Tell Me Everything - Elizabeth Strout

 This was a fun re-visit to previous characters by this author.  Olive Kitteredge reappears in Maine, a curmudgeon in her old age, observing, advising and consoling her neighbors.  It's not so much a story as a chance to walk about a group of people in their town going about their daily lives.  

Quote:

 "He had told this story to [his wife] when they first me, he had also told his first wife, Pam Carlson, and they were both kind about it but it was one of Bob's adult understandings:  People did not care, except for maybe one minute.  It was not their fault, most just could not really care past their own experiences."

Published: 2024  Read: March 2025  Genre: Fiction

In Five Years - Rebecca Serle

A young, successful, woman lawyer (Dannie), engaged to the perfect, considerate man (David) experiences her future one evening - and she's with a different man, in a different place.  She's shaken to her core and we she meets that future man (Aaron) she's convinced she can alter the future.  This was a clever take on predestination and what we think we can control in our lives.  I finished it up in a  couple days. Her relationship with her best friend since childhood (Bella) plays counterpoint to her structured, managed life.

Clever, quick read.

Quote:

"You mistake love.  You think it has to have a future in order to matter, but it doesn't.  It's the only thing that does not need to become at all.  It matters only insofar as it exists.  Here. Now. Love doesn't require a future."

Published:  2020 Read: March 2022  Genre: Fiction

Rules for Visiting - Jessica Francis Kane

 The reviews on this one were good and I liked the concept - a woman reaches out to connect in person with her friends from the past in the age of instant communication.  It missed the mark.  The heroine, May, is strange; a detached, disconnected, landscape gardener.  The author interweaves descriptions of the personalities of various North American trees into the narrative to illustrate the choices of personalities we can adopt.  I think that what was she was trying to do.  The back story of May's life was so obscure that when it was revealed it was anticlimactic.  Some thoughtful observations kept me reading but in the end, the book fell flat

Quotes:

"Friends are God's apology for relations (Hugh Kingsmith)"

"...the Dunbar number--the maximum number of people with whom any individual can maintain stable relationships--and how, despite predictions, it hadn't gotten any bigger in the age of social media."

"A house is a physical thing that is build with wood and bricks, furnished with furniture and carpets, while a home takes time and is built with memories." 

"Perhaps a best friend is someone who...holds the story of your life in mind.  Sometimes in music a melodic line is so beautiful the notes feel inevitable; you can anticipate the next note through a long rest.  Maybe that is friendship.  A best friend holds your story in mind so notes don't have to be repeated." 

Published: 2019  Read: April 2020  Genre: Fiction 

 

There's A (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going To Hell - Laurie Notaro

I love this girl.  She is so darn funny and smart and a great writer.  This was her first fiction novel, according to the cover; she'd done several Idiot Girl books before this one.  It's obviously based on her move to Oregon.  Maye, moves with her husband, Charlie, to a small town in Washington where she can't seem to make a single friend.  She decides to run for Sewer Pipe Queen and enlists a prior stellar winner, Ruby, to be her coach.  All the usual Lori craziness ensues.  Fun read.

Published:  2007  Read: June 2018  Genre: Fiction

The Bookstore - Deborah Meyler

Oh, this was a good read!  A young English woman comes to NYC to study art history on a scholarship to Columbia and takes a job in a bookstore.  She falls in love with Michael, a suave, rich, intoxicating man who loves her, leaves her, loves her and leaves her again and pregnant.

She learns some life lessons through it all, finding true friends through the bookstore.  A feel good book that was like having a very good fresh bagel and coffee.  I liked her dedication: "To my father..who taught me how to be happy".  Well said.

Published: 2013  Read: June 2016  Genre: Fiction

The Winding Road - Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

There are some books that I just savor every word, like a very rich dessert or perfect meal.  The Morland Dynasty books have been such a find.  This latest tome I had to get from the library and it finally was available earlier this month

Back in 2007 my friend Teddi offered me a series of books on English history.  Beginning in the 14th century, the story of the fictional Morland family unveils the evolution of English culture, politics, religion, royalty and peasant.  I devoured the first 20 or so of the series that year and collected the rest and read them all over the past few years to come up to this one, The Winding Road, #34, which covers 1925 into 1931.

The author makes me feel I am living with her characters.  Their hopes, dreams, tragedies and everyday life are woven into the real stories of the events and people who shaped history.

I passed the 30+ paperbacks on to another friend.  Teddi passed away last August and these books are only one of many blessings she brought to my life.

Published: 2011  Read: March 2012   Genre: Historical fiction

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