I’ve started reading a contemporary romance series by Sarah Adams that rests on Audrey Hepburn movies to depict the romances of a family of three grown sisters and one brother in Rome, Kentucky. So the first one, concerning the love between the pie baker brother and a pop star, is entitled When in Rome, and alludes to Audrey Hepburn’s first film, Roman Holiday. The second Hepburn film referenced is Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in the novel Practice Makes Perfect, which details the love of the youngest of the family, who owns a flower shop, and a bodyguard from the famous pop star of the first novel. That's them on the cover, and yes, he has floral tattoos, the meaning of which is revealed in the story.
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Ann Patchett’s latest novel, Tom Lake, is another winner. It’s a story within a story; the frame is a cherry farm, where Lara is telling her three grown daughters—home because of covid, unable to get on with their lives—about her brief theatre career. The novel is richer for that enclosed story to rely so heavily on Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, with allusions as well to Anton Chekov’s Cherry Orchard. Readers get glimpses of each of three young women’s lives, and of their preoccupation with an actor their mother knew. The ending caught me unprepared, and yes, I did get teary. It’s a beautiful story. Shelby Van Pelt interweaves multiple story lines in this lovely novel, which includes a mystery about how and why her son died at eighteen. Now widowed, Tova cleans at an aquarium in fictional Sowell Bay, Washington—not because she needs money, but because she needs to be busy. She greets the fish and befriends an octopus, Marcellus, who provides brief journal entries throughout the novel. Another plot line concerns a thirty-year-old man who has been sabotaging his own life and blaming his drug-addicted mother and unknown father, both of whom abandoned him. I would not have expected to enjoy a book about an octopus, nor to cry at the end. Do yourself a favor and read this debut novel, then watch for Van Pelt’s next one! I don’t often read science fiction, nor do I wade through nearly 400-page books. But for Connie Willis’ latest, The Road to Roswell, I happily made an exception. Filled with funny and over-the-top characters, plus a possible romance between two of the [few] sane folks, it reminded me at some points of a French farce. There is an alien, Indy (yes, named for Indiana Jones), who resembles a tumbleweed, and the young woman who works trying to communicate with it. She also untangles its tentacles when it has a meltdown. The humans and Indy both have time deadlines to meet, and it all seems impossible. I’m confident that I’d understand this novel in a much richer way—and get more of the jokes—if I were a sci fi movie buff, and even more so if I watched Westerns, which also enter the plot. (We’re in New Mexico, after all, and Nevada, with Monument Valley as a major player.) Well worth the time to read a fun romp of a novel. |
What I’m ReadingI began working in libraries as a seventh grader, courtesy of scoliosis. My orthopedic surgeon wrote me a pass to miss gym class, so I began working in the school library to feed my love of reading. Even after my surgery to correct the curvature, I kept getting out of gym to work in my high school library and then in my college library (for pay, at last!).
So began my eventual career as a college reference librarian—after a detour into teaching high school English. Later I worked for an educational publisher before going back to libraries.
I have a reading and writing life now. I devour both fiction and nonfiction, and will tell you about some of my favorite reads, both old friends and new discoveries.
Here's some library-themed music to get you in the mood.
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