Valentine ...Elizabeth Wetmore

What a great first novel. Author Wetmore has a way with words, to put it simply. I read every word of this book, literally. Her descriptions were so real, that you believed you were from Odessa, Texas. Her characters were as real as your next door neighbor. When she describes the sky looking like a nasty bruise, I saw it. When she describes a chain-smoking drunk, I smelled them.

The book starts with an horrific event. The chapters, titled by character, unfold a very complex story. The oil boom in Texas, the drifters that came into town, the dust and dirt and grease that became the air you breathed, not a pretty picture. The story is heartbreaking, no way around it. But it also shows how resilient humans are... 

This book will be out in April 2020. Harper Collins, publisher. Mark your calendars!

If Only I Could Tell You

If Only I Could Tell You
Hannah Beckerman, author

Two sisters, Lily and Phoebe, haven’t spoken for almost 30 years.
Their mother, Audrey has given up trying to fix them. She sees her two granddaughters, always separately.
A secret, so big and devastating, has taken its toll on three generations of this family.
This is a well written story about lives torn apart and lives healing again. Recommended.
William Morrow/Harper Collins publisher

Singing My Him Song / M McCourt

Malachy’s brother Frank introduced us to the McCourt family in his novel “Angela’s Ashes”. Then Malachy wrote his first novel about his life in America, “A Monk Swimming”...The McCourt family lived a poverty stricken life growing up in Ireland, and when Malachy came to the USA as a young man, he was determined to change all that. He was a bartender, a hooligan, a sometime actor. Unfortunately, he was an alcoholic , too. Divorced from his first wife and estranged from his children , he was spiraling downward.
Down and out and unemployed, you can’t help but rout for Malachy McCourt:)
I loved this book, as I loved reading his first book and his brother Frank’s books. This McCourt boy had a wild and crazy life.

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

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