The Gingerbread Bakery

Finished February 2

The Gingerbread Bakery by Laurie Gilmore

This is the fifth book in the Dream Harbor series, but the first one I've read. The main characters here are Annie Andrews, who is the owner of Gingerbread Bakery, and Mac Sullivan, the owner of Sullivan's Pub, which he bought from his parents. 

The two have known each other most of their lives. Annie took a dislike to Mac from elementary school, when he bullied her best friend Logan. Her opinion of him hasn't improved. But when they finished high school, most of their contemporaries went on to college and in November they encountered each other at a local event. Mac bought some of Annie's cookies from her home-based business, and then arranged to meet her again. They found themselves spending time together and beginning a friendship. Something happened to change that, but we don't find out what until later in the book. Now, Mac has been back in Dream Harbor for three years, and Annie has been avoiding him every chance she gets. With Logan getting married to Jeanie, a more recent addition to the town, they find themselves both part of the wedding party and forced to spend time with each other. When a small crisis arises days before the wedding, and Annie determined to keep Logan from worrying, she finds Mac is the one who helps, and doesn't give up. Not only does he help with the crisis, but he also forces Annie to deal with the past and the events that drove them apart.

A Christmas season romance with a small town setting and even some kittens. 

The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club

Finished September 7

The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club by Julia Bryan Thomas

This novel, set during the mid-1950s, revolves around a group of four girls, all freshman at Radcliffe, and a female bookstore owner who decides to start a reading club at her store. Alice Campbell left her home town of Chicago and opened a bookshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This store had been a dream of hers that she was only able to realize at this point in her life, with her backstory gradually coming out through the course of the novel. 

The four young women we come to know as well, both through the book club and through their activities at college. Tess comes from Ohio and is a serious student. She grew up with several brothers, a subdued mother, and a bully of a father. She comes to Radcliffe as a scholarship student, is an English major, and aims to excel in her studies and escape the life she grew up in. It is Tess who sees the flyer for the reading club at the bookstore and suggests it to her roommate and other friends she has made. 

Her roommate Caroline is quite different. Caroline comes from a wealthy family in Newport, Rhode Island, and is a beautiful young woman who uses her charm to keep young men clamoring for her time. On arrival Caroline takes over the room, but in a nice way. She provides a matching set of bedlinen to Tess, saying she likes things to match, and Tess falls for her charm. Caroline is studying art history and her travels have given her direct experience with art.

Evie grew up on a farm in upstate New York, and is studying economics

Evie's roommate Merritt is from San Francisco and is studying art. Merritt is an only child and her mother passed away when Merritt was still a young girl. 

The reading club starts with the classic Jane Eyre and over the course of the year, one can see how the books mirror certain aspects of the young women's lives. The discussions around each book are very interesting. Alice is good at asking questions that get the others talking, and one of the first things she says is that there is no right or wrong when discussing a book, but instead the club is about how the book affects you and how it makes you feel. She manages the discussions well, and while she doesn't become friends with the others, she does manage to gain the trust of some of them.

This was quite an interesting read, and I was interested in what happened to the characters and how their experiences changed them. I also found it interesting to think about the books chosen and about how I might respond to some of the questions Alice asked. 

The Kind Worth Killing

Finished June 20

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

This suspenseful novel had me caught up in the story, about a seemingly random encounter that has far-reaching consequences. The jacket says it is a modern reimagining of Patricia Highsmith's classic Strangers on a Train, a book that I haven't read. 

It begins at Heathrow, where Ted Severson, a wealthy businessman, is waiting in a bar for his plane to leave. Arriving to sit next to him is Lily Kintner, a woman travelling back to her home in the U.S. after visiting her elderly father. They begin talking, and continue the conversation on the plane, the sort of conversation one occasionally has with someone that you don't expect to meet again. The two only know each other's first name, but they share things that they haven't shared with other people. 

Ted talks about the recent discovery that his wife was cheating on him. and how he isn't sure what to do next, joking that he feels the urge to kill her for her betrayal. When Lily offers to help, the conversation takes a previous turn. 

Back home in the Boston area, the two meet again, and talk about possibilities. Ted is intrigued by Lily, and her beauty and intelligence, quite different from that of his wife. Ted's wife Miranda has been the primary contact for a new house they are building on the coast, in a spot they discovered on a romantic holiday. She's been staying in a hotel near the building site, and has been very involved in the building process, and with their general contractor. Ted, as he considers the possibilities in his future, is having thoughts about other, more traditional, responses to his marital issues. 

Lily, however, has a darker past than first seen, and as we gradually learn her story, we see a pattern of behaviour that is disturbing. 

There were many surprises along the way in this novel, and my sympathies changed a few times over the course of the book. 

Goodnight Stranger

Finished May 26

Goodnight Stranger by Miciah Bay Gault

This tale is set mostly on Wolf Island, a fictional island near Martha's Vineyard. The main character Lydia Moore is 29 and feeling like she is stuck, unable to have a fulfilling life. She went to college for almost one term, but returned home due to her mother's illness. She has stayed in the family home, with her twin brother Lucas, who has extreme anxiety. She works seasonally in the information booth near the ferry dock. She likes to look at those exiting the ferry and classify them as tourist, visitor, or resident. One day she notices someone who doesn't fit, and makes eye contact with him. She feels compelled to meet him and soon he has found his way into her life.

Lucas is sure this man, Cole Anthony, is the reincarnation of their dead sibling, Baby B (real name Colin), who died when they were infants. If he hadn't, they would be triplets. Lydia isn't convinced despite things that he does or knows about them. She is determined to find his real identity to save herself from what she feels is a man taking over her life. 

Along the way, she finds help from an unlikely new friend, and perhaps a way to break out of the rut her life was in before. She also gets to know some of her fellow islanders and things about the island that are new to her. 

This is a story with a dark tone, as Lydia feels menaced by this man she has met. Sometimes it feels like things are eerie and haunting, and sometimes just uneasy. I liked how Lydia was able to find strength within herself to continue her search for the truth. 

A story that is hard to put down.  

The Half of It

Finished April 6

The Half of It by Juliette Fay

This novel is centered on fifty-eight-year-old Helen Spencer. Helen is the mother of three adult children, Barb, Sam, and Danny, and the grandmother of one. Before the pandemic hit, Helen's mother Annabella Iannucci had come to live with her family in North Carolina, but she died a few years after the move. When Helen's husband Jim died suddenly shortly afterward, Helen learned his secrets as well. 

The story starts in the present with an unexpected encounter with a man, Cal Crosby, from Helen's past. It then jumps back to Helen's girlhood where she joined track as a way to use the energy she had within her. We see her friendship with Francie Hydecker, a girl who went her own way, a way that included horses and ceramics. And we see the friendship that developed between teenage Helen and Cal. 

As the book moves back and forth between the present, where Helen is very involved in her daughter Barb's life, and Cal has also taken on a caregiving role with his young grandchildren, we learn what led to the rift between them, as well as what led to other rifts in Helen's life. 

As Helen begins to build a new life in Massachusetts, where she's moved to join Barb's family, she also reconnects with her past and must make choices that lead to new beginnings and new friendships.

Although it covers a lot of time, this book moves at a fairly quick pace, and the characters make the book come to life. This is a story of love, of regrets, and of hope.  

The Probability of Murder

Finished October 24

The Probability of Murder by Ada Madison

This novel is the second in a series of cosy mysteries featuring mathematics professor Sophie Knowles. Sophie holds weekly parties on campus that have a scientific theme with a short presentation. One of these, on Mobius strips, is just winding up when news of a death on campus begins to filter in. Charlotte Crocker, the librarian, has been found dead in the stacks. Sophie was a friend of hers, and is shocked at the news. Sophie's boyfriend, medevac pilot Bruce Granville, is leaving for a climbing adventure up in Vermont the next morning, and so the two forego plans for the rest of the day in light of the incident. 

When Sophie makes an unexpected discovery around something Charlotte left with her, she seeks counsel first from a friend before going to the police, and then decides that she needs to follow up on the clues she has to figure out if her friend was really a friend, or a criminal. When Sophie becomes a target herself, she is even more determined to find the truth.

With interesting mathematical problems scattered throughout, this is a series with its own particular draw, and Sophie's use of deductive reasoning drawing from her mathematical background gives great reasons for her own investigation. 

I liked the main characters and found the mystery very engaging. 

Late Checkout

Finished April 11

Late Checkout by Carol J. Perry

This mystery is the ninth in a series is set in Salem, Massachusetts, and this particular book is set in late October, early November. The main character, Lee Barrett, is a field reporter for the local television station, WICH-TV, but she's been downgraded to part-time temporarily while the station owner's nephew works at the station as a first step in his TV news career. 

Lee lives in an upstairs apartment in the home of her aunt Ibby, the director of the local library. She was widowed a few years ago after her NASCAR racing husband died. She is now going out with a local police detective, Pete Mondello. She and her aunt share their home with a very special cat O'Ryan who possesses some clairvoyant abilities. Lee herself also has some psychic abilities and sometimes has visions, usually ones that appear to her in a reflective surface such as a mirror. 

The station is celebrating its seventieth birthday soon, and Lee is put on the job of research for the event, and research is something she loves, and often gets her aunt involved in too. Since Lee has some time on her hands, she also decides to volunteer at the library, but on her first shift she finds a dead body and gets involved in a case that may threaten her personally. 

The scene of death is reminiscent of the death scene of one of the station's old sports announcers, and also is similar to a recent break-in at someone's home. As Lee tries to figure out if the death's are linked and whether the different figures are related to other people at the station now or in the past, she finds herself with research that overlaps the work she is doing for the station's event, as well as introducing her to the world of sports collectibles.

We get to meet many of the station's other personalities, from the receptionist to the camera crew, as well as past personalities. Lee's visions are interesting because she doesn't know whether they are of the past or the future until she can figure them out. I would definitely read more of this series. 

The Dog Who Saved Me

Finished January 16 

The Dog Who Saved Me by Susan Wilson

The main character here, Cooper Harrison, is a man still caught up in his recent loss and the feelings he has around that. Cooper was an officer in the K-9 unit of the Boston Police and he had a very special relationship with his partner dog Argo. But in an encounter on duty, Argo was killed, and Cooper was left with what he hopes is a temporary hearing impairment. It hit him hard and his marriage didn't survive it either. Cooper has retreated to his hometown, a small town named Harmony Farms near Boston. He has taken a job as an Animal Control Officer there, working in a small office with one other officer. He is staying in a cabin that he is looking after as part of his rental agreement. But coming back to his hometown isn't easy as there are a lot of memories there and not all of them are good ones. Cooper grew up with an alcoholic father, a man damaged by his own experiences, and lost his mother while he was still a child. His older brother Jimmy bullied him, and grew up to be a man often on the wrong side of the law. 

Now, Cooper's father Bull is a recovering alcoholic, working in the local lumberyard and using his bicycle to get around. He's love to renew his relationship with his son, but Cooper isn't looking for that at all. Jimmy is recently out of jail, and temporarily living with Bull in their childhood home, but he isn't necessarily on the straight and narrow. Cooper's cop instincts sense that and he worries about that and about whether Bull is being taken advantage of. 

But what about the dog? Ah, yes, the dog is a dog that's been injured and left in the woods scared and in pain. The dog is wary of humans, not sure whether he can trust people, and also physically impaired through his injury. When Cooper becomes aware of him, he is determined to find the dog, bring him in and help him. This isn't an easy task, and Cooper is bringing his own baggage to this task. Through his work, he's also come into contact with a woman Natalie who has also started a new life. She is running a horse rescue operation after leaving a city life behind, one with its own losses. 

Lots going on in this book, and it took me a while to get into it, but we really see into Cooper and the things that drive him, and the things that have brought him to where he is, many of them from his childhood. And we see how other in the story are also trying to start over, to be better, to move forward with their lives. A good read.

March

Finished February 17
March by Geraldine Brooks

I've had this one on my shelf for a while, and finally got to it. This book was inspired by Little Women and imagines the story of their father, Mr. March. As the book begins, March is embedded with Union troops as a chaplain, involved in a battle that isn't going well. Following the battle, as he makes his way to a plantation house taken over by troops, he realizes that he has been there before as a young man, when he worked as a peddler. It was here that he first came face to face with the realities of slavery.
The story mostly stays in the time of the Civil War, but it also wanders back to his days as a peddler, his first meeting with Marmee, and the early days of their marriage, outlining how he gradually became the man he is now, and how he came to be where he is.
I found it interesting to see both him and Marmee as more complex characters than they appear in the stories of their daughters.
Brooks based March partly on Louisa May Alcott's father Bronson, but also on other historical figures and using other historical information, particularly around the Civil War, which Bronson did not serve in.
My copy also has an interview with Brooks, and a reading guide for the book.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

Finished July 25
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti, narrated by Elizabeth Wiley

This novel moves back and forth between the lives of Samuel and his daughter Loo, as they settle in the small town of Olympus, Massachusetts years after the death of Samuel's wife Lily, and Samuel's past.
Samuel has a shrine to Lily in their washroom. Everything she left behind from grooming products and cosmetics to slips of paper she wrote lists on is there. Loo is used to it. The shrine has gone with them as they travelled around the country, always moving suddenly, and taking little with them. One thing that has gone with them is Samuel's collection of guns, from his father's rifle to a variety of handguns and long guns. He looks after them, and Loo knows how to use them as well.
Their lives in Olympus are quiet, except for occasional conflicts with locals. Loo doesn't really fit in, and doesn't really want to. Samuel makes a quiet living fishing and gathering shellfish at low tide. As we see Loo grow from a tween to a life after high school, we see their relationship change as Loo tries to have her own secrets and gradually learns those of her father.
Loo's grandmother lives in Olympus, her mother's mother, and this relationship develops very slowly as well.
The twelve lives of the title are represented by the bullet wounds in Samuel's body, and we gradually learn through his history where and how he came by each one, learning also what his life has been, and how he came to meet Lily, and what happened to her.
This is a story of families, of the difficulty of escaping one's past, and of the constant hope for a better future. A very interesting read.

One True Loves

Finished January 21
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The novel opens with an introduction to 31-year-old Emma Blair by herself. Emma is a woman comfortable in her own skin and satisfied with her life. She is engaged to be married to a man she loves, Sam, and happy running a bookstore in her hometown of Acton, Massachusetts. But her world is thrown into a spin when her phone rings and a voice on the other end that she immediately recognizes tells her he is alive. It is her husband Jesse, a man thought to be dead years ago. Now what?
The novel then jumps back to Emma in high school. She is a young woman raised by loving parents in Massachusetts. Her parent's run a bookstore in Acton, and fully expect her and her older sister Marie to take it over one day. Marie is popular, pretty, and smart and intends to be a writer someday. Emma has no interest in the bookstore or reading the books her parents push on her, despite working their after school and on weekends, and her only real aim is to get away. Emma feels that she can never measure up to Marie and that Marie resents her. But when the boy she admires takes a sudden interest in her, she gains the confidence to move forward and make her life what she wants it to be.
We see her life develop into a rich and busy one until the tragedy of Jesse's disappearance and assumed death devastates her entirely.
Then we watch her rebuild her life into one that suits her now, until the sudden reappearance of Jesse makes her question everything once more.
This is a story of love, of the changes that life puts us through, and of the choices we all make along the way.

We Were Liars

Finished February 8
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, read by Ariadne Meyers

This teen novel is told from the point of view of Cadence Sinclair Eastman. She is the granddaughter of Harris and Tipper Sinclair, a wealthy couple who owns their own island Beechwood, near Martha's Vineyard. The Sinclairs had three daughters, Carrie, Bess, and Penny. Cadence is the daughter and only child of Penny. Her cousin Mirren is the daughter of Bess, and has younger twin sisters Liberty and Bonnie, and a younger brother Taft. Her cousin Johnny is the son of Carrie and has a younger brother Will. The summer that Cadence, Mirren, and Johnny turn 15 is the summer that everything changes. Cadence's father left them earlier that year, making Penny the last of the three sisters to get divorced. Carrie is the only one in a new relationship, but her boyfriend Ed is not acceptable to the Sinclairs, despite the many years Carrie and him have been together. Ed's nephew Gat has been coming to the island every summer for years as a companion for Johnny. The four teenagers have formed a tight bond over the years. The summer they turn 15 is also the first summer without Tipper, who has died recently, and that has affected the dynamic of the family, causing the sisters to vie for the inheritance. As they try to involve their children in the competition, Cadence, Mirren, Johnny and Gat, the Liars as they term themselves, do what they can to thwart this rivalry, wanting to return to a time of happy families. But something very bad happens as a result of their actions, and Cadence is injured. She has only spotty memories of that summer, severe migraines, and other injuries. The summer she was 16, she was kept away from the island by her parents, and the threat is there for the summer she is 17 as well. When they give in and Cadence returns to Beechwood, she finds that even her cousins will not tell her what happened that summer, and as she goes about the activities they all enjoy, she finds the memories gradually returning. She must discover if she is willing to face the truth about that summer, the guilt, and the loss.
This is a powerful story of the emotional life of teenagers, the immediacy of everything, and their not always good reactions to situations. I recently read this article from the Globe and Mail on teen brain development that really is relevant to this book. There is a great Tumblr page that has been put together on this book showing a map of the island, a family tree, and using images and quotes from the books to give a sense of this book.

Another teen novel that has a character struggling with difficult emotional baggage is The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson.

The Postmistress

Finished October 21
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, read by Orlagh Cassidy

This novel jumps back and forth between London, England and the small Cape Cod town of Franklin, Massachusetts in the months before the United States entered World War II. In London, we have American journalist Frankie Bard, first giving war commentary on the radio to folks back home, and later travelling into Germany and German-occupied France to gather the story of refugees.
In Franklin, we have Iris James, the postmistress, a strong, upright woman who has recently fallen in love with an older man, Harry. She knows that Harry is the man for her and takes the step of getting a doctor's certificate proving her virginity, a document that means a lot to her and she believes will mean a lot to Harry too. Iris is a watcher, watching the people of the town, their comings and goings, and caring about them. Harry is also a watcher, but he is watching for threats from outside, specifically for German u-boats. Every day, he goes up in the town hall and watches the ocean.
New to town is Emma, the doctor's new wife. Emma has led a life filled with loss, with both her mother and older brother dying in the influenza pandemic when she was a child. Her relationship with Will gives her a home and the love she has craved. They are very close, but Will feels the need to prove himself as a result of his late father's reputation in town. As a new doctor, when he loses a patient, he takes it personally and struggles with the guilt he feels around it. The need to make penance for this drives him away from his home and Emma toward danger in a move that sets him down a new path.
Also, in Franklin a more minor character, Otto, has a role. Otto rooms with Harry and works for him in the local garage, and has an obvious German accent. The townspeople make assumptions about him and treat him as a threat to them, imported from the war overseas.
As we see these stories evolve, and eventually come together in a way that brings all these lives to a meeting place, we see the effect of the war and people's choices on others.
A wonderful story, with strong characters and interesting storylines. Seeing war through different eyes with focus on the home front and the refugees results in a very engaging read.

The Red Garden

Finished May 17
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman, read by Nancy Travis
Needing an audiobook for my commute, I grabbed this off the "New" bookshelf. The book is a series of vignettes set in the small town of Blackwell, Massachusetts over a period of three hundred years. Starting with ill-prepared settlers getting stuck there in a snowstorm and surviving due to the fortitude of one woman, the town has a long history. We see bears, eels, bees and other wildlife. There are families that appear and reappear in the various times. There are people on the run, and people looking to find something. From the Civil War to the Vietnam War, the people of the town are touched by events around them. There is love, grief, and happiness.
At the center of the town is the first house, the Brady house, and, behind it, a garden. A special garden, where only red plants can grow. And at the heart of the garden, love, and truth.
This book is one that grabs you and keeps you wanting more. The characters are intriguing and unique. The stories they live fascinating. I really enjoyed it.