Maureen

Finished December 2

Maureen by Rachel Joyce

This is the third and last in the series that started with The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and continued with The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. This is the story of Maureen, Harold's wife, and takes place a few years after his story does. Maureen is still struggling with how to deal with her grief and the feelings she has around the loss of her son. Maureen and Harold have made their peace with each other and grown closer, but they are both aware of her struggle. Maureen has heard about the garden that Queenie created and is having trouble understanding it. She's seen pictures, but they haven't helped her understand. Harold and her have discussed her need to see for herself this place that holds a piece of her life, and one night when she can't sleep, she decides to go. 

This is story of her journey, one that is both physical and emotional. It is a shorter book than the others, but goes deep into Maureen's mind, showing us how she thinks, and how she has used her stern facade to protect herself. It also gives us insight into other things that happened along the way in her struggle and how they've brought her to a more isolated life. 

It took me some time to read this novel as I wanted to sit with it at times and reflect on what it was saying and where it was taking me. This is a beautiful book, and a fitting conclusion to this story. 

The Light of Paris

Finished December 2

The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown

I love Brown's books, and this is no exception. Here Madeleine is a woman who has always felt herself to be a misfit, whether in the private school her parents sent her to or in the social world of her husband's business contacts. What Madeleine loved was art, and although she'd been allowed to do art in school, her work wasn't valued by her parents, and she ended up succumbing to the pressure from her mother to get married. Phillip is a successful businessman who met Madeleine through her father's business and while moving in the world her parents expected, proves to be a very controlling husband. Phillip has an interior designer do their home, not allowing Madeleine to have any input on the minimalist style, nor does he allow her to work, or do her art. The only outlet to pleasure she has is as a volunteer docent at the art gallery, where she leads tours. The book opens on one of these tours, and the comments from the teacher escorting the students Madeleine is guiding around the gallery speak to something in her. She is due to go home to her mother for a week the following day, and while there discovers the diaries of her grandmother Margie, and finds that Margie also had an artistic bent and was denied fulfillment in her passion. The diaries reveal Margie's one experience of true freedom, living in Paris for several months, earning her own living, and as Madeleine reads of Margie's life, she determines what she has to do in her own. 

This is a novel of what happens when family expectations don't lead down the same road as one's own bent, and how hard it is to overcome the path that is set for oneself. Brown makes her scenes vivid here, so that I could experience the situations the characters were in, and found myself urging them to speak up for themselves. It was lovely to see the women bloom when they were in their element. I should note that it wasn't only the women characters who were forced into a life they wouldn't choose by family expectations, as there were men in similar circumstances, although the focus was on the women. 

A great read.

The Scar

Finished November 27

The Scar by Charlotte Moundlic, illustrated by Olivier Tallec

This emotional picture book is aimed at a specific audience, and one that would be useful in certain circumstances, read to a child by an adult close to them, helping them through a difficult time. The opening words are stark, touching, and give a truth that is also a revelation. They are:

Mom died this morning.

It wasn't really this morning.

Dad said she died during the night,

but I was sleeping during the night.

For me, she died this morning.

Those words, together with the simple yet perfect illustration of a young boy lying on his bed looking up, take us into the feelings of the narrator. 

As he tells us the story of his loss and grief and that of his father as well, we see how he works through it, the emotions that he has been going through and continues to feel. Moundlic's writing brings the scenes to life, like when he describes his crying father "he looked like a washcloth, all crumpled and wet," and he expresses his struggle to understand how to help his father. 

This book had me in tears, but also left me feeling comforted as I relate to his loss. 

A good addition to a public library parenting collection. 

The Armada Boy

Finished November 27

The Armada Boy by Kate Ellis

This novel is the second in the series featuring Devonshire police officer Wesley Peterson. In the small coastal town of Bereton, a group of American veterans has gathered, partly to visit where they were stationed for a while during World War II, just before D-Day, and partly as a memorial to those fellow soldiers who never returned. When one of the men, Norman Openheim is killed in the ruins of an old chantry chapel, the police find themselves both looking at current young criminals as well as delving into the activities that took place 50 years earlier. 

Before Wesley became a police officer he got a degree in archaeology, and it happens one of his friends archaeologist Neil Watson is doing work both in the chapel where the murder took place and in the coastal waters of the village. This work is around a ship and the Spanish men who were on it, as they were wrecked while trying to limp home after the defeat of the Armada. The bodies of the men are buried in the chapel, rather than in the churchyard with the locals. 

As the case moves on, Wesley and his fellow officers uncover information from both the more recent and the more distant historical events. Ties to the present and those connected wtih related local crimes also come to light. 

This read got me interested enough to order more books in the series. 

Two for the Road

Finished November 27

Two for the Road by Roddy Doyle

This short novel is a follow-up to his book Two Pints, which is a conversation between two unnamed men in a pub. The conversations here begin in mid-July 2014 and continue through mid-March 2019. The conversations are short, and touch on current events from politics and social media to life events and music. As in most of Doyle's books, music is a well-loved subject, and here we often see commentary on the deaths of musicians, bands reuniting, and other news from that world. Political topics range from those in Ireland to more international ones, and the events touched on have the men making confidences of things from their own lives that touch on the same subjects, bring on memories both happy and sad, and give us insight into the commonalities that we all share. 

As always, a great and thoughtful read. 

December Reviews for the 17th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

This is where you add links to the reviews for books you've read in December 2023.

Add a comment as well to let me know how the challenge is going for you.

A Wish for Winter

Finished November 23

A Wish for Winter by Viola Shipman

Susan Norcross lives in a small Michigan town where she runs a bookstore that was started by her grandparents. Her grandparents still work there, and her parents worked there too, until they died in an accident when she was a teenager. Both Susan's grandmother and mother met their husbands when the men were dressed as Santa, and when Susan was a child, she predicted that a similar meeting would be hers. But now Susan is approaching forty and is still single, and she has almost lost hope for such a happy ending. 

She has a group of good friends, from college roommate Holly, to Noah and Leah, who work at her bookstore Sleigh by the Bay. They have some fun traditions, like a holiday movie marathon, and these friendships are an important part of all their lives. 

One thing that is also a part of Susan's life is running and Holly has talked her into doing Chicago's 10K Santa Run dressed as Mrs. Claus. Susan is approached by a man dressed as Santa, as many of them are, and something made a connection for both of them. Their planned meetup for later didn't happen, and when Holly comes up with a plan to find him, Susan finds herself getting a lot more attention than she expected, or is comfortable with. 

Susan also finds herself dealing with issues from the past that she has never really resolved, and those give the story more depth. 

A very enjoyable read.