Tag: fiction

books, reading, review

Dinner at the Lakeside Supper Club by J Ryan Stradal

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This novel follows generations of women – matriarch Betty, her daughter Florence, granddaughter Mariel and great granddaughter Julia – as they live their lives in the north woods of Minnesota. This is a story of generational expectations, familial obligations, and family conflict. This story shows that those that know you best are the ones that hurt you the most.

The story flips back and forth between times and people, which at times can be confusing and difficult to keep track, especially if you are listening to this. The technique, however, is effective in revealing the story – as you are never really sure of the full history of life in a linear way as you hear the history and revisit it with different eyes of experience and maturity.

In linear fashion: Betty arrives with Florence in tow and finds a job, purpose and a future at the Lakeside Supper Club in Bear Jaw MN. Florence, in desperate need for love and acceptance creates that security for her mother with Floyd, while destroying it for him and his male partner. She is not formally banished from the place, but knows she is not welcome because of the price Floyd paid for her selfishness. Florence becomes a mother herself, and becomes preoccupied with keeping her daughter Mariel safe and close. When Mariel meets Ned, the heir to a family chain of restaurants, they fall in love and marry. After tragedy again strikes near Florence, impacting others deeply again, there is a distance between Mariel and Florence that keeps her from Bear Jaw again. Through a series of events when Florence waits to be picked up by Mariel at the church – for two months – Florence reveals that she was simply waiting for when Mariel was ready to let her in.

The complex relationships between these women also hides difficult realities. Betty is searching for security after she runs away with Florence from the Yellow House. The implication is that they fled abuse happening there, and Betty would do anything to make sure she didn’t face that again, including making Floyd give up on his secret love. Florence married and gave birth to Mariel, but couldn’t bear to let her out of her sight. She was doing the same thing that Betty did – trying to make sure she was secure, even at the cost of her daughter’s dreams of moving away. Mariel, having given up on her hopes, finds new ones with Ned, but again her mother’s focus on the wrong thing ruins everything for everyone else. After forgiveness has been found, and Mariel gives birth to Julia, there is little time for these two to get to know each other, for Mariel dies of lung cancer when Julia is four. Her father takes over the Lakeside Supper Club, but Julia knows that this has been saved for her future, as she will inherit it. She hates working there, loving nature instead. Ned allows her to strike out on her own at college in Ohio, and comes back to sell the Supper Club when she is 21. Julia had kept waiting for her mother to come to her to show her the way, but she never appeared. After she sells the place to someone local that will love it as her family did, her father then lets her in on the fact that her mother would be proud Julia was able to make her own destiny.

books, reading, review

Two books at once: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder and Red, White and Royal Blue

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanna Fluke

A baker, Hannah Swensen, in a small town where everyone knows you, finds her dairy delivery man dead behind her store “The Cookie Jar” one morning before she even opens. We meet Hannah’s mother, who is intent on getting her oldest daughter married to any eligible bachelor she can find; Lisa, who works at the Cookie Jar with Hannah; Andrea – Hannah’s sister – and Bill, her husband, as well as their daughter Tracey. As Hannah helps Bill find clues to solve the murder, Hannah gets to know Norman – the newly arrived dentist in town that their mothers have fixed up. We meet other colorful characters of the town, all on the way to finding a second murder and ultimately find out “who done it.” Fun, not difficult to figure out, but enjoyable to read.

Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

A standard love story, but with the two fair haired boys of UK and US as the romantic pair. Focus on what you need to do to maintain the status quo, and the cost of familial expectations, versus being true to yourself. A fun read.

books, reading, review

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

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If you don’t know Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, you are in for a crash course. The theme of this play is also the theme of this book, even if it is shown in a round about way. This is told in three acts.

The Play’s Act One focuses on Daily Life. You meet the townsfolk, learn of the gossip around Simon Stimson, the town alcoholic. The day closes with you seeing two main characters – George and Emily – on the cusp on growing up. In Tom Lake you meet Lara, her daughters and her husband. You learn the everyday trials they all go through and how they end up together during the pandemic.

The Play’s Act Two focuses on Love and Marriage – the preparation for George and Emily’s marriage. Both say they are not ready, but George pledges to stay home to take over his uncle’s farm and Emily accepts her place to be his wife. Tom Lake shows you the complicated lives of Lara and her fellow community at a regional theater named Tom Lake. You see what people yearn for, how they want things to be, and how they interact. You even meet the town’s drunk.

Act Three is nine years later, we witness Emily’s funeral, having died in childbirth. She goes back to witness her 12th birthday and realizes you never pay attention to the things that matter when you are doing them. The question of whether anyone truly values the life they live while they are living it is asked, and answered, no. Tom Lake shows the choices made to make things change, how they create a type of death of the starlet that was Lara, but the birth of the woman Lara was meant to become. You see her choosing to make things be a certain way, staying at Joe’s uncle’s farm, choosing to live the life he offered her.

The similarities of Lara’s story to the play are compelling. Set at the time of the pandemic, Joe and Lara’s grown children return to their cherry farm in Traverse City Michigan to be together. Three daughters – Emily, the oldest is the most capable and willing to stay on the farm; Maisey is in veterinary school, looking to help others whenever she can; and Nell is pursuing acting full time in New York. Lara had been an actress, and had known a famous actor – Peter Duke – whom Emily was sure was her father. During this time together the three daughters finally prevail on Lara to tell them her story. Even the three daughters line up with the three acts of the play – the youngest pursuing a lofty future, the middle content to make everyone comfortable, and the oldest knowing her role in the play.

Without too many spoilers, the story unfolds in similar fashion to that of the play – straining for a future; wanting it all; and understanding what is at stake. For both, the need to understand the value of the life you live is the key. While the play ends in three acts, the book shows that Lara learned the lesson of the play and looked to ensure the life she lived was real and what she wanted. She never regretted anything, and felt that she had lived understanding the true lessons. Her life was the one that Emily wanted, but didn’t get. While the play leaves you sobbing, this leaves you a bit melancholy for what can so easily be lost, but also hopeful that the play will continue on with future generations in their own ways.

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Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

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I enjoyed this book.
How can you not when it starts of with a sarcastic octopus, who ultimately has the best lines in the entire book?  And I promise – no spoilers.

First, we meet Marcellus– on day 1299 of his captivity. He is a giant Pacific octopus, exceptionally bright, bored, and aware his life span is coming to an end.

Next, we meet Tova, a 70-year-old widow, who works evenings cleaning the Sowell Bay Aquarium each night where Marcellus lives. She has been working there since the death of her husband a few years earlier. She has been keeping herself busy, however, since the mysterious death of her 18-year-old son decades before. Being busy helps her move forward in life.

Last, we meet Cameron. A 30-year-old man that acts like a teenage boy. He has never taken responsibility or life too seriously and can never catch a break to get ahead. Unemployed, Cameron awaits his friend while collecting the belongings that were thrown off a balcony while he was being thrown out of his girlfriend’s apartment.

These three beings will leave imprints on each other’s lives that will be remarkable.

As Tova and Marcellus are beginning to face the realities of where they are in life, they begin to
have empathy toward each other. A simple act of kindness from Tova, who found Marcellus
on the floor in the breakroom tangled in electrical cords, saved Marcellus’ life by getting him free. They become connected by this act, both physically and emotionally. Tova’s hand was entwined in the tentacles when freeing the cords. Suction marks remained after as proof of her being touched by someone or something else.

When Cameron receives a box of belongings from the mother that abandoned him when he was 9, Cameron believes he has found the identity of his unknown father. He leaves to find him and collect on 30 years of child support. When his luggage goes missing it is as if everything that tied him to what he was also went away.

Through a series of bad decisions, followed up by the genuine kindness of strangers, Cameron buys a crappy camper, makes some friends, and gets a job at the aquarium. As the lives and
tales of the people he meets calm him, Cameron takes responsibilities seriously, and is even taught by Tova that every job you do is a job that is worth being done well.

As the end draws near for Marcellus – typical lifespan is 3-5 years or 1095 – 1825 days, both Tova and Cameron learn from Marcellus how to take care of oneself and one’s friends as that time draws near. It is with Marcellus’ help that Tova and Cameron learn lifechanging information, and why Tova made sure that Marcellus’ end was not in captivity.

As each person meets their next steps in life, it is the strength they received from each other that
helps them move forward.



 



 



 



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Pieces of Happiness by Anne Ostby

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What would you do if your childhood friend from 50 years ago sent you a letter asking you to leave your life and come live with her in Fiji on a cocoa farm? That is what happens to four 66 year old women in Norway. They have each gone their own ways, with their own secrets and pains. How would this work out? How has everyone changed? How have they not changed? And what about all the cultural difference between Norway and Fiji? How will they navigate this?

This is the story of five women facing the reality of getting older, at a stage where they are no longer who they thought they were. They come together and face with who they were, who they became, and who they want to be next in the time they have left.

An endearing story of how to find a new chapter when most people write you off, including yourself.