Running for My Life

Finished January 5

Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games by Lopez Lomong with Mark Tabb

This autobiography takes us from Lopepe's (Lopez's) kidnapping from his parents at an outdoor church service near his Sudanese home when he was six years old to his life at the time of publication (2012). When the rebels attacked the church congregation, his mother held him close, but the chose him anyway and threw him in the back of a truck with other children. By luck, none of his siblings had come with him and his parents that day. His brother planned to take them to a later service. Three older boys who said they knew his older brother took him under their wing and protected him as best they could on the truck journey and in camp once they arrived. 

While the older boys were soon forced to train as soldiers, the younger ones like Lopez remained in their tent prison all the time. The older boys planned an escape during the night and took him with them. Lopez was already known as a fast runner, and this escape was a real test of both his swiftness and his endurance. The boys made it to the Kenyan border and were taken into a refugee camp, and Lopez never knew the exact identity or what became of his saviours. In camp, Lopez attended classes and ran the perimeter of the camp to earn his right to play football (soccer) and to keep himself busy. He grew to a leadership position in his group and ensured fairness and responsibility for the members. They gathered and shared food and made sure it lasted. 

There was always a dream among the boys to find a life in the West. At one point, Lopez was lucky enough to get to see Michael Johnson run in the Olympics on a staff member's television and this became his dream. When he was sixteen, he was chosen for adoption in the United States and found his new family. Lopez had blocked thoughts of his family from the beginning of his time in the camp, convincing himself that they were dead so that he would be able to move on. This was how he came to be eligible for adoption. 

It took him some time to get used to his new life and we see him go through adjusting to having dependable access to food, to having a bedroom to himself, to learn about electricity and running water that was part of his new home. He called his adoptive parents Mom and Dad right away though and trusted them completely. 

As they soon realized his running skills, he was connected with a coach, and his new parents sought out other boys from the camp who had settled nearby and ensured he had contact with them. They ensured he had academic support to catch up with his schooling, and that he plan for the future. 

When it came to light that his family in Sudan was still alive, they encouraged contact and he has since worked to create a charitable foundation that helps his old community. 

As we see his drive and his empathy, we find a young man that has not only fulfilled his own dreams, but also helps other fulfill theirs. 

Not Quite Over You

Finished March 24

Not Quite Over You by Susan Mallery

This novel is part of a series set in the small California town of Happily Inc., a town that a previous generation marketed as a wedding destination, and that the town now embraces as one of its main revenue streams. Silver Tesdal runs a mobile bar service out of an refurbished Airstream trailer, and her business is booming, so she wants to expand and has her sights on two old Airstreams currently for sale. She tried a few banks, but despite her well-thought-through business plan, no one is biting. When her last hope is gone, a unexpected offer comes her way. 

Banker Drew Lovato, who works at that last hope bank, was a three-month passionate relationship for Silver after high school, before Drew went off to university, when it ended. When he noticed that his aunt, head of commercial bank at their family bank, convinced the board to deny her the loan, he took a look at her application and business plan. 

He decides to purchase the trailers and come to Silver with a partnership offer. He hopes that the move will allow him to win back her trust, as well as support her in the town's major industry. 

Silver is wary, but her business acumen knows that his knowledge would be an asset to her, not to mention that he now has the trailers she wants. With his investment, she can move forward quickly on most of her plans, but she has a secret that he isn't fully aware of. That secret will change their relationship, and their plans for the future. 

I enjoyed this novel, which moved quickly. There were a lot of characters introduced, and I assume we see some of them in other novels in the series. Here, Silver and Drew take center stage, and we see their relationship grow, both personally and on the business side, and we also see family members from both sides have their influence. Friendships are also big here, with some having interesting international scope for plotlines in other books. 

A fun read from a series I'd definitely read more in. 

Fortunate Son

Finished March 1

Fortunate Son by Walter Mosley

I've read a few standalone books by Mosley, and I find they always have depth and make you think about the world in different ways. This one is no exception. 

When Tommy's mother Branwyn got pregnant with him, his father Elton wanted nothing to do with the situation. Branwyn managed on her own, and when Tommy was born with health issues, visited the ICU every day after work, hoping that he would survive. A doctor at the hospital, Minas Nolan, noticed her and began a courtship. He had recently had a son, Eric, and his wife had died in childbirth. His nanny Ayn did as well as she could but the child was inconsolable. When Branwyn and Eric meet, he is immediately calmed by her, and soon they become a small family. 

When tragedy comes to them, Tommy is separated from Eric, and though the two have a strong connection, they lose track of each other for years. 

Mosley shows how they class origins and the colour of their skin has a big effect on how they manage through life. Despite trauma and setbacks, Tommy gains the nickname Lucky, and feels that he is as well. Eric has a charmed life, and yet longs for something that he can't identify. 

When another tragedy brings the two back together again, they find more barriers between them and it is their found family members that each of them has gained along the way that help them find a way forward. 

This book explores social issues in America, particularly race and poverty, with the prejudices that underlie even the organizations that are supposed to support people. But it also explores outlook, and how each of us views the world we live in, and treats the people that we interact with along the way. A thought-provoking read. 

One Who Has Been Here Before

Finished December 10

One Who Has Been Here Before by Becca Babcock

This is described as gothic fiction, but it didn't have that vibe for me. 

The main character, Emma Gaugin Weaver, was adopted as a child. She, her siblings, and cousins were seized by CPS after the family farm was raided. The adults were all charged with crimes, ranging from child neglect to possession of stolen property. The authorities found the conditions unsuitable for the children and they ended up in foster care or adoption. Emma has only vague memories of the family farm in rural Nova Scotia, with clearer ones of her older sister Heather, who was briefly in the same foster home as her. Emma was eventually adopted by her foster parents, the Weavers, and the family moved to Edmonton. 

Emma is a woman without strong motivations. She has a history of anxiety, and a love of history, that has led her into working on her Master's degree. Her advisors encouraged her to delve into the relatively new area of auto-ethnography, where she researches her own family and her feelings around that. 

As the book opens, Emma has travelled back to Nova Scotia and has found the area when the farm the Gaugin family lived on was located. As she visits the local archives, and talks to people who knew the story of her family, she doesn't reveal her own origins at first, but finds herself drawn into meeting her own family members, dealing with anxiety attacks around the situations she finds herself in, and entering a new relationship. 

An interesting read, with a sympathetic character who undergoes growth in her understanding of herself.

Murder Road

Finished October 12

Murder Road by Simone St. James

This novel takes place in the summer of 1995. April and Eddie have just got married and are off for a few days at a motel on Lake Michigan. On their drive to the motel, April falls asleep and wakes as they are on a seemingly deserted road. They notice an odd light in the trees, and shortly after come across a woman walking slowly, and ask if she needs a ride. She says yes, and gets in, and as Eddie drives April talks to the woman, who responds slowly and April notices the blood seeping from her coat. About the same time, they both notice a a truck chasing them and Eddie drives as fast as he can, until they see the turnoff for a town. Eddie sees something in the truck that disturbs him, and when they take the young woman to the hospital, she dies soon after.

April and Eddie find themselves suspected of murder, and soon discover that there have been a series of murders on the road they found the woman on, taking place over many years, starting in the 1970s with the discovery of a woman's body that still hasn't been identified. 

As they have to stay in town, the two begin to investigate on their own and discover a few townspeople willing to help them. 

We also learn that April has an interesting past, one she has only partially revealed to Eddie. We also know that Eddie also has a previous life, as he was adopted as a young child. The two have a strong connection to each other, and form a strong team as they tackle this strange situation.

As always St. James writes a fascinating plot, and her characters come alive on the page. I really enjoyed this suspense novel and liked the two main characters.

A great read. 

Touched by the Dead

Finished October 2

Touched by the Dead by Robert Barnard

This mystery novel is centered on Colin Pinnock, a man who was adopted as a baby, brought up by loving parents, and has done well for himself. He was elected as an MP a few years ago, and as the book begins is now a Minister in the UK government. When he returns home from work the day he is offered the position and meets his staff, he finds a strange note under his door saying "Who do you think you are?" He isn't sure how to take this, whether it is a hostile message or a deeper one. The question, and subsequent messages set him on the trail to find out who his birth parents were. 

Because he isn't sure of the intent of the messages, he mentions them to the police working at the government buildings. He wants to have a record of them in case things escalate. They do escalate, but he isn't sure that they are related to his search. He talks to people around him, and brings in his old girlfriend who is a researcher and historian to follow up on leads. 

He finds himself first led to a political scandal that happened shortly before he was born, when a politician was disgraced and immediately disappeared. As the present day threat escalate, he finds himself also struck by the limitations of his work in government, and starts to question his life in other ways. 

I enjoyed the way the plot brought different elements together as well as by the real issues that the main character dealt with. A very satisfying read. 

The Girl They Left Behind

Finished September 1

The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos

This book begins in Romania in 1941. When police come to his house, Iosef knows that it is time to flee. He and his wife Zora go out the back with their toddler daughter Natalia and what ready money Iosef has, hoping to bargain for their freedom. As they run, they realize that they must leave Natalia behind. 

Anton and Despina long for a child, but haven't been able to have one. When a relative lets them know of a young girl in need of a home, they readily adopt Natalia and raise her as their own. Anton runs a chain of stationery stores that he joined as an employee, and has been welcomed into Despina's wealthy family. As the years go by, they encourage Natalia's skills as a pianist and give her every opportunity they can. Anton also befriends a young man he meets near his store, and lets him live above the store as he struggles to survive. The young man, Victor is an avid communist, and once the war is over rises rapidly in the Soviet-controlled Romania. However, Anton and his family have their business, home, and possessions taken from them, and are forced into menial jobs to survive. 

When Victor and Natalia meet again years later, they find themselves attracted to each other, even as they know their relationship has little hope of surviving.

Over the years, there have been moments when a contact with Natalia's birth parents has been key in her life, and when faced with a sudden opportunity, she struggles with the decision to take it or not. 

The novel was inspired by the real family history of the author. 

A moving and engrossing read. 

Executor

Finished May 24

Executor by Louise Carson

This novel is a mystery novel with a literary and social justice slant. Peter Forrest, a York University professor and poet, finds that one of his mentors, the poet Eleanor Brandon, has died, and named him her literary executor. Peter and Eleanor had a personal relationship at one point, after his failed first marriage, but it didn't last, and Peter is now happily married and plans to travel to China in the coming days to finalize the adoption of their third child from that country. 

Eleanor's death, despite her illness, was not a natural one, and there is some question about whether it is suicide or murder, and Peter is on the suspect list. 

As Peter goes through her papers, he finds that many of her more recent poems reflect her social activism on behalf of Chinese dissidents. On his trip to China to pick up young Annie, he finds several things suspicious. First, young Annie doesn't look like the photo they received of her. Then, he finds his visit to her orphanage raising questions about the staff there. On an outing with her, he is approached by a Chinese man who passes him some information. 

As he maneuvers the security of both Chinese and Canadian government workers, he keeps his eyes and ears open for more things that seem suspicious. 

Despite Peter's intention to stick to only the literary side of Eleanor's legacy, he finds it entangled with her social activism and impossible to separate from it. 

Now, his worry is who might be behind her death and whether he and his family are in danger. 

This was a book that drew in aspects of international diplomacy and several issues that have been raised around China with a more personal story. 

A quick and interesting read. 

Between, Georgia

Finished November 22

Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

I've enjoyed other books by this author for their strong female characters, and this is another good one. The main character here, Nonny Flett, comes into the story literally at the beginning when she is born. Her birth mother is a young teenage who doesn't want the baby and is afraid of her own mother's wrath. She has run to a nearby woman who was a former nurse, Bernese Flett.

Bernese's two sisters, Stacia and Genny, lived next door. Genny was a nervous woman, given to compulsive behaviours. Stacia was a skilled ceramacist, who was born deaf and was losing her eyesight. When they heard the ruckus next door, they came running. Stacia assisted Bernese and claimed the child as her own. Bernese made sure the paperwork was done with a local lawyer, and Nonny grew up with Stacia as her mother. 

When, after a few years, her birth grandmother, Ona Crabtree discovered that she was born a Crabtree, a war of sorts started between the families. Nonny did some visits with Ona, but was raised by Stacia, and learned sign language, later making it her career. 

After Nonny's birth, the book jumps to her adult years as she is coming up to a court date for her divorce. She had loved her irresponsible, musician husband Jonno, but something had drawn apart that love, if not the physical attraction, and she is convinced that she will go through with the divorce.

But when a emergency happens back in her hometown of Between, she must rush to the side of those who need her, find her own truth, and choose her own path forward.

Nonny is an interesting woman, with attributes from both her birth family and her adopted one, and she has an inner strength when it comes to the people she truly cares for: her mother, her aunt, and her young cousin. This is a turning point in her life, when she must make her own choices and not have others make it for her. 

A very enjoyable read.

Read Men Knit

Finished April 29

Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson

This romance book is centered around two twenty-year-somethings that have known each other since childhood, but face a major loss in their lives by coming together. Jesse Strong is the youngest of four adopted brothers, held together by the strength of their mother and their shared family. With their mother, known to all the neighbourhood as Mama Joy, suddenly passes away, he must join his brothers in figuring out what is next. 

They grew up in an apartment above the knitting store run by Mama Joy, and were all taught to knit at a young age, finding comfort and discipline in the act of creativity. The oldest brother, Damien, has launched his career as a financial analyst in the world of investment and keeps his old bedroom mainly as a closet for his upstyle wardrobe. The next two brothers, real half-brothers, Lucas and Noah, have just begun their careers, Lucas as a firefighter and Noah in the world of dance. The apartment is still a base for them even though they don't spend all their nights there. Jesse hasn't settled yet, either in his career choice or in his personal life. He is a bit of a player, and hasn't stayed in any one job too long.

One mainstay in the knitting store has been Kerry Fuller. Kerry has been working part-time in the store, as the only employee for years and even though she has now finished her degree in children's counselling and art therapy and works part-time at the community centre, she finds it hard to leave the knitting store. 

As Jesse fights to keep the store open and viable and keep the home they have above it, the brothers rely on Kerry to help them learn what they need to know to give the store a fresh start with the ideas that Jesse brings to it. Will this major life event mark a change in Jesse's life for the better, and what will Kerry's future bring her?

This is a story of love and loss, of learning and growing, of finding common ground and families coming together through adversity. The only thing missing for me was a knitting pattern. This book cried out for one to be included. There is humour and sadness, but an overall sense of hope for the future, for the main characters, and the community as a whole. 

Midnight Cab

Finished February 18

Midnight Cab by James W. Nichol

This gripping mystery suspense novel has at its center a young man looking for his roots. Walker Devereux was found when he was three years old. He was holding on to a wire fence at the side of a country road in French River. His mother had told me to wait there for her, but she never returned.

Walker was adopted into a welcoming family and grew up loved. He's not looking for a new family, but he does wonder about his past. Now, in 1995, he is nineteen and he figures he can begin to look into any clues he has. At the agency who handled his adoption, he is given a photograph and a letter that were found in his pocket back then. They provide a couple of clues and he decided to go to Toronto to track them down.

In Toronto, he finds a small apartment to rent, and a job driving a taxi. He also finds himself attracted to the night dispatcher at the taxi company, Krista Papadopoulos, a woman a few years older than him, who uses either crutches or a wheelchair to get around. She begins to help him with his research.

Interspersed with Walker's story are short sections about a boy named Bobby. Bobby is bad news. He isn't right in the head, and he uses violence when his words fail him. He also has some kind of sexual issue that is never really clear, but that becomes part of a pattern for him. 

We know that Bobby's story will link up in some way with Walker's, but we don't know how. As the two plotlines slowly come together, the plot takes us from Toronto to Fort Erie, to French River, and to Jamaica. Walker is a smart guy and he trusts his instinct, but sometimes it gets him into trouble. There is menace here, following him and showing itself through acts of violence and destruction. 

I found the story gripping, wanting to know what Walker wanted to know, and wanting Bobby to get caught and stopped. 

Twenty-One Wishes

Finished February 9 

Twenty-One Wishes by Debbie Macomber

This volume is actually two books, the novel Twenty Wishes, and the novella The Twenty-First Wish. At the center of Twenty Wishes is Anne-Marie Roche, the owner of Blossom Street Books, in Seattle. Twenty Wishes is the fifth book in the series set on Blossom Street. The Twenty-First Wish is number 5.5 in the series but I found that the actions here came after those of the sixth book, Summer on Blossom Street, which I read a while ago. 

Anne-Marie is still recovering from the loss of her husband a year earlier. They had been estranged due to Anne-Marie's desire to have a child, something she'd agreed not to have when they married, but then had a change of mind about. They were starting to reconcile when her husband died suddenly. She has formed a small group with three other women who are widows. Elise has recently reconnected with her husband Maverick, only for him to be diagnosed with cancer. Lillie and Barbie are a mother and daughter who both lost their husbands when their plane went down on a business trip. Barbie was very close to her husband, and she and their college-age twin sons are finally beginning to move forward. Lillie didn't have a great marriage, but she pretended not to be aware of her husband's infidelity. On their Valentines Day get-together, the women decide to make lists of twenty wishes that they have for themselves, not necessarily with a definite plan, but as a way to move forward. 

We see them slowly develop these wishes, and each move forward in different ways. The story concentrates most on Anne-Marie, with Lillie and Barbie also having a fair bit of plot line. Elise is a more minor character here. 

The Twenty-First Wish is a development based on some of Anne-Marie's results to her wishes, and is definitely her story. 

I always enjoy the light romance, with some life decisions happening in Macomber's novels. And there is knitting involved again as a part of the plot, but no knitting patterns are included here. 

The Dream Daughter

Finished January 20

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain

This book grabbed me right away with its premise. The book opens in 1965, when Caroline (Carly) Grant is just starting her career as a physical therapist. Her supervisor is debating assigning a new patient with a broken ankle to her, but is concerned about his mental state. Her decision is preempted when the young man, Hunter Poole, sees her across the room and calls out, asking for her to work with him. The two get along well, and share some interests. She's intrigued by his ability to know songs that have just been released. But Carly knows that he and her sister would have more in common.

The story then jumps forward five years. Carly married her childhood sweetheart Joe Sears, and moved with him to North Carolina as he enlisted in the military. But he was recently sent to Vietnam and was killed there. Carly is pregnant, and is getting her baby tested as there seem to be some issues. She is staying with her sister Patti, and her brother-in-law Hunter and their young son. 

When Carly's baby turns out to have a heart defect that will prove fatal after birth, Hunter reveals his secret to her. He has time traveled from the future, and he can send her into the future to get an operation that may save her child's life. Carly doesn't believe him, until he predicts some events that happen. And she remembers other things that have illustrated future knowledge over the years. And she determines to go into that future and try to save her baby's life. 

Carly is a strong woman, one who's taken on a career in her own time, and one who can think on her feet. She will need all of these attributes as she jumps to April 2001 and connects with Hunter's mother to get the help she needs to survive in that time and the paperwork she will need to get her medical assistance. 

As we see Carly face choice after choice, connect to the various people she meets from Hunter and his mother, to the hospital staff, the staff at the residence she stays at, and others, we see her caring nature, as well as her confidence in her own abilities grow. 

There were times that I wanted to put the book down as I was wary of the way the plot was heading, and times when I felt for Carly in her situation. This is a story of hope, of faith, of strength, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Lake Season

Finished February 15
Lake Season by Denise Hunter

This novel is the first book in a series at Bluebell Inn, in the town of Bluebell, North Carolina. Molly, Levi, and Grace Bennett are stunned whenever their parents are killed in a car accident. Their parents had been in the midst of plans to renovate their family home back to its early use as an inn. Grace was in her junior year in high school. Levi worked as a project manager for a construction company in San Francisco, and Molly was going into her final year of a hospitality degree, looking forward to a placement in Italy, something she'd worked hard towards, even learning Italian.
But Grace is determined to stay in Bluebell to finish high school, and so the siblings agree to take on their parents' project, finish the renovations of the inn over the winter to be ready to open for the season, and build the inn over a couple of years to make it a more appealing property for buyers.
The book then jumps ahead to near their opening time, with a young man, Adam Bradford showing up hoping for a room on the Memorial Day weekend, just in time to help Molly with the translation of some furniture kit instructions.
Adam is a writer, successful but not confident. He has chosen to write under a pseudonym to both protect his privacy and to create a safe space for his image of himself. He has chosen Bluebell as a spot for his new novel, on the advice of his mother, but is having an episode of writer's block, something he's never had until now. He only identifies himself as a researcher to Molly and her family.
At one time, the inn was used as a post office, and Molly discovers an unsent letter within the wall by the old mail slot. This sets her on a hunt for the sender and recipient, and she involves Adam as a research guide.
This had an interesting plot and I liked the characters of all three Bennett family members, and of Adam. There is a small town intimacy here, as well as a strong closeness between the siblings despite their differences.

Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo

Finished January 10
Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo by Boris Fishman

This is totally different than what I expected going solely from the title. A middle-aged Jewish couple, both of whom immigrated from Russia, decides to adopt a baby when they are unable to have one of their own. The couple, Maya Shulman and Alex Rubin, live in close contact with Alex's parents. Maya came to the United Sates as an exchange student, while Alex came as a child with his family. Maya always had a dream of owning her own restaurant, but instead she took the more practical route, and works in a local hospital as a technician. Alex works in his father's canning business.
As the book starts, it has been eight years since the adoption of their son, Max. It was a difficult decision to adopt, and when Max first runs away, and then is found to have some quirks unlike anyone the family knows, Maya decides they must hunt down his young birth parents and learn more about his background. There is no particular aim in Maya's quest exactly, it is just something that she feels she must do to make Max fully their own. The title comes from the one request the young parents gave Maya and Alex when they met at the time of adoption.
The book has an interesting dynamic between Maya and Alex, not always a good one, and between Maya and Alex's parents.
There is some inward looking at first for Maya and her son, but when she decides to hunt down Max's birth parents, the young family goes on a cross-country trek from their home in New Jersey to Montana. Along the way they encounter landscapes new to them, and people that captivate them in different ways. One begins to wonder what Maya's plan really is.
This was a very hard book to pin down, and one that took me to places I didn't expect.

Being Lara

Finished November 3
Being Lara by Lola Jaye

I picked up this novel because my sister's name is Lara, and I was intrigued by the character being a black girl adopted by white parents, which is also my sister's situation. But the rest of the book and the character differed widely from my personal experiences.
Lara's mother grew up in a council house in Britain, the youngest in the family, and a shy girl who loved to sing. She met a man who encouraged her singing, and who thought the world of her. She had a short but successful career, and, was involved in a charity for African orphans. It is on a visit to the orphanage in Africa that she first sees the young child Omolara, and is smitten by her.
We also see the situation of Omolara's birth mother and why she chooses to give her up. All this is background. As the book opens, Lara is turning 30, and her birth mother has appeared unexpectedly. She isn't sure how to react, and this book follows through her reactions, those of her friends and boyfriend, and of her adoptive parents.
There is uncertainty, curiosity, anger, resentment, and other emotions that show up in the various characters, and it is by working her way through these that the adult Lara figures out who she is. A coming of age story, with a bit of a twist.

A Gate at the Stairs

Finished October 30
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

This novel follows Tassie Keltjin, daughter of a Wisconsin farmer, who is living in a small university town as a student. Tassie is the older of two siblings, with her younger brother Robert still in high school.
The book starts shortly before Christmas as Tassie looks for a job that would begin when she returned to school in January. She ends up getting hired by a high-end restaurant owner Sarah Brink, who has an adoption planned for early in the new year. It turns out that Sarah knows Tassie's father slightly, a farmer who specializes in organic produce for restaurants, a business he started with potatoes.
We are taken through the next few months in Tassie's life. She goes with Sarah and her husband Edward for the adoption, and continues her studies at college. She meets a boy that she gets very involved with, we see her looking at her life from both within it, and from outside.
The next few months bring with them love, heartache, grief, and growth. The stories that Tassie is a part of are distant from the small town farm life she grew up in, and yet not.
I read this book slowly, thinking over the story as it developed, and was moved. A great read.

Summer on Blossom Street

Finished October 29
Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

This novel is part of the series that takes place around the shops on Blossom Street in Seattle. Lydia Goetz, co-owner of the knitting store A Good Yarn has just decided to start a new class called Knit to Quit, to help people who are trying to quit a bad habit or anything like that.
The first person to join is Phoebe Rylander. Phoebe has recently called off her engagement to a local lawyer after discovering he's in the habit of cruising for prostitutes. He's a charming man, and his social status is a draw for Phoebe's mother, but she knows he isn't a good man to have in her life. She needs to distract herself with an activity, and get away from her apartment as he is still trying desperately to change her mind.
Alix Turner, a friend of Lydia's who works at the cafe across the street as a baker, is thinking of starting a family with her new husband, but she hasn't exactly had good models for parenthood herself, and she started smoking again around the stress of the wedding, and knows she has to quit before having a baby.
Local businessman Bryan Hutchinson took on the family chocolate business after his father's unexpected death. He's had a steep learning curve, works far too many hours, doesn't always eat as healthy as he should and is even more keyed up than he has been because of a woman suing the company. He also has a thumb injury that hasn't been healing as well as he hoped. His doctor has now told him to go to a knitting class to help with both the thumb and with stress.
Lydia also has stuff going on in her personal life. She and her husband Brad have recently been approved as foster parents, part of their plan to adopt an infant. But when they are asked to take on an older child, due to an urgent need, want to help but are not sure how this will impact their son Cody. Her sister Margaret is dubious as well.
Lydia's friend Anne Marie is also doing some thinking. She recently finalized the adoption on her daughter and they've just returned from a trip to Paris. Now back to running her bookstore, Anne Marie is looking for a larger home for them, and is confronted by a situation that she isn't sure how she feels about.
Lots going on here, with lots of interesting plot lines. The book also includes the pattern the knitting class is working on, a cable sampler scarf.

Before We Were Yours

Finished May 3
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

This novel is inspired by real events. The general historical story is true, but the characters in this book are not. However what happened to the historical characters here really happened to people and is a part of history that needs to be brought to light.
This novel has two timelines. One begins in 1939 and takes place mostly in Tennessee. It is the story of a poor family, who lived on a riverboat. Rill is the oldest child in the family and the narrator, and as her story begins, her mother Queenie is in labour. The labour is a difficult one, and the midwife says that it is beyond her skills. As Rill convinces her father Briney to take her mother to the hospital, she is left in charge of her younger siblings: Camellia, Fern, Lark, and her toddler brother Gabion. This family is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the children end up being taken from the boat under false pretences, and brought to an orphanage. Because most of this family is blond, they are more highly prized than some of their fellow victims.
As we see the terrible actions and conditions at the orphanage, and learn of the tactics involved, we understand and Rill, try as hard as she can, will not be able to keep her family together.
The true story of the society woman Georgia Tann, and her children's homes, which was supported by those in power for years, and had assistance from social agencies and lawmakers, is a terrible one. Hundreds of children were taken from their homes, and communities. Some were taken walking to school, some from their homes directly, but all were taken to group homes where they were abused, fed inadequately, and separated from their siblings. Many had loving parents that had no chance to recover their children against the powerful woman who had stolen them.
As Rill tries to fight for her siblings, and another young boy taken at the same time, she learns fear and distrust, and yearns for her river life.
In the present, another young woman, Avery Stafford, a lawyer and daughter of a senator in South Carolina, is home to support her father who is fighting a cancer diagnosis, and accusations of other types. Avery also takes the opportunity to visit her grandmother Judy, who has been placed in a secure care home as dementia gradually takes away her knowledge of the world around her. After a chance encounter with another nursing home resident, Avery begins to dig into both that woman's past and her own grandmother's to find out what connects the two.
This is a story that brings another sad historical experience to light, in a way that lets the reader experience the heartache and loss that these victims dealt with.
Highly recommended.

Untethered

Finished October 3
Untethered by Julie Lawson Timmer

This novel begins just after the death of Bradley Hawthorne, husband of Char and father of Allie. Char gave up a fulfilling career as a journalism professor in Washington, D.C. when she met Bradley, moving to small town Michigan. Allie has been living most of the year with Bradley and Char, with brief visits to her mother Lindy in California. Now Char realizes that she has no legal parental rights with Allie, despite being one of her primary parents. Char has always been careful not to tread into Lindy's role as mother, and she doesn't know what to do to keep Allie living with her.
Allie takes seriously a role she herself stepped into as a tutor to a younger, troubled girl, Morgan. She meets Morgan formally once a week for sessions, but also has taken on the role of big sister to the girl. Morgan's parents are also dealing with some health issues for their younger child, Stevie.
As Char and Allie walk carefully into their new roles with each other, they are waiting for Lindy to make a definitive move. With Morgan's problems escalating, a move by Morgan's parents creates a crisis for Allie and Char, once that will have lasting changes to their lives.
This is a story today's complex families, with step parents, foster parents, adoptive parents, and friends and other family members complicating the family dynamic. When things are going well, everyone gets along, but when things aren't going well, power and feelings take on deciding roles that may not always look out for the best interests of all family members.
This is a story of families in all their complexity, with the mixed up feelings that go along with that. We are all human and some of us become stronger with adversity. Char and Allie are ones that become stronger, but it takes them awhile to figure out their new relationship and realize all they have to lose.