resists eating. Doing physical therapy. Nothing, after all, is more important to Woodrow Wilson Nickel than recording this story for "her" before he dies.

The father of The Moonshine Women was Hiram Strong. Hiram was taught by his mother, Lidy, the old family tradition of making moonshine in the Ozarks. The liquor is what keeps the family alive, and it's known as the best moonshine west of the Mississippi, partly because Lidy always adds a secret ingredient. But tragedy strikes when Hiram's wife, Alta, falls out of the barn loft, heavily pregnant with her third child. Lidy delivers her granddaughter, but Alta doesn't survive.

The book blurb teased me with the premise that some people can sense the emotional imprint of the book's previous owner.

People touched by this tragedy in Maui will want to avoid reading Mrs. Mike and The Stars Are Fire because of horrible fire stories.