Totally and Completely Fine

Finished August 25

Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman

This contemporary romance novel follows Lauren Parker, who grew up and lives in the small town of Cooper, Montana. In the present, Lauren runs a craft and book store with her mother, a retired school teacher. Her younger brother Gabe is a famous actor and has helped all the family out financially. Three years ago, Lauren's husband Spencer died in a car accident, something she and her teen daughter Lena are still struggling with. She also has a difficult relationship with Lena as Lena is a moody teen. When the two go to visit Gabe on set, Lauren meets actor Ben Walsh, and there is instant chemistry. Ben is younger than Lauren and she struggles with her attraction, her worries about the age gap and their different trajectories. 

We see Lauren's younger years, after her own father died when she was eleven and she herself was a rebellious teen. Living in a small town, she earned a certain reputation that some locals still paint her as. She knows how reputation can affect her life and doesn't want to go through that again, or bring attention on her own daughter in a negative way.

This is a romance, but also a story of struggling with grief and moving forward after loss. It is about family and intimacy, and how we all long to be seen, even though it can be scary to be vulnerable.

I enjoyed this novel and found it a real page-turner. 

Canadian Boyfriend

Finished July 12

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday

This contemporary romance novel is set mostly in Minnesota, with some time in Manitoba. Aurora (Rory) Lake Evans quit advanced ballet school in New York City and returned home to Minnesota several years ago. She's now teaching jazz and tap dance at her friend Gretchen's dance school. She also works as a barista at Starbucks.

Back when she was in high school she worked at a coffee store in the Mall of America, a respite from school and dance. One day she had an encounter with two Canadian hockey players who came in to buy drinks. It was positive and fun, and inspired her to create a fake boyfriend based on one of the young men, Mike Martin. She used this fake boyfriend for years as an excuse for not going to social events she didn't want to go to, to explain her lack of close relationships at school, and as a diary of sorts as she wrote letters to him talking about her life.

Now, one of her students who has been away from classes for a few months after her mother's sudden death is returning to class, this time with her father bringing her. And her father is an NHL hockey player from Canada named Mike Martin. Rory can't believe it and she wonders if it can really be the same person. As she compares her memories with the man in front of her, she suspects it is, but is embarrassed by the whole thing. She even has a panic attack, but manages to recover and welcome Olivia back to class. As she grows closer with Olivia and spends time with her outside of class, helping when her father isn't around, as well as going out after class with the two of them, she becomes more certain, but keeps her secret about the past to herself. 

Mike and Olivia are both dealing with their grief in their own ways, and both are in therapy. Mike is learning a lot about himself, about the emotional labour his wife did that he wasn't even aware of, and about how to be a supportive father. As he begins to be attracted to Rory, he also keeps his daughter's feelings in mind and this is where things get even more complicated. 

I liked the way this book dealt with a number of issues around grief and loss, and about mental health in general. Rory's mom was more focused on her success than her health, and this is something she still hasn't dealt with. Her relationship with her mother has led to a number of issues including trust and food issues. I liked the inclusion of Olivia and her reactions, but this really fell off toward the end of the novel, which was a shame.

A captivating and enjoyable read. 

The Breakwater House

Finished June 18

The Breakwater House by Pascale Quiviger, translated by Lazer Laderhendler

This literary novel follows Lucie as she goes through a difficult period in her life, with flashbacks to her past. Lucie grew up with her single mom Aurore, struggling financially. Early on she meets Claire, who is only five days apart by birth, but who lives with her wealthy mother Suzanne. The girls are almost inseparable. Aurore wove stories about her own past and relatives that she told the girls, but when Lucie turned fifteen, Aurore left and began a life elsewhere. Lucie grew even closer to Claire and when Lucie in turn has a child on her own, Claire moves in with her and becomes another parental figure in her daughter Odysśee's life. 

When tragedy comes into their lives, Lucie struggles, and she eventually finds a house by the sea, where an older woman lives, that is for sale. When she moves to the remote house, with no connection to the rest of the world she finds strange occurrences, odd dreams that bleed into her waking life, and time that passes in an elusive fashion. 

This is a story of grief and loss and how one woman experiences it. Captivating. 

Down with the Shipmans

Finished April 12

Down with the Shipmans by Meg Mitchell Moore

This contemporary novels is set around a family. It is early June, and the three Shipman sisters are returning to the family beach house in New Hampshire, which was first owned by their mother's parents. Calvin, their father, has asked them to come for a family reunion. But there are also other plans to sell the house that they learn of once they get there. The atmosphere is sometimes tense and there are resentments around certain things. Calvin's second wife, of less than a year, was also the women's mother's palliative nurse before she died and is older than them, but much younger than their father. She will be arriving shortly after the women, and some of them haven't come to terms with the marriage yet. 

Mae is the youngest daughter and she is driving from Denver, where she is near the edge of what she can handle, couch surfing at friends' places, with a job training dogs. She is currently training a recovering abused dog for its owner who is traveling for work. Natalie, the middle sister, is married to a dairy farmer. Her husband grew up on a dairy farm in Montana, but the couple own and run a farm in Vermont. They have three children, and have been talking about a fourth. 

Natalie began supplementing their income with a social media channel some years ago, and has been building that presence, with a featured article in a national paper just-released. A comment that her husband made during the interview for the article has been taken somewhat out of context and has begun creating backlash for her. 

Jordan, the oldest, is a well-regarded crisis communication expert in New York City. She has been put into a situation where she must choose between her employer and the truth. 

As they handle their individual problems, reluctant to share them with each other, they must also face their father's situation and come to terms with how he is moving forward with his life. 

With everyone at a point of decision in their lives, this book gives the reader a lot to think about. I really enjoyed the depth of the characters and watching them grow through their situations. They grow closer through this few weeks of summer, as they find themselves truly reflecting on their own wants and needs not others' expectations. Moore is great with family stories and this book is great around the many emotions these three central characters have. We get glimpses of the personality of the new wife, but she is definitely a minor character. I'd love to see a follow-up around her. 

Blind Squirrel

Finished March 8

Blind Squirrel by Dave Mishkin

This novel tells an interesting story. The main character, Noah Nicholson is a minor league hockey player. He has excellent hand-eye coordination, which makes up for his slower skating. The story is told mainly in the present, but also jumps back to Noah's childhood. 

Noah has been on the team in Hershey, Pennsylvania for years, and is the captain of the team. He is also the guy that sets the tone, and guides new players through the team dynamic and what is expected of them. As the book begins, we see him go through this with two younger players. One is a young married player whose wife has recently had a baby, and the sleep deprivation has been causing him to be late often, and not play up to expectations. Despite not having a family of his own, we see how he reminds the young man of the expectations on him, and guides him to resources. The other player is a young Russian player who played in the Canadian minor league the year before, and went briefly to the NHL team affiliated with the Hershey team, but is spending the rest of the season in the minors. Noah guides him to better choices in nutrition than the fast food he's been living on, and gets him into a routine that will serve him to hone his skills and help him mature as a player. 

Noah, despite being admired and liked, has a secret that he has been dealing with for years, since the death of his parents in an accident when he was only twelve. It has him shying away from serious relationships, and living a lonely life. 

In his childhood, raised by two loving parents, both teachers, one of whom was headed towards pro sports before an injury, he had a great life. His parents were supportive, but also instilled a strong ethical core in him. They were active, running and biking. They read a lot, with his mother in particular sharing a love of books with him through a habit of bedtime reading that lasted long past when most kids stop. They didn't just read, they also talked about the books, about the ideas represented and what they meant. He also started young with a passion for baseball with his hand-eye coordination leading to not only playing on teams young, but also practicing regularly with his parents as support. He was an excellent hitter .and catcher, with his best friend as an excellent pitcher. They lived in California, but had a strong community that they were involved in. 

After his parents' death, he moved back east to live with his paternal grandmother and they had a good relationship. It was based on similar expectations to the ones his father had grown up with: a strong work ethic, good academics, and involvement in a sport. Noah couldn't face baseball without his parents, but he took advantage of the great private school his parents had planned for him in this eventuality and access to an ice rink, and taught himself how to skate so he could join the school hockey team. 

We see how he came to be where he is, and when he unexpectedly is injured in a game, ending his career, we see his depression and the actions that led him out of it. Once again, he becomes connected to his community, makes new friends, and might even have a chance of a romance and a new career. But only if he deals with his past trauma. 

I found the main character to have a lot of depth, and his story is told with empathy and sensitivity. We gradually learn the details of his trauma and how he has coped. I genuinely cared about him. 

The author brings his sports experience to this book. He began sports broadcasting in college, and now works for the Tampa Bay Lightning NHL team. He does mainly radio broadcasting but launched into television this year. Because of his experience telling fans about the sports he watches, he makes both baseball and hockey come alive for the reader, which means that the sports details here are never boring. This is his first book, and I definitely would be interested in reading more by him.

Ship of Dreams

Finished March 6

Ship of Dreams by Donna Jones Alward

This novel is set mostly aboard the Titanic. Two friends are at the centre of the story. Hannah Martin is married, but has found her husband distant since the miscarriage that almost killed her. She hopes accompanying him on this business trip will provide the opportunity to add life back to their marriage. She has asked her best friend Louisa Phillips, the unhappy and rebellious daughter of an earl, to accompany them. The two women plan to stay in New York City while Charles Martin travels west on business. But Louisa has another purpose to her trip. Her father has decided to force her into a marriage that she does not want. She grew up ignored or a target with him, and things haven't improved. She's directed her energy, and her money, towards fighting for women's rights and helping those less fortunate. But if she doesn't marry as her father wishes, he has told her that he will kick her out of the homes she has been living in, and cut off her money. She has a plan that we gradually learn, but it wasn't well thought out, and doesn't reflect well on her. 

She has also invited a man she's known socially on the trip as a side interest. She likes flirting with him and has led him to believe she might be interested in more. Reid Grey, the man in question has come, solely for her, and is definitely interested in Louisa. The author includes a few of the ship's travellers that were actually on the boat, from the feminist Margaret Brown, to the newly married Astors.

As the women interact socially with their shipmates, they also share the truth about their own lives, which proves emotional and enlightening. 

While Hannah tries to force a confrontation with Charles, Louisa finds that her problem may have an different solution that she hadn't expected. 

Alward has done her research and the descriptions of the ship and its amenities really bring the setting to life. The strong friendship between the two women is tested here, and the crisis of the ship itself changes so many stories. A really great read. 

Baby Mine

Finished December 14

Baby Mine by Kennedy Fox

I picked this out of my free Kobo reads to meet a challenge and kept hoping it would get better and it just kept getting more cringy. Engineering student and part-time bartender Hunter is drawn to a woman Lennon that he sees while he's working at the bar. She's also a student, but not locally, and is there with friends. He means to ask for her number, but doesn't get another chance, and the next morning he finds that she came home with his roommate. As his roommate and Lennon get serious and then when Lennon finishes her degree and gets a teaching job nearby, she moves in the apartment, Hunter becomes a bigger and bigger jerk to try to keep her from being nice to him, which would make him want her more. Um, childish anyone?

Then his roommate dies in a motorcycle accident and the grief she is feeling, that he also shares, makes him change course and be pleasant, responsible, and caring. (He says, 'but he'd never have a relationship with her because she was with his friend') Sure. Her friends see possible coupledom and his friends warn him against what he's doing, so they see it too. 

Then she discovers that she's pregnant with the roommate's behaviour. What to do? This is where her background really comes in. She's from Utah and the middle of three daughters, all living near each other. Their parents, back in Utah, are a pastor and his wife, very conservative, didn't let the girls date in high school at all, think they are all still 'pure' and don't know that Lennon was living with her boyfriend. 

And no, these aren't spoilers. All but the religious background are part of the book description. It took me longer to get through than I'd thought it would and I almost quit a few times, but didn't want to waste the time I'd invested. This book is the first in a series and ends of a bit of drama that is unresolved. I'm just glad I'm done. There is a sequel should you be interested.

The plot is cringy, the writing isn't great. The dialogue is stilted. 

Super Bloom

Finished December 3

Super Bloom by Megan Tady

This debut novel has a lot going for it, from an interesting main character and plotline to touches of humour and hope. The main character is massage therapist Joan Johnston, who works at a luxury hotel spa in Vermont. She chose massage therapy because a good friend of hers did, and began a relationship with another massage therapist, Samuel. Unfortunately, Samuel died in an accident several months ago, and Joan is still grieving him. 

Joan is on thin ice in her job, and her manager assigning a problematic customer to her as a last test goes in a different direction than Joan expects. The customer, bestselling romance author Carmen Bronze has a writing block, and wants Joan to dish inside spa secrets and stories for a fee, and a great review. Joan agrees, and finds herself coming up with lots of ideas, until she realizes that she wants to write them herself, not share them for Carmen to use. 

As Joan works through her grief, makes new connections with her coworkers, and learns to stand up for herself with her friends and in her job, she also deals with a mother who seems to be going through a Swedish death cleaning phase, a stalker in a van, and hope for a more promising future. 

I really enjoyed this read, and the way that Joan found this opportunity to be a way forward for herself.

Lady with Chains

Finished December 1

Lady with Chains by Roch Carrier, translated by Sheila Fischman

This is a novel that is a combination of two stories. One is the story of the unnamed lady of the title. It is not said in so many words, but my impression was that the lady was one of the nobility imprisoned during the French Revolution, that then found herself on the docks and brought onto a ship to the new world. She does seem to be a lady that was imprisoned and mistreated, and then unexpectedly freed and placed on a ship to Quebec. 

The second story is of Virginie, a young woman of Quebec who meets Victor, a soldier, at a dance. He plans to claim a piece of land and build a house on it, to marry and have children, and to live a good life. Virginie agrees to marry him, and finds herself making her way through a blizzard to the cabin he's built, and things go horribly wrong on the journey. Virginie finds herself plotting revenge against Victor, intending to poison him. She waits through the winter and intentionally doesn't speak to her husband at all, but keeps her plan in her mind. She finds herself strengthened by the idea of the Lady with Chains, who persevered despite the terrible things that happened to her. 

It is a strange novel, with a flavour of the wilderness of Canada, as well as some of the bureaucracy, and there are surprises along the way. 

Francine's Spectacular Crash & Burn

Finished October 10

Francine's Spectacular Crash & Burn by Renee Swindle

The title character of this novel completely drew me in. She's a people pleaser, a young woman who was both dependent on her mother in some ways and supportive of her mother in others. When her mother dies suddenly, she is lost. She knows how the close relatives she has will react and avoids telling them, doing the necessary tasks when someone has died. Francine is also a hard worker at her job, a social media company called Peeps that connects people to others with the same interests. She is a glorified secretary for her boss Hayden, doing work that includes not only booking meetings and such but personal tasks like laundry and getting her coffee.

Soon after her mother's death, Francine hears a ruckus out on the street and ends up rescuing ten-year-old Davie from a group of bullies trying to take his iPad. After more encounters with Davie, the two connect in a way, both feeling like outsiders and suffering from loss. When Francine discovers that Davie's foster mother is Jeannette, a strong-willed woman with a temper that Francine had a crush on in high school, she grows close to her as well. 

As Francine struggles between trying to move forward with her newly rekindled interest in photography, and meeting new people, she also finds herself drawn to Jeanette for reasons in addition to wanting to maintain a relationship with Davie.

Francine has undeserved guilt and makes some bad choices, but she is well-intentioned and lonely, and she ends up finding friendship and support in unexpected places, and finding the strength to pull herself out of her own mess. 

I really liked Francine and found myself caring about her and about Davie. Highly recommended. 

Three Hours in Paris

Finished June 14

Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black

This novel is set during World War II, and begins in June 1940 with Kate Rees, a ranch woman from Oregon who is also a prize-winning marksman, is in Paris in an unoccupied apartment across from Montmartre, waiting to shoot Hitler. After a couple of chapters, we go back to the fall of 1939, where we learn that Kate is married to a Welsh man. They and their young daughter are living where he is stationed in the Orkney Islands. She works at a munitions factory as a tester, shooting rifles to ensure they work as they should. Her marksman skills get noticed and the government offers her a job, but she isn't interested. When an enemy bombing mission kills her husband and daughter, she initially gets lost in her grief, but by early June, she finds herself wanting to do what she can to defeat the man who took her family from her. So she calls the number of the man who made the previous offer to her. and finds herself offered a different job, this one top secret, and she must sign the Official Secrets Act before being told anything about it. 

Because of the timeliness of her mission, she is given a very sped up version of the usual training. One of her lessons emphasizes the acronym RADA, which stands for Read the Situation, Assess possible outcomes, Decide on options; Act on your decision. This is something she returns to repeatedly while on mission. 

When Kate misses and kills another man she finds herself on the run, and unknown to her, one of the reasons she is on this mission is because someone is compromised and the team she is associated with in France has had several members discovered and killed. As she follows what clues she has and makes the way around the city looking for help to get back to England, she must rely on her intuition and quick thinking. She also begins to suspect that she was never meant to succeed, and think about what that means. 

I found this book almost impossible to put down, as I had to know what happened to Kate. There is a man of Paris on the endpapers that shows all the key places that Kate either thinks of going to or actually visits. The pace is fast and the minor characters intriguing in their own ways. One of the characters that we see a lot of is a German police officer that is assigned with finding the would-be assassin and capturing her. Part of the novel is from his viewpoint, and we see that he has his own struggles as well. Excellent plot, with a character that I really cared about. 

Mercy Snow

Finished May 19

Mercy Snow by Tiffany Baker

This story takes place in the mid-1990s in a small town in the mountains of New Hampshire called Titan Falls. A great many of the men in the town work at the local paper mill, run for generations by the McAllister family. There is another family that has owned land for generations as well, further along the Androscoggin river, the Snow family. The town thought that Gert Snow, the last of the them had died after going missing in the 1950s, until a distant relative named Pruitt showed up in the 1970s to claim it. When  siblings Mercy, Zeke, and Hannah roll into town in their old RV and pull it onto the family property they've come looking for Pruitt their father after their mother Arlene died. But Pruitt is dead as well, and so the three settle in. They've lived a nomad life, travelling around the country with their mother, Arlene until she died recently. As they discover the death of their father, they settle in, but find that the community feeling is against them from the beginning. Zeke has trouble finding work but Mercy finds a job assisting Hazel Bell at her sheep farm. 

When a teenage outing by bus results in an accident that has one girl dead and the bus driver, Hazel's husband Fergus in bad condition in hospital, the Snow family is soon drawn into the drama, and Mercy's efforts to work against that bring unexpected stirrings of other emotions to the town. 

The McAllisters are also involved as June brings her own feelings along with her husband's plans to work on the Snow family. 

This book reminds me of the books of John Irving, and would be a great read-alike for those that love his stories. The setting is a big part of the story, but the characters are also deftly drawn and have deep backstories. A great read. 

How to Hide in Plain Sight

Finished May 12

How to Hide in Plain Sight by Emma Noyes

This novel is outstanding. The main character, twenty-one-year old Eliot Beck hasn't seen in family in three years since she left for New York City. She is the youngest child in a large family, and loves her siblings and their partners. She fled because of a secret that she feels is devastating, and she uses routine and work to distract herself from her obsessive-compulsive thoughts. 

Eliot has agreed to attend her brother Taz's wedding celebration at the family island, Cradle Island,  located in Canada near Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron. Eliot grew up in Chicago, in her family's large home there, with summers on the family island. The island has numerous cabins located on a sheltered cove and connected by a boardwalk. It is a place close to the heart for the family, special to them all. 

The summer that Eliot was ten, her brother Henry, less than a year older than her, stayed behind in Illinois for summer school, but died in an accident. Eliot's obsessive-compulsive disorder began then, although she didn't have a term for it and thought of it as her worries. When she started school that fall, she became attached to a new boy in school. Manuel is from Colombia and his parents travel a lot for work, leaving him to be raised by his nanny. At first, Eliot natters to him endlessley, without a response. She picks up where she left off the last time she saw him. 

Eliot's oldest brothers, Caleb and Clarence, are from an earlier wife of her father's. Then came Karma, Taz, Henry, and Eliot. There was a fairly large gap between Taz and Henry, and Henry was the way that quieter Eliot connected to her older siblings. Since losing him, she's felt that she doesn't fit in, and struggles with what to say at family dinners. 

The book moves between the present, over a four-day wedding celebration that integrates family traditions and new connections, and Eliot and her family's past, beginning with the loss of Henry. We see her mother's withdrawal followed by a new purpose-filled existence, and her father's collapse and resolve. We see Karma's obsession with baking leading to a new career, and details of the social changes the family goes through. 

We also see clearly one example of obsessive compulsive disorder, an example of intrusive thoughts that drive Eliot to confide in Manuel, and then ask her parents to let her go to a therapist. Despite the professional help, the disorder affects Eliot in a large way, and she struggles to hold onto what she can of a normal life as she tries to hide the reality of her mental health. 

This book had me laughing and crying as I saw the reality of Eliot's struggles and her relationship with her friend and close-knit family. 

An amazing read that also opens a window into a complicated mental health condition. 

Season of Salt and Honey

Finished May 6

Season of Salt and Honey by Hannah Tunnicliffe

This novel is about grief and the different ways people deal with it and it is about love and family. Frankie left her fiancé Alex's funeral when she couldn't take the situation anymore. At first she doesn't know where she is going, and then she realizes that she is going to Alex's family cabin in the Washington forest near the ocean, a place she's been to only a few times, but that Alex loved. It's not far from where they lived, and where Alex died in a surfing accident.

Frankie is part of a large Italian family. She has one sister, Bella, a wild child who ran off a few years ago. Her father is widowed, and works hard as a mechanic at his brother's garage. 

Frankie wants to be alone, and she is for a short while. Then Jack shows up, the caretaker for the cabin. He has been tasked by Alex's mother to evict Frankie from the cabin, but he is sympathetic to her situation. Then there is Jack's daughter Huia, a bit of a forest sprite, at home in the woods and eager to share what she knows about the plants and the creatures with Frankie. Then she meets Merriem, a neighbour who has a garden as expansive as those of her Italian aunts, and who is willing to share with her neighbours, including Frankie. Then her sister Bella shows up. Frankie is upset that she left years before, and won't let her in the cabin, and finds her sleeping in her car. 

Then Frankie's dad visits, bringing clothes and food. He is followed by her extended families of aunts and cousins, all bringing food. Alex's brother comes as well. He apologizes for his mother and says he doesn't mind her staying there.

As she finds that she can't escape from the people who love her her, or from her past. she also has to face some truths about Alex that are difficult. She must also think about forgiveness and how she deals with her own family and Alex's family around all the things that arise. 

This is a novel that invites reflection, and makes you think about your own relationships. 

Memorial Days

Finished March 2

Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks

This memoir moves back and forth between two times: one beginning on May 27, 2019, when her husband Tony Horowitz died suddenly; and one beginning in February 2023 when Geraldine went on a solo retreat to a small beach house on Flinders Island in Australia, her home country. 

Tony was on a book tour at the time, after writing a book that required intense research, and a tight deadline. She had met up with him at other points on the tour, but decided not to on this weekend. Their older son was on his way to Australia with his girlfriend, and her younger son was at boarding school. Tony's mom and siblings were at a family get-together in Maine. 

Geraldine was notified of Tony's death through a terse phone call from a hospital. When the follow-up call from the police came, they were, at least, kind. 

Because she was alone and far from where he died, on a holiday weekend where travel was difficult, she felt that she couldn't react the way that she wanted to. She had to hold herself together, and do what needed to be done. It wasn't until the trip she went on nearly four years later that she was able to truly grieve. 

The book moves back and forth between these two times, as she points out flaws in the system that she dealt with, the lack of planning for death she and Tony had done, and the various bureaucratic issues that she had to deal with immediately after her terrible loss. 

Geraldine grew up in Australia, and until she met Tony, an American, had every intention of living there and making her career there. Flinders Island, part of an archipelago between Tasmania and the rest of Australia had drawn her early in her adulthood, and in 2023, she tries to imagine what her life would have been like if she had spent it there instead of where her life took her. 

The beauty of the island, the nature that she describes paints a picture that is both wild and immersive. She watches the ocean, the sky, the land, and its creatures as she comes to terms with her loss and where it leaves her now, facing a future that is different than what she had imagined. 

This is a moving book, one that brought out emotions in me as I read it. She is an author I have read a lot and enjoyed immensely for her beautiful prose. Highly recommended. 

The Memory Stones

Finished February 18

The Memory Stones by Caroline Brothers

This book begins in Argentina in 1976, as one family enjoys its summer holidays in Tigre. Osvaldo Ferrero is a doctor, his wife Yolanda a teacher. Their oldest daughter, Julieta lives with her husband and children in Miami, and their younger daughter Graciela, is nineteen, in college, and in love with her boyfriend Jose. Shortly after this, the military stages a coup. People begin to disappear. When Osvaldo miscalculates a cartoon he draws for an entertainment weekly, he finds himself a target and must make a sudden and difficult decision. Soon after this Jose is kidnapped, and Graciela goes into hiding. They were both involved in literacy projects for the poor. Then Graciela goes missing as well. 

Yolanda is beside herself. As she discovers the Grandmothers, she is drawn to them, especially when information leads to the idea that Graciela may have been pregnant when she disappeared. 

As Oswaldo and Yolanda search for information about their daughter, they face more tragedies, and struggles. 

This is a story centred on one family among many in Argentina that had family members that disappeared under the Junta. It brings to life the emotions, the desperation, and the grief surrounding this difficult period of Argentinian history that makes it relatable to all readers.

The characters of Yolanda and Oswaldo in particular are drawn with depth and complexity, and the changing viewpoints give us access to the different lives people led during this time. 

Taking us beyond the borders of Argentina to Europe and Mexico, and beyond the time of the Junta to the present day, we see the broad and long term effects on this family. 

A definite winner that would also be a great book club read. 

The Sweetness of Water

Finished February 10

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

This historical fiction novel is set just after the end of the United States Civil War. George Walker and his wife Isabelle have a farm a little way outside of a small southern town called Old Ox. George often walks his land and the forest that is part of it, partly searching for a creature his father told him of, and partly to think. Towards the end of the day, one he spent wandering, he comes across two middle-aged black men. Their names are Prentiss and Landry and they were recently owned by Ted Morton, George's neighbour. The two men decided to leave once they were emancipated, but haven't got any idea of the outside world or where to head. George has a burden of sadness on him, one that he soon shares with Isabelle, and the two reconsider their future plans. George determines to clear and farm some of his land, and he approaches the two black men to offer them work helping him. When George offers them work, they are grateful to be able to earn some to take them away and into a new life. But George's actions cause issues with others that resent the loss of their traditional social order. 

Trust grows between George, Prentiss, Landry, and soon Isabelle as well, and another family member who has seen things in the war that changed him. 

When a tragedy happens to this group, it becomes a larger issue, one that both destroys friendships and creates new ones. The trust between them becomes something more, and while there is hope, more tragedies happen in the town and this household. 

I found this novel moving and thought-provoking. Crimes lead to insults, and insults become crimes. An engaging debut novel that won attention from celebrity book clubs and was longlisted for the Booker. 

All the Beauty in the World

Finished February 2

All the Beauty in the World: A Museum Guard's Adventures in Life, Loss and Art by Patrick Bringley, illustrated by Maya McMahon

This memoir is both fascinating and informative. The author left a job at the New Yorker magazine after the death of his older brother Tom, and applied to be a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He worked their for ten years, during which time he worked through his grief, made friends, learned about art, watched people, and learned to be present in his life. 

He includes a plan of the museum's public spaces, and structures his book around them as he works in different sections of the building, and even in one of the satellite buildings the museum has. 

He talks about the art, and lists the art he refers to at the back of the book. He doesn't include pictures of the art, but there are drawings that relate to his words, done by illustrator, Maya McMahon. These drawings give a sense of the art that intrigues. 

Patrick's words are sometimes emotional, and centered on his work at the museum. There are a few references to his family beyond Tom, but it is the art that we see him engaging with, and his fellow guards as they hand off from one position to another, share work, and share experiences. They are from many cultural backgrounds, and this comes into his story as well. 

This was a book I received through a subscription from English bookstore Mr. B's Emporium, and I loved it. 

The Secret of Snow

Finished December 14

The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman

Sonny Dunes is an award-winning, dedicated meteorologist working at a television channel in Palm Springs, California. Unexpectedly, the son of the owner, who manages the station replaces her with an AI avatar, and she, after an afternoon of drinks with a former co-worker, takes out her anger on air. 

As she searches for a new job, she finds that the only station offering her a position is in her Michigan hometown. The station news manager is a college classmate that she rebuffed as a friend.  

Sonny finds that she has been hired to bring the station higher in the local ratings, and she decides to accept her situation and work hard at her local 'on location' assignments all designed to feature her outdoors and enjoying winter activities. 

Sonny has moved back in with her widowed mother, a hospice nurse, and soon finds that her return to her hometown means that she also has to face her past, something that she's been running from for her entire adult life. The untimely death of her little sister, who absolutely loved winter, is something that she never fully dealt with emotionally, and now she can't avoid the memories.

Along with this, someone begins a sneaky campaign to frame her as a cold, uncaring person, editing video and posting it online. 

Sonny would like to move forward, and heal, for her mother as well as herself, but she finds herself cracking under the pressure. 

This is a fast-moving plot with lots of interesting characters, and a small-town setting that evokes community. Sonny is a woman who has built a life distancing herself from her trauma, and she shows herself to be only too human in the circumstances. 

My copy of this novel also included a novella entitled "Christmas in Tinsel Tree Village," also set in Michigan around a woman who fled a different sadness and creating a career in marketing, specializing in Christmas window displays and bottlebrush trees. 

Another Heartbeat in the House

Finished November 13

Another Heartbeat in the House by Kate Beaufoy

From the cover I thought this might be historical romance with a touch of mystery, but it was something with more depth than I expected. It is historical fiction, but deals with two time periods. The framing time period is late 1936 and early 1937. Here, Edie Chadwick is the main character, a young woman who works in publishing. This year had two tragedies for Edie, the death of her beloved dog and the rift in a long and close friendship with her friend Hilly. It is New Year's Eve as the book begins, and Edie is visited by another close friend, Ian Fleming, who she has known since she was a child. Yes, he is that Ian Fleming, but is a minor character here. After a couple of drinks in her flat, Ian convinces her to join him at a party he has been invited to. There, she runs into a distant relative, "uncle" Jack Frobisher and the conversation goes to a house he owns in Ireland. He and his family don't use it anymore and he needs someone to go over and shut the place up before selling it. 

After another tragic incident in Edie's life happens, she decides to take up Jack's offer and go to Ireland. She will be going through all the contents of the house, deciding what should go to auction and what should be kept or thrown away. She also plans to bring some of her copy-editing work so she doesn't fall too far behind. Ian shows up just before her train leaves and thrusts a dog on her, a Maltese with a pedigree. I love the way that she and the puppy have conversations over the course of the novel. 

In Ireland, she discovers handwritten pages in the attic, written by a woman who lived in the house in the 1840s, and that tell her story. She is a woman with ambition, one who intends to find a way to make a comfortable life for herself, but her plans find themselves getting more complicated than she intended and her life takes a different turn. The woman's name is Eliza Drury and she turns out to have a literary acquaintance that is someone who wrote a book considered a classic. As Edie learns more about Eliza, and the house itself, she finds herself learning about Ireland's history, the making of a novel, and about a woman who led a fascinating life. 

I found this novel engrossing in many ways, and enjoyed it immensely.