Sunday, August 25, 2019

If You Lived Here You’d be Home by Now

In August 2015, Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham was looking for a story when he came across a list of American counties classified from the ugliest to the most scenic. In covering this story, he wrote a sentence that would change his life.
“The absolute worst place to live in America is...Red Lake County, Minn.”
He received many responses from Red Lake residents, and accepted an offer to visit. The visit made a big impact on Ingraham and he made a life changing decision...to move his family from Washington, DC to Red Lake County, Minn.
The book is a story about his life there..the changes he made and the life lessons that changed him. What he learned was that statistics and numbers do not tell a complete story.
Inspiring and a great read. Harper Collins Publisher, September 2019

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Cyril Conroy brought his young family from poverty to riches and with his new money he bought The Dutch House, a beautiful estate in the suburbs outside Philadelphia. It was meant as a surprise for his wife, Elna. But it was more of a shock that Elna did not recover from and sent her running away to a country far from her husband and children. 
The children Maeve and Danny formed a strong, unbreakable bond, and managed to grow up without their mom, with the help of two house keepers and a nanny.
And then dad Cyril brings home Andrea, marries her and set in motion the very undoing of their family.
...I loved this book. I haven’t been reading as much as I used to, and this book reminded me why I love to read. 
Relationships between family, decisions that drastically change a life, love found and love lost...kept me reading until the last word.
I highly recommend this novel and look forward to the next one written by Ann Patchett!
Harper Collins, publisher
Due out September 2019