The Days I Loved You Most

Finished June 10

The Days I Loved You Most by Amy Neff

This novel follows Joseph and Evelyn Myers from the beginning of their courtship in 1941 to 2002. Tommy, Evelyn's older brother, was best friends with Joseph and always included Evelyn in their adventures. Tommy and Evelyn's parents were somewhat distant, having a more formal relationship with their children. Joseph's parents ran a small inn, the Oyster Shell Inn, that he grew up in. They were loving and demonstrative affectionately. After a major storm damaged the inn, Joseph's father has started working another job while still repairing the inn. For her junior year of high school, Evelyn is shipped off to Boston to stay with her aunt Maelynn and go to the private school she teaches at. She connects with her aunt and finds her world expanding, particularly finding a love for the piano. But the entry of the United States into World War II means changes and loss. 

There are two timelines here. One is the long-ranging one from 1941 on, and the other begins in the spring of 2001 when Joseph and Evelyn ask their three children: Jane, Thomas, and Violet to visit, letting them know that they plan to end their lives together in a year, with the decision triggered by Evelyn's recent diagnosis of a rare version of Parkinson's that advances quickly. There are a lot of emotions: anger, sadness, and confusion among them. We see into their children's relationships and some of their grandchildren. Thomas is married to Ann and they both lead busy lives in the city. Jane is a television news journalist and her daughter Rain is also newly married. Violet and her husband Connor have only one child still at home, and are adjusting to lives that have more time available for each other. 

The novel has a languid pace and an unusual premise. However I didn't feel that I got as much depth for the characters as I would have liked. 

On Borrowed Time

Finished September 23

On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay

This is the fifth book in the A Library Lover's Mystery series, and the first that I've read in the series. The main character is Lindsey Norris, the library director in the small town of Briar Creek, Connecticut. It is coming up to Christmas, and Lindsey is expecting her brother Jack to join her for a few days before they connect with their parents at Christmas. 

When he shows up unexpectedly at her work, she leaves him in a meeting room, but when she returns a few hours later, he is gone and there is a dead man on the floor. 

Lindsey is also in a bit of a love triangle with her ex-boyfriend Mike Sullivan, a boat captain, and new suitor actor Robbie Vine. This rivalry continues to be a side plot throughout the novel. 

Lindsey has made friends since coming to the community, and many of them are part of a book club she runs. 

She doesn't tell anyone about her brother's presence or disappearance when the police arrive to the murder scene, believing that she is protecting her brother, but she grows more worried for him after menacing phone calls and threats begin to appear, and she calls her friends into action. 

Overall, I wasn't won over by the book. Lindsey's actions weren't logical and her reasons were pretty flimsy. I found the rivalry banter a bit juvenile for middle aged men, and it seemed over the top. 

Jack's job and situation were far-fetched, and he seemed to exhibit both spy-like (with the passing along of information), and amateurish, bringing Lindsey into a dangerous situation. 

The trap to stop the boat seemed unlikely, both in the set-up and in the outcome. 

This novel didn't make me interested in more in the series. 

Summer Romance

Finished July 16

Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

This romance novel is delightful and heartwarming with touches of humour. The central character is Ali Morris, a woman who is struggling. Two years ago, Ali's mom Nancy died. She'd raised Ali mostly on her own, and after having children and moving back to her home town, Ali had relied on her a lot. One year ago, Ali's husband Pete told her he wanted a divorce and left. Ali has a professional organizing business that she runs part-time wherever she can fit it in, but her own home is a mess. 

Pete and Ali have a civilized separation. He takes their daughters, Iris (5th grade) and Greer (6th grade), for their sports practices and games, and for ice cream after, accompanied by their son, Cliffy (kindergarten). When he calls to say that after a year's separation, it's time to make things final with a divorce, things somehow become a little better for Ali. 

Ali's kids called her mom Fancy, a take-off on her given name, not because she wore designer clothes or had upscale tastes, but because she did things on a whim, things that were easy and fun, a passing fancy. 

Ali's best friend Frannie also lives in town, and runs her parents deli along with her husband Marco. Frannie's parents live in a big house downtown, run an inn that is also downtown, and are very quirky. They dress up in costumes for any reason at all, and are very involved in the community. 

After school lets out the kids are at day camp on weekdays, and Ali starts to work on her to-do list and move on with her life. She takes off her wedding ring, puts on something other than sweatpants, and takes their dog Ferris to the dog park. There, Ferris approaches a man and pees on him, and soon after Ali finds herself flirting with him. The man, Ethan, begins to make regular appearances in her life, and Ali slowly finds that she has a lot to think about. 

As she reevaluates her dying marriage in the course of the divorce, she finds that she's not been holding her husband accountable for a long time, and she has only herself to blame for that. She begins to make small changes in her life, and decides that a summer romance is just the thing, and Ethan is just the right guy. 

I really liked pretty much all the characters in the book, except Pete, and I found the book had a lightness to it despite some very serious plot points. I couldn't put it down, and found myself reading the whole book in one day. An excellent, and satisfying read. 

Unexpectedly Milo

Finished April 26

Unexpectedly Milo by Matthew Dicks

Milo is an engaging character. As the book opens he is living in an apartment, having separated from his wife Christine. Milo is a nurse. He worked in a care home for quite a while, but he now works in home health care, which means that his day is less structured. He has a number of regular clients that he sees, and he does a variety of tasks for them, some medical in nature, but also some more housekeeping, like raking a shag rug for one of his clients. 

Since he was a child Milo has had urges that come to him, things he needs to do or hear or feel. After giving in to the first time this urge struck him as a child in front of another child and having that go badly, he has hidden these urges from others. He has found a way of coping. Some of these urges have come and gone, other are more longstanding and pop up on a regular basis. He is aware that stress makes them worse, especially when more than one of them come up at a time. 

Because no one else knows about these urges, not his parents or his wife, or any of his D and D friends, he doesn't feel seen, and is a lonely man. 

Near the beginning of the book Milo comes across a bag containing a video camera and several tapes sitting beside a park bench. He sits there with it for a time, but no one returns, so he takes that bag and after finding no clue to the owner in the bag decides to watch the tapes in the hope that he will find out something from them that will let him return these things to the owner. 

This is how the mystery portion of the book begins. He finds the tapes are numbered and contain a video diary by a woman close to him in age. As she begins to reveal her secrets, Milo empathizes with her, and feels protective towards her. He feels bad watching them himself and is determined to stop when he finds enough information to locate her. He certainly doesn't want to share them with anyone else. One of the secrets he learns on the tape leads him in a new direction, trying to find a way to take away the guilt from the woman's past act of protecting a friend. 

Alongside the mystery, we have Milo's interactions with his clients and see their quirks. We also see his relationship with his wife, through their therapy sessions and encounters beyond that. 

Milo is asking questions about his life, his future relationships, while still hiding his OCD from everyone. 

This is a story of a man who cares deeply and feels extraordinarily lonely in his life. As a reader I cared about him and also found it fascinating how he finds ways to cope with these urges of his and how he characterizes them, ascribing them to a inner voice with its own identity. 

I really enjoyed this book and was hoping for the character to find a true connection with someone and some happiness in his own life. 

Very Nice

Finished June 6 

Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky

This novel is set around a young writer, who had a successful first novel and is trying to find a way forward, one of his students, the student's family, and the writer's friends and acquaintances. 

The writer is Zahid Azzam, a man rebelling from his mother's expectations, dealing with the loss of his grandmother, struggling financially, and facing writer's block. Zahid has just finished a teaching contract at a university in New York City and, because he must return to India to see his dying grandmother, leaves his dog with one of his students temporarily. He has sublet his apartment, and made a foolish personal choice. When he returns to the U.S. sooner than anticipated, he must find somewhere to stay, try to overcome his writer's block to fulfill his new book contract, and consider his future.

His student, Rachel Klein, is young, nineteen, and has a summer job at a kid's day camp. She is staying at her childhood home in Connecticut with her mother Becca, whom her father left recently for a younger woman. Part of the reason she agreed to look after the dog was that the family dog of the same breed recently died.

Becca is a schoolteacher, so has the summer off. She is still grieving the loss of her dog, Poppy, and this new dog that her daughter has brought home, becomes a replacement for that dog in many ways. When Zahid arrives, Becca invites him to stay and a dynamic begins with these three characters. 

The supporting characters of Rachel's father, Zahid's subletter and her sister, and the brother of one of the children in Rachel's camp all have important roles in this plot as well.

This is a story of impulse and regret, of resentment and jealousy, of the ways in which people are focused on their own needs instead of those of the people around them. 

The Sunshine Sisters

Finished March 5
The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green

This novel follows three sisters, Nell, Meredith, and Lizzy, all daughters of the actress Ronnie Sunshine. Ronnie wasn't a great mother, she was too much focused on being the center of the attention herself. She wasn't patient, or a good listener, or any of the things her daughters wanted her to be for them. But now she is nearing the end of her life, and she looks back with regret on the time wasted, the things she didn't do for her daughters.
The action starts there, but then skips back to 1981, when she is pregnant with her youngest daughter, Lizzy. We see various vignettes like this from the past, for each of her daughters.
Before the children were grown, she'd divorced, and her ex remarried, and the girls weren't part of his new life. They grew apart from each other, each with their own issues. We see them in their lives. Nell as the manager of a small truck farm, not far from where she went to high school, in Connecticut. Lizzy in New York City, making a name for herself as a chef. Meredith overseas, plugging away at a job, without the confidence to realize her own worth.
As their stories unfold, and as they come back together at their mother's insistence, they find each other again, and find themselves as well. An interesting look at three women, with the same mother but very different outlooks.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport

Finished September 21
The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine

This novel is a delightful homage to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. As the book begins, Betty Weissman is being told by Josie her husband of 47 years that he no longer wants to be married to her. He doesn't tell her about the new woman in his life, someone he works with. Betty was a young widow when they married, bringing her two young daughters Annie and Miranda with her. They are devastated by the news, as Josie is the only father they've really known.
Miranda, a literary agent, is also going through a career meltdown as it becomes known that more than one of her authors has been making up the stories in their memoirs. She has always been an impulsive woman, never settling down and not good with money.
Annie is a library director and the responsible one. She is widowed with two sons in university, and spends a lot of time dealing with work.
When Josie forces Betty of out their New York City apartment, Betty's cousin Joseph offers a cottage in Westport, Connecticut to her for as long as she needs it. Miranda's situation brings her along as well, and Annie sublets her place and joins them to save money and organize things. With Betty's divorce drying up her source of funds, and Miranda's assets locked by the courts, it is Annie that provides the funds to live on.
With Joseph's frequent and lavish dinner parties, the three women get to know a wide variety of people, some helpful, some destructive. As the woman gradually re-examine their lives and find what is important to them, the learn new things about themselves along the way.
Funny, poignant, and intelligent, this novel was great fun to read.