The Bookstore Sisters

 Ann Hoffman does not disappoint int his new novella, The Bookstore Sisters.

Though this is a short story, it packs a big punch.  Two sisters grow up together with their father, running a small bookstore in Brinkey's Island,  Maine.  Their father is so nice that he almost has turned his bookstore into a lending library, allowing people to read the books and return them.  When he dies one sister, Isabel, decides that she is ready to leave the small town and head off on her own.  She goes and builds a life in New York and tries to forget the past. 

Sophie, the other sister stays and keeps the promise they made to their father to keep the store open. She marries a local young man and is pregnant when he dies.  She brings up her daughter on her own.  But when Sophie breaks a leg and cannot take care ofher daughter or the book store, her daughter takes matters into her own hands.

Writing to her aunt she summons her home to help out.  The two sisters must face each other and their past to work together to save the bookstore and take care of family.  They need to work through their feelings of anger and distrust to reach a close sister relationship again.

A sweet story of the love that is hidden bewtween two sisters that can be covered up but never really lost.

Pineapple Street

If you know NYC and Brooklyn you will feel right at home reading this novel. If you know the area of the fruit streets even better.  Author, Jenny Jackson has beautifully described the world of the ultra wealthy and how they see the world.  Also how others perceive them from the other side of the tracks.

This is the story of the Stockton family, which even the name sounds stuffy and sounds like old money and the family originally came over on the Mayflower.  The parents, Chip and Tilda have moved out of the family home on Pineapple Street and moved into a smaller home on Orange Street.  The three children who are now adults grew up in the family home and now the son, Cord brings his new wife, Sasha to live there.  Cord's sisters have also left the house and his sister Darcy is married to Malcolm, and their are parents to Poppy and Hatcher.  The youngest Stockton is Georgiana, still single and working in a not for profit to help solve world hunger.  Cord is working with his father in the family real estate business and Darcy is a stay at home mom, with Malcom working in finance.

Darcy describes herself as an orange, a tough outer shell to protect the sweet though vulnerable fruit on the inside.  Her sister was always the Cranberry, a little sour, and Cord was the Pineapple, fun, thrilled to be the center of attention and always made a gathering more festive. 

As the family closes rank to protect itself from the outside world, each family member needs to learn how to welcome in the new spouses and not shut them out.  There are so many secrets that each member of the family is keeping to maintain face that it gets to be too overwhelming.

Also it is current day and these one percenters are struggling with having so much at the expense of others having so little.  How to balance your wealth, live a happy life and share with others is a theme throughout.  So many series topics in what seems on the surface to be a lighthearted entertainment.

The Ghost Writer

 The Ghost Writer written by the infamous Philip Roth.   A oldie but a goodie was brought back to my attention by a book discussion group and I jumped in to read and discuss it.

This for me a book that requires a good discussion afterwards otherwise, not one of my favorite of Roth's books I would have re-shelved it before the end.  Of course the end is the probably the whole point of the book so I would have missed the entire meaning of the plot.

SO if you do pick up this novel keep reading all the way to the end.

Also the book seemed so confusing and was not grabbing my interest, but I soldiered on because there was going to be a discussion.  Once again I must say that talking to others about the book made it so much better.  It will not sit on my favorite book list, but now I do find it a fancinating read.

So if you want to discuss it ..I am in!

This is the story of Zuckerman, a consistent Roth character, who is a young writer starting out and looking for a mentor.  He goes through a few authors and settles on Lanoff who he decides is the type of author he wants to work with.  He is invited to Lanoff's house.  There he meets Hope, Lanoff's wife and Amy a young woman who is staying with them as a house guest.

The book focuses on the ideas of fathers and children, their relationships.  The idea of writing and revealing family secrets.  Of course Judaism and how it perceived by other Jews and by "outsiders".

It is set in the 1950s and written and published int he 1970s, but it is still a relevant topic to what is happening today. There are historic conversations and current discussions around these topics.

The Lost Library

 Rebecca Stead has written a delightful middle grade book in The Lost Library.  

I picked this up because I thought it might be about banning books, which is my current obsession.

This is a entertaining read that will keep those young readers, and even this old one, intrigued throughout.

It is the story of a small town where the library burned down years ago and was never rebuilt.  When the remaining books from the library are put outside in a little free library, young Evan comes by and takes two books.  He is surprised to discover his father had checked out one of them as a child.  The other was checked out by a famous author, about how to write a mystery novel.  Evan uses the book to start his investigation.  He father, who grew up in town, is being very secretive about his relationship to the library.

We meet three ghosts, a cat, and some daredevil mice.  There is the mystery of how the fire started and even a famous author, who uses a pseudonym who might have once lived in town.  Evan will use all the clues he can find to figure out the mystery.

Tom Lake

 Tom Lake is Ann Patchett's newest novel.  Patchett is one of all time incredible writers.  Her books are always heart felt and having incite into the human condition.  

Tom Lake is again a novel about family, love and relationships.  She calmly takes three grown daughters brings them home during the covid pandemic and sets them up with their parents alone in the house for multiple weeks.  The family owns a fruit farm and it is cherry picking season.

As they spend their days again bringing in the harvest alone because their helpers cannot come to work, the mother tells the story of her youth.  Bringing back the days when she wanted to become an actress and played the part of Emily in Our Town.  She tells the story of her playing the part at a summer stock theatre  called Tom Lake.  She acted opposite and fell in love with the actor Peter Duke, who later becomes famous.  The girls have grown up watching Peter Duke movies.  As their mother spins her tale the girls are forced to reconsider the picture they have always had of their parents.

This is a story of family dynamics. Mother, daughter relationships.  Young love and long lasting love. Realizing what is really important and what it means to be happy.  Written with a quiet subtle message that packs a big punch.