Eddie Winston is Looking for Love

Finished January 26

Eddie Winston is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin

This is definitely a feel-good read. The title character is ninety and works at a charity shop, sorting through the donations and helping customers. Marjie is the shop manager, and he has become friends with her over the years, even if he doesn't understand her habit of drinking Oxo. Eddie has a secret. When he comes across personal things, he saves them, and takes them home. They are never items worth anything, but papers, photographs, small mementos. He did take home a guinea pig that a mother dropped off when she and her boys were on their way to a shelter. They called it Spiderman, but he renamed it Pushkin Spiderman Winston, and cares for it deeply. When the store is quiet he reads Mills & Boon novels, ones that came into the shop as donations. 

Eddie is a people watcher. He pays attention, noticing when his neighbour Daniel is attracted to his other neighbour Thitima, and tries to help it along. 

When he meets Bella, a young woman who brings in a box of things after her boyfriend's death, he makes a connection and the two become friends. that is when he reveals another secret. He's never been kissed. Bella resolves to help Eddie and puts a listing up for him on a dating site for people over seventy. 

This leads to other changes in his life. He begins to be more daring with his wardrobe, trying out things more colourful that appeal to him. 

There is also another timeline, one that follows Bridie Brennan, starting in 1954 when she is standing outside the church where her wedding is supposed to be happening, trying to decide whether to go in or not. We follow her through the 1960s, as she marries a university English professor and works in the administrative office of the college. It is there that she and a younger Eddie meet. They become friends. 

I came to truly care about not only the central characters of Eddie and Bridie, but also about Bella and Marjie, and the other characters that Eddie ends up coming into contact with. He is an interesting man, and one I would love to get to know myself. I can see him come alive in my head. 

What a wonderfully uplifting read. 

The Golden Hour

Finished January 24

The Golden Hour by T. Greenwood

This is a book I plucked off my shelves to meet a reading challenge, and it was so much more than I expected. The central character here is Wyn Davies. She is an artist who has started selling custom art featuring birch trees to match clients' decor. She doesn't love this work, but it pays some of her bills. Wyn is unhappy about a lot of things in her life, and she recently asked her husband Gus for a separation. She now lives in the other half of their New York duplex and their four-year-old daughter Avery moves back and forth.

When Wyn was thirteen, she took a shortcut home from school through the woods and was violently attacked. The police found the boy involved, Robby Rousseau, walking home with blood on him and he soon confessed. He has spent the last twenty years in prison, but now his supporters are fighting for DNA testing on the evidence and a new trial. Wyn can't face that, and when she receives a threatening phone call, she decides to take her friend Pilar up on her offer to stay with her for a few months in an old house she bought on an island in Maine. 

As Wyn struggles to identify all her feelings, her fears, and her hopes, she must face the truth about her past, one that is gradually revealed over the course of the novel, and figure out what she wants for her future. In the house she discovers another woman's story, and gets caught up in that .

This is a very intriguing book, one that had me reading into the wee hours. I liked the way that art was so important here, and how Wyn worked through her fears. A great read. 

Twisted Threads

Finished January 24

Twisted Threads by Lea Wait

This is the first book in a series set in a coastal town in Maine. This is a small town cozy mystery, set around a small needlework business called Mainely Needlepoint. The main character, Angie, left the town of Haven Harbor years ago after high school. Now her grandmother Charlotte has let her know that her mother's body has been found. Angie's mother Jenny disappeared one day, shortly before Angie turned ten. A search was done and an investigation, but the case went cold. Jenny was a woman who dated a lot of men, and not everyone in town thought well of her. Charlotte raised Angie after that, but Angie knew what they said about her mother, and how they wondered as she grew up whether she would be as flirtatious. That's partly why she left. 

Angie has been in Arizona, working for a private detective. She was good at both the office work, and the research. So when Charlotte tells her that she has a problem with the small needlework business she started, Angie offers to help find the man who owes her and her workers money. We get to know the other stitchers that Charlotte hired to do the work, many of them in dire need of the money they are owed.

As the police continue their investigation into how Jenny's body got to the place it was found, Angie continues her search. But when the man she's been looking for dies, Charlotte and Angie are some of the suspects in that death. Angie decides to continue her detective work, this time to find the killer.

I liked the main character, and the other characters are starting to take shape. I expect that will continue as the series moves forward. 

Dark Roads

Finished January 21

Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens

This dark tale set in British Columbia on a fictional highway called The Cold Creek Highway, around the town of Cold Creek, echoes reality and the many young woman who went missing on a real highway. 

Hailey McBride has lived in Cold Creek all her life. Her mother died when she was young and her father taught her about nature, how to survive off the land and how to protect herself. He also told her to never travel the highway alone. But her father died in a car accident that she still doesn't totally understand. He was always a careful driver. She is seventeen.

Now she is living with her aunt Lana, her nephew Cash, and her aunt's police officer husband Vaughn. Hailey's best friend is Jonny. They have many interests in common and often hang at the nearby lake, along with a lot of other teenagers, or at each others houses. But Vaughn doesn't like Jonny and is trying to control Hailey, not letting her get a job, or do anything she wants to do. 

He arranges for her to help with Cash, look after him this summer, and just stay around the house. Hailey not only doesn't like Vaughn, and resents him for the controls he places on her, but she fears him as well. There's just something about him. When she finds some evidence to back up her fears, she isn't sure what to do. 

And so, with Jonny's help, she disappears. And everyone in town believes that she's just another victim of the highway murderer. 

A year later, Beth, the sister of a young woman Hailey knew, arrives in town, searching for answers. Beth isn't even sure of all of her questions. She finds work at the local diner, but she also follows clues that she finds. She also encounters Vaughn and is wary of him. 

This is a tale that is a real page turner, as you move between different voices and try to guess who is doing what. One of her best. 

A Trick of the Light

Finished January 21

A Trick of the Light by Ali Carter

This mystery is part of a series featuring painter Susie Mahl. Susie specializes in landscape painting, but also has quite a reputation for her pet portraits. Here, she is invited to be the teacher at a small class hosted by the owner of a highland estate. The estate's large house will not only be the location for the classes, but will also provide rooms for all the participants. The estate owner, Fergus, Earl of Muchton, and his wife Zoe have arranged the course and the registration of participants. There are two scholarship students as well. 

The estate is a large one, and the house is large too, with several wings. There are issues with electrics, and the heating isn't up to par. One of the wings is closed off. As Susie gets to know her students and observes the people around her, she falls into her usual habit of curiosity, trying to learn more about everyone. Susie has recently learned some upsetting news from her parents, who she is close to, and she has been ghosted by a man she thought she might spend the rest of her life with. 

There are some triggers for her which appear in the plot. 

I found the art information very interesting. She discussed a lot of techniques for painting and how to approach it, that I found useful. The author is a painter herself and it shows. The plot was interesting and many of the characters were intriguing although only the main character had real depth. 

This was a fun and enjoyable read that I also learned a fair amount from. 

Chains

Finished January 20

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

This award-winning children's book is set from mid 1776 through to January 1777, and is told from the point of view of Isabel a black girl. She and her sister Ruth were owned by a woman, Mary, who had promised to free them on her death, but due to upheavals from the War of Independence, Mary's lawyer is away, and her heir quickly takes the girls and sells them to a loyalist couple, the Lockton's, from Charleston who are heading to their house in New York. 

Ruth is a bit simple, but a quiet and good girl, and Isabel is very protective of her. In New York, Isabel meets Curzon a young slave whose master Bellingham is in charge at the docks and suspects that they are loyalists, and will keep an eye on them. 

When Curzon asks Isabel to spy for them, she is at first wary, but pins her hopes on promises of freedom. Isabel is a smart girl, who can read and write, and knows how to keep her thoughts to herself, except in the case of her young sister. 

As we watch the changes in New York through her eyes as the war progresses, we see the bigger picture as well, and learn about the dealings of both the Americans who fight for freedom and the loyalists that want to remain king's subjects. Isabel struggles to understand the meaning of freedom to these men who use the word with such fervor, but still have slaves. 

As she continuously looks for ways to win her and Ruth's freedom, she finds herself torn between new loyalties and old. She undergoes cruelty and hardship as well as small kindnesses from a few. This is a tale that brings history to life as well as opening the young reader to human experiences foreign to them. It is the first book in a series.

Tried and True

Finished January 19

Tried and True by Mary Connealy

Set just after the American Civil War, this is the first in a series of novels about three sisters, Bailey, Shannon, and Kylie shortly after they begin their land claims in Idaho Territory. Pressured by their father into disguising themselves as young men and joining the Union army after their only brother dies in service, the women have used their service as a way of decreasing the time they must stay on the land to finalize their claim. Kylie is the youngest, and the least adept at the skills needed to manage a farm. Her sisters helped build her cabin in the fall, and now that it is spring the story starts with her attempting to repair a loose shingle in her roof. 

She was troubled by her war experience, but after her first battle was able to avoid worse trauma by working as a general's aide and as a spy. Her commanders were unaware that her success as a spy was due to her gender as she removed her disguise when engaging in espionage activity. 

When the local land agent, Aaron Masterson comes by just as Kylie is descending from the roof, he discovers her secret and insists that he must change her claim to eliminate the service record, even though she served as women weren't allowed to enlist. 

He finds himself drawn to her, and finds himself visiting her again soon after when a local rancher threatens her land. When another threat appears soon after, Aaron worries about her safety alone at her cabin and works with her siblings to find a solution. 

This novel is an historical western romance, with a touch of mystery. Kylie is less helpless than she first appears, as she has depended on her sisters more than she could have. But she is also a reluctant land claim candidate and plans to sell as soon as she owns the land outright. 

I found Kylie growing on me, but enjoyed her sisters more. There are other interesting characters as well, including a motherly and capable native woman. Aaron's history played a role in the plot and was an interesting commentary on the aftermath of the Civil War. 

A Big Storm Knocked It Down

Finished January 17

A Big Storm Knocked It Down by Laurie Colwin

This literary novel, published in 1993, is the last book Colwin wrote. It follows Jane Louise Parker, from just after her honeymoon through the next few years in her life. It has themes of friendship, family (including found family), and self awareness. 

Jane works for a small publishing firm in New York City, as a book designer. She has several co-workers that we see through her relationships with them: Sven, the art director; Adele, the department secretary; and publishing agents Dita and 

Jane's husband Teddy is a child of divorced parents, and he was raised by his mother, in a house in a small town in New Jersey that has been in the family for generations. Teddy is a chemist and product designer for a small company developing natural cleaning products. His best friend Peter is someone he has known from childhood, who now has an organic farm.

Jane has moved a lot as a child and has no real sense of belonging. Her mother has remarried, to a wealthy man, following Jane's father's death. Her best friend is Edie Steinhaus, her former college roommate. Edie is a caterer and pastry chef and an outlier in a family of male lawyers. Her business partner Mokie Frasier is a man she met at cooking school in Paris. He is tall, black, and also Edie's life partner, something her family tried to ignore. 

As we see Jane's life, we see her insecurities, her passions, and her relationships. With both of them having little in common with most of their family members, they have created a substitute family with Peter and his wife Beth, and Edie and Mokie. 

This is a character driven novel that lets us into Jane's life completely. I loved it. 

Goodbye, Again

Finished January 15

Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations by Jonny Sun

This lovely collection of writing gets very personal as Jonny explores his past, his relationships, and his present. He covers personal issues of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and burnout. He thinks about where home is, and coming back to places that you once lived in and don't fit into the same way anymore. This includes looking at the idea of belonging, and how relationships change when you venture in different directions. 

He examines paying attention to the details of his surroundings and I particularly loved the series of essays on his experiences with houseplants. 

He is funny, wry, and vulnerable. Some of the essays here are a single sentence, that really makes you think like 'Visiting'. Others, like many of the houseplant ones include his illustrations. One is done as a series of cels, like a comic strip. 

The essays are organized into sections: Goodbye; Go Slow; Take Care; Hello; Hello, Again; and Goodbye, Again. 

I took my time reading this as his writing is so relatable that I could find many things that moved me and that made me think about my experiences and my life. 

A great read. 

Alice James

Finished January 14

Alice James: A Biography by Jean Strouse

I bought this book from the publisher a few years ago, started it, then got distracted by other things so just picked it up again. 

Alice James is the middle child and only girl in her family, and the younger sister of famous American novelist Henry James. Her other older brother, William wrote works on philosophy and psychology and both were close to her in different ways. Her father, Henry James Sr. was a doting father, but discouraged women's academic and political endeavours. The family moved between Europe and New York City when she was a young child, eventually settling in Cambridge when her older brothers were in high school. 

Emily made friends with the women in her community, and participated in some social get-togethers, particularly in work for the U.S. Civil War. As she came into her adulthood she struggled with nervous disorders, and was limited in her aspects by her father's expectations as well as social convention. 

She was a good writer herself, observant of human behaviour and of her surroundings. 

After her parents' deaths, she spent some time in the country and eventually moved to England to be near Henry, as well as near physicians that she hoped would provide a solution to her ongoing health issues. With her during her final years was her close friend Katherine Loring who was entrusted with her diary, and later made copies for her brothers. 

This is an interesting book, shining light on a woman I wasn't aware of before. Alice was an intelligent and well-read woman, who was constrained by the time she lived in. At times her health seems related to her feelings about herself and her place in the world, but ultimately it revealed itself as genuine physical maladies. I found it interesting to see her brothers' reactions to her diary after getting copies as well as how they interacted with her throughout her life. An interesting read. 

Orbital

Finished January 11

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

This exquisitely written book is short, just over 200 pages, yet one I took my time reading as the imagery she writes and the thoughts her writing provokes made me want to stop and think often, and reread certain passages. The novel was a Christmas gift chosen because it won the Booker Prize for 2024. 

It is set mostly in the International Space Station over 24 earth hours. There are four astronauts and two cosmonauts at the station and the story is told in third person, but giving us access to each of their thoughts at times. Sixteen orbits of the earth by the Space Station occur over the course of 24 hours, and the book is structured around these. 

We see their professional interactions and get a sense of the work that they engage in, both scientific and housekeeping. We also see their personal thoughts and concerns, sometimes in real time and sometimes through memories of interactions with loved ones. 

One of the things they observe on this particular day is a large typhoon moving over the Pacific Ocean as it heads towards people ill-prepared for the massive storm. Another is the launch of a rocket carrying four astronauts to the moon. 

I found it fascinating as the novel talks about the land moving beneath them, the countries and land masses sliding by, with the lights at night showing the presence of human life more than the land viewed by day. It gave me a new sense of our planet and its place in space. I was also moved by the human connections between these people thrown together through circumstance, and the disparate connections they had to people back on earth. 

This novel has taken its spot as one of my favourite books of all time. 

The Coldest Night

Finished January 2

The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

This novel is about a young man named Henry Childs. Henry and his mother Clemmie left their mountain home for the city of Charleston when he was young. Henry was athletic and liked nature. He began working at stables across the river after the owner met Clemmie at the veteran's hospital she worked at. 

Mercy, a girl a year older than him began coming to ride one of the horses in 1950, when she was in her senior year of high school. The two fall in love, but her wealthy family doesn't accept their relationship and despite their efforts, Henry finds himself alone. 

In his pain, he enlists and finds himself in Korea just as the battle for the Chosin Reservoir is starting, and the war scenes are brutally honest. In many ways, Henry is still a boy, but he finds himself taken under the wing of a man named Lew, also from Charleston, and the two stick together through the worst of it. 

We also see how Henry, broken in some ways, returns to Charleston, to find some things changed and some things the same as they were. He has trouble adjusting to civilian life, marked as he is by his wartime experiences. 

This is an emotional read, graphically violent at times, but so beautifully written that it captured me entirely. 

2024 Reading Wrap-Up

Well, 2024 has come to an end and I've put together my reading wrap-up. I had hoped to read 175 books and actually read 176, so I'm pretty pleased with that. In terms of pages read, I set a goal of 55,000 pages and read 56,924 pages, so a win there as well. 

I read primarily Fiction, 165 of the 176. 

Most were adult level books, with 8 being teen and 2 children's.

Translations: 8
2 Swedish
2 French
1 Japanese
1 Arabic
1 Norwegian
1 Italian

Setting 
8 took place in make-believe worlds
11 took place at least partly in Canada
93 took place at least partly in the United States
5 took place at least partly in Africa
3 took place at least partly in Australia/New Zealand
13 took place at least partly in Asia
4 took place at least partly in Latin America
60 took place at least partly in Europe

Where they were from
95 were from the library
71 I owned, of which 54 went on to new homes
2 were borrowed from family
7 were from Netgalley

Genre: This graph doesn't break them down exactly like I do, a few of what they call genre aren't genre, but an appeal element, like contemporary. I also don't know how they determined 'mystery,' 'thriller,' and 'crime.' Some books cross genres. 

My categories came up as:
Nonfiction: 11 total, with some in more than one category
1 Poetry
3 Essays
2 Travel
3 History
2 Science / Social Science
1 Arts and Crafts
6 Biography / Memoir

Fiction: 165 total, with some in more than one category
70 Mystery / Thriller
29 Historical
26 Fantasy

2 Science Fiction

1 Short Stories

59 Romance

2 Western

Pace:

                                          

Mood:

Authors by gender identity

31 Male

142 Female

3 had multiple authors including both genders

Format

1 Graphic Novel

3 Large Print

30 ebook

142 Print

Series: 63 were part of a series

Length:

The Crows of Pearblossom

Finished January 1

The Crows of Pearblossom by Aldous Huxley, illustrations by Barbara Cooney

This is the only children's story of Huxley to survive. He told stories to his niece, but after a fire most were lost. This one survived because the neighbours mentioned in the story had a copy of it. It was originally written in 1944, but the copy I read was from 1967.

I was visiting my mother-in-law and she had just received it from an order she'd placed. 

The crow mother lays an egg every day and later goes off to do her shopping. The egg is always gone when she returns and she can't figure it out until she returns early one day and sees a rattlesnake, who lives at the bottom of the tree she is nesting in, swallowing her egg. She is terribly upset and tells her partner when he returns, that she wants him to go down and kill the snake. 

Instead, he goes off to his friend Owl and they work out a plan, that goes off very well. with the snake immobilized and unable to eat any more of Mrs. Crow's eggs. 

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Illyrian Spring

Finished December 30

Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge

This novel came to me as part of a subscription from Mr. B's Emporium, a bookstore in Bath, England. It was originally written in 1935 and was a popular read at the time. 

The main character Grace Kilmichael is married with three adult children. Her husband Walter is a well-known economist. Before she was married, she studied art, and she gave it up when she married. Once the boys were grown and her daughter Linnet away at school, and her husband travelling a lot for work, she started up again, studying at the Slade, and spending some time in Paris with another artist Moru. She became a success, with her first important picture ending up at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. She's won awards. She's made sure not to inconvenience her family, working around their needs and expectations, and painting under her middle name as 'Grace Stanway,' to avoid drawing undue attention to the family. But she feels her successes have been belittled by her husband, with he and the children teasing her about her art. 

Lately Walter has been spending a lot of time with a female economist, Rose Barum, and extolling her intelligence and accomplishments. Even Linnet, who she had a close relationship up to recently, has been pushing her away, growing irritated at her suggestions, and spending less time at home. 

As the book starts Grace is leaving, planning a long getaway for herself, going first to Paris to see some galleries, then on to Venice to visit Tortello, and then for a long stay on the Dalmation coast in Croatia. She has put it about that she is visiting her mother in Antibes, and she has accepted a commission for drawings for American papers. She had not planned to paint, and had not brought her painting things, but she changes her mind and has her mother send her things to Venice after all. 

At Torcello she meets a young man who helps with a technical drawing she is doing for her son, and the two reconnect on a boat as she makes her way to Dalmatia. 

The novel is a telling of their journey, their art, their growing closeness, and how it affects their lives in significant ways. 

This is a lovely novel, in some ways of its times, but in others much ahead of them. I truly enjoyed it. 

The Twilight Garden

Finished December 30

The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams

This novel is about community, human connection, and the healing properties of nature. Winston lives with his partner Lewis in a house in London that shares a garden with its neighbour. For a long time the neighbouring house was empty, but a woman, Bernice and her young son Sebastian have bought the house, renovated it, and moved in. The shared garden is neglected, and Winston has primarily used it to sit outside in an old wooden chair, smoke and think. Bernice thinks his chair is in a dangerous state of disrepair, disapproves of his smoking and seems to look down upon him. He has dubbed her the Queen of Sheba. 

The Winston starts to get enveloped through his mailbox, addressed to the young man at Number 79, and they contain old pictures and clippings of the garden and the two women who made it a community haven, Maya and Alma. Winston has fond memories of his mother and her garden, and begins to get inspired to bring the neglected space back to life. As he does so, he connects with young Sebastian and eventually with Bernice as well. 

Winston quit his job in a bank that he didn't enjoy and as a stop-gap began working in the local corner shop, that Sal and Angela own. He has become part of their family and spends time with them. Lewis and he met while he was working in the bank and Lewis has gone up through the ranks. Lately, he has worked late, including weekends, and Winston feels more alone. He is also missing other relationships, and has been pulling himself away from other people, so the gardening provides not only solace, but also a different means of connecting with him. 

Bernice is divorced from a very controlling man, and she has also retreated into herself, with the exception of her son. She has always dreamed of having a home with a garden and feels possessive of the space, and also protective of Sebastian. The forced sharing of the space is something she fights against initially, and we see her gradually open herself to new relationships and experiences. 

As we learn the story of the garden and the people that created it, we also see the current community and how Lewis and Bernice open themselves up again to happiness. A very enjoyable read.