The Lost Ticket

Finished June 21

The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson

This charming novel begins with a scene from 1962 and an encounter on a London bus between Frank, a young man and an unnamed female art student. She gives him a phone number, written on her bus ticket, and he gives her the book he's been struggling to get into, and they agree to meet later that week. But when he gets home, he finds he's lost the ticket, and they never meet.

The story then jumps to the present, in spring 2022, with Libby Nichols, who has come to London to stay with her older married sister Rebecca getting on the 88 bus in London. She encounters an older man, Frank, who is struck by her red hair, and they have a conversation, where he encourages her to return to the art she used to love. 

Libby tells her story to Rebecca, and thus to us, that her boyfriend of eight years took her to a fancy restaurant to break up with her and take some time apart. Libby agreed to move out for a while to give him time to figure out what he wanted, and she's ended up here. Rebecca's nanny has had to go home suddenly to take care of a family member, and Libby agrees to look after Hector, her sister's son while she's staying there. 

Libby tries doing art on the bus, and finds herself angrily accosted by her chosen subject, and when she meets Frank again, she finds out about the girl he's been searching for for years, and how she changed his life. Libby decides to help him try to find this woman, and begins a social media and flyer campaign to put the story out. As she does, she finds herself making new friends, and thinking harder about what she wants in her life. But she also discovers that some things can't be planned and have to be dealt with as they happen. 

This is a feel-good novel of relationships, families, and chance encounters that are life-changing. A great read. 

Leave Me By Dying

Finished April 8

Leave Me By Dying by Rosemary Aubert

This is the fourth book in the series featuring Ellis Portal, a man who was once a revered judge in the Ontario courts, and then became homeless. This book is a jump back in time, told as memories of Ellis as he considers whether to return to being a lawyer. The story here returns Ellis to the 1960s, where he is in law school. This book tells of an event that became a pivotal point in his life. 

One of Ellis' friends, Gleason Adams, is a young man from a wealthy family, and the story begins as he asks Ellis to join him at the morgue for a meeting in the middle of the night. 

Ellis joins him there, and after waiting for a considerable time, the two are admitted to the morgue where they witness the start of an autopsy that is unexpectedly halted. 

But the image of the dead person there stays in Ellis' head and he keeps wanting to know what the story is behind it. He asks questions, writes letters, and does research and keeps digging for answers. Gleason hasn't been showing up for class and seems distracted when Ellis tries to meet with him.

On a couple occasions they go to strange places and have encounters that Ellis doesn't fully understand. 

Meanwhile, at home, Ellis' brother Michele is heavily involved in social change, watching the actions going on in Selma, in the southern United States, and asking for Ellis' help with an indigenous man who is being drafted to fight in Vietnam. 

As Ellis tries to use the draft dodger case to further his legal goals, he is also slowly discovering the truth about Gleason and what he's been up to. 

This book is a revealing look at one of the significant events in Ellis' past that made him who he is now. 

Molly of the Mall

Finished September 17

Molly of the Mall: Literary Lass and Purveyor of Fine Footwear by Heidi L.M. Jacobs

This book awoke memories and kept me thoroughly engaged. Written over the course of a year, Molly narrates the book in a style that feels like a diary. The book is divided into the summer and two semesters and starts as Molly begins work in a shoe store at West Edmonton Mall. She does well and returns to her full-time seasonal position for the Christmas season and the following summer. 

The portion with her working at the mall is filled with long work shifts, the surface encounters of retail, interactions with her co-workers and other mall stall, and musings on her life. She meets an older man while browsing at the book store and they begin a friendship without even knowing each other's name. 

Molly is a huge Jane Austen fan and reads and rereads her books often. Both her parents are professors at University of Alberta, her mother in art and her father in English literature, her own major. Her older sister Tess is in France and her brother Heathcliff is busy with his agronomy studies. As you can guess, all three children have literary names, each from the book her father was teaching at the time of their birth. Molly is named for Moll Flanders. 

The time that Molly is at university is taken up by her studies, friendships, and aims to be a writer herself someday. She is an innovative student in some ways, submitting a mix-tape for one assignment and an apology for another. Molly doesn't have a boyfriend, but she might like one. Not that she really has time in her busy life. She has good friends, and a good relationship with her parents, who are also interesting and engaging characters. 

One reason that I really connected with this book and with the character of Molly is that I also studied at the University of Alberta and worked at West Edmonton Mall. I however worked at the less upscale Phase One section in a no-longer-existent department store. Her wanderings through the mall and her life on campus brought back fond memories in a nostalgic way. Beyond that, Molly is an optimistic and caring person and one who has dreams for the future. 

I borrowed this from my local library, but may have to splurge on my own copy.  

Breathless

Finished February 14 

Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy K. Miller

This memoir is by a professor of women's studies looking back on her early adult years as she tried to follow a dream inspired by movies set in Paris. For her, this time was a time of experimentation, of rebellion against her parents' expectations, and a time of trying to figure her life out.

She began relationships with men, sometimes inappropriate ones. She taught and went to school, she wrote and read, she listened to music and learned about food. She explored her sexuality and tried to figure out what she wanted in a partner.

Not all her choices were good ones, but she threw herself into these things she tried, and made an attempt to look at them objectively. 

The time is the late 60s and early 70s, and she was not alone in her explorations. She met, became friends with, and had relationships with other expat Americans, some of whom she kept in touch with for years. She lived in a variety of housing situations, and visited other European places on occasion.

She is half a generation older than me, and some things she did I can't relate to at all, especially as we have quite different backgrounds. 

She grew up in a secular Jewish family who had a reputation to uphold, and friends in Paris. This gave her access to the life of real Parisians, but she also spent a lot of time with other students her own age, both Jewish and otherwise. 

It was an interesting read.