Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Prayers for Sale

Prayers for Sale
Prayers for Sale
Author: Sandra Dallas
Hennie Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in the mountains of Middle Swan, Colorado since before it was Colorado.  Nit Spindle is just seventeen and newly married.  She and her husband have just moved to the high country in search of work.  It's 1936 and the depression has ravaged the country and Nit and her husband have suff...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780312385187
ISBN-10: 0312385188
Publication Date: 4/14/2009
Pages: 320
Edition: 1
Rating:
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 88

4.1 stars, based on 88 ratings
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 330 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
As I kept reading this book, that old saying about an onion having many layers was repeated over and over in my mind.

An elderly widow named Hennie Comfort has a sign on her front fence that says "Prayers for Sale" and one day a very young newly married girl asks Hennie to prayer for her and thus begins a very unlikely friendship.

Set in small minding town called Middle Swan, Colorado during the 1930's, the friendship and mentorship of 80 year old Hennie and and 17 year old Nit Spindle begins. Between ranch living, and quilting, and life dramas, the lives of these two women and the community they live in slowly come together.

Hennie sees a lot of herself in Nit, and Nit in turn, sees in Hennie the strong woman that she one day would like to be. They have each had their hardships and each will come out a better person for what they have had to endure and because of the gamblers, and moonshiners and soiled doves and corrupt business practices, they will each in turn be a stronger person for it.

Sandra Dallas does a wonderful job in setting the historical feel, with enough lore and truth to keep you turning the page.
thameslink avatar reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 723 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Sandra Dallas just keeps getter better and better! What a wonderful read this is! I wanted to linger with the characters and listen to all of Hennie's stories again and again. I became emotionally invested in the author's characters of Hennie and Nit. Love, loss, redemption and forgiveness...it is all here in spell-binding prose that will make your heart sing. This book is a thing of beauty!!! One of my top reads of the year!
mmbay avatar reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Prayers for Sale is a sweet story of women's friendships in a 1940s Colorado Mining town. Hennie Comfort is an 86 yo woman who has lived in Middle Swan most of her adult life. Nit Spindle is a young woman, newly married who has just arrived in the town. They meet in Hennies front yard over her sign offering prayers for sale. As the women become friends and share stories, secrets are revealed and life unfolds. While somewhat predictable, I enjoyed this book. The story is told in an authentic voice with a satisfying conclusion. This was the first book by Sandra Dallas that I've read, and I'll definitely be reading more.
ktudor avatar reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 35 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Well written. I liked how the the story was told in a series of stories. I enjoyed the scenery Sandra displays in her writing. I did not want the book to come to an end.
reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 13 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is a very enjoyable book to read, set during The Depression. Its told from (mainly) one characters perspective and reveals much about her life and the mountain town she lives in though the stories she tells. There are turns and surprises throughout. This is a book I wanted to go on and on and not end!
Read All 31 Book Reviews of "Prayers for Sale"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

lucylockett avatar reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 7 more book reviews
My favorite Sandra Dallas book! Not at all what I thought when I read the title. I got it from the library and enjoyed it so much that I bought my own copy. It's a book that I'll visit again!
reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 27 more book reviews
This was an excellent read! Hennies stories draw you further into the story! Enjoyed it so much I bought more of her books
bbqgal avatar reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 2 more book reviews
I've never read a book by Sandra Dallas, but if all her books are like this style, I will
be buying all she has written.

I really fell into the story, I was pulled in from the 1st chapter.

Also I enjoy a good story teller and Hennie was one to put them out there. She befriends
a newbie to the mountains (a young grieving girl, Nit) and they bond instantly. Hennie and Nit have something in common, their (1st)child dyed at a very young age.
Hennie's 2nd daughter has insisted that Hennie cannot stay another winter by herself in the mountain and has asked her to move to Denver to live with her. Hennie doesn't want to leave the mountain place she has known for 60 years. Hennie has been widowed for more that 30 years but has a good friend Tom that has been there for her since the death of her husband Jake. Tom has a love for Hennie that she never knew, Tom asks her to travel the world with him and to marry him. Hennie says yes! But before she
leaves the mountain with Tom theres something she must due, she must forgive a man that had let her child die in a river, the very hardest part after all these years is to forgive this man, but she does and a whole lifes burden has been lifted. Hennie is ready leave the mountain and start a new life with Tom and travel the world she has always dreamed
justreadingabook avatar reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 1726 more book reviews
This is a wonderful book told in layers.
The main character Hennie reveals the story of herself and history of the town to a new young bride that has come to town.
Each story she tells brings the history to life and teaches Nit about life and other.
Shows the toughness of those women and men who worked in the mining industry in the early start of the century.
reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 628 more book reviews
I was disappointed in this Dallas book, it was ok, but didn't go anywhere. I enjoyed her "Chili Queen" and several others much more.
Readnmachine avatar reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 1474 more book reviews
Dallas returns to her thematic home, the notion of the community of women who support and defend one another in trying times. This time the main characters are an aging widow and a young bride, living in a remote Colorado mining town during the Great Depression. The plot is fairly straightforward, and everything works out for the best, as is typical in a Dallas novel. The worth is in the characters themselves and in their unique voices.
peepers avatar reviewed Prayers for Sale on + 56 more book reviews
I am more of a Mystery fan and thought I might have a problem getting into this book but I was hooked after the first page! The reading was not simple yet not intense. I loved every word. I could relate to parts of the story having had a similar situation in my life. I had a hard time putting the book down. Very GOOD


Genres: