A Story of Siblings

How would you feel if your family’s story was made into a novel and then became a motion picture? This is exactly what happens to Franny Keating when she becomes involved with a best-selling author who is searching for ideas for his new book. Franny’s family life is complicated. It begins at Franny's Christening party when an uninvited guest arrives with a bottle of gin. After her folks divorce, she becomes part of a blended family. Franny and her sister Caroline go to live in Virginia with their mother and her new husband, Bert. His four children come out from California every summer. The kids are left on their own much of the time. The adventures and tragedy that happen to this clan are strange and understandable at the same time. If you like family dramas, Commonwealth by Ann Patchett is intriguing. DB

An Enchanting Autumn

Autumn has come to Bascom, NC and magic is in the air. The Waverly sisters, Claire and Sydney and their families, are waiting for first frost. It’s a special time when the mixed-up apple tree in the backyard blooms. The tree represents the family--thought of as “strange” by the town’s residents, due to their special abilities. Each of the family members are hoping that first frost will bring peace and answers to the problems they are facing. Claire has started a candy business and it is taking over her life. Sydney longs for another child. Bay, Sydney’s daughter has a crush on a high school classmate and she can’t think straight. First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen takes place ten years after her debut novel Garden Spells. The Waverly family story continues...DB

Happy Families

These lines in Lisa Jewell's new book The House We Grew Up In, perfectly set the stage for this story.
“They lived in a honey-colored house that sat hard up against the pavement of a picture-postcard Cotswolds village and stretched out beyond into three-quarters of an acre of rambling half-kempt gardens. Their mother was a beautiful hippy called Lorelei with long tangled hair and sparkling green eyes who treated her children like precious gems. Their father was a sweet gangly man called Colin, who still looked like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish round-framed glasses. They all attended the village school, they ate home-cooked meals together every night, their extended family was warm and clever, there was money for parties and new paddling pools, but not quite enough for foreign travel, but it didn’t matter, because they lived in paradise.”
This is a story of a family, but not that perfect family. The people in that perfect family gradually changed, as secrets, tragedy and mental illness visited them. Told from multiple points of view, we see the family struggle, grow and change. A mesmerizing read! ML

It's all Good...

Hildy Good is direct descendant from Sarah Good---who was tried as a witch in Salem. She has lived in Wendover, Massachusetts all of her life. As the most successful realtor in the area, she knows everything about everybody in town. Hildy is also an alcoholic, somewhat recovering, mostly in denial, who is privy to a cache of secrets that is about to complicate her life. Her days become a pendulum of thoughts, actions, emotions and solace. The Good House: a novel by Ann Leary provides a compelling look at someone who struggles with an addiction in current everyday life. DB