Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

Title: Meet Me at the Lake
Author: Carley Fortune
Publication: Penguin Random House audiobook / Berkley, hardcover, 2023
Narrator: A.J. Bridel
Genre: Fiction/Romance
Setting: Ontario, Canada

Description: Fern Brookbanks loves the Muskoka resort she grew up in but she also enjoys Toronto, where she went to college, and the big city experience. Just before graduation, when she is reluctant to tell her mother she doesn’t want to return home to help manage the resort, she meets an artist her age, Will Baxter.

You and Me and Us by Alison Hammer

Title: You and Me and Us
Author: Alison Hammer

Publication: William Morrow, Hardcover/Trade Paperback/Ebook, April 2020

Genre: Fiction

Plot: Alexis Gold knows how to put the “work” in working mom. It’s the “mom” part that she’s been struggling with lately. Since opening her own advertising agency three years ago, Alexis has all but given up on finding a good work/life balance. Instead, she’s handed over the household reins to her supportive, loving partner, Tommy. While he’s quick to say they divide and conquer, Alexis knows that Tommy does most of the heavy lifting—especially when it comes to their teenage daughter, CeCe.

Six Degrees of Separation: from Sanditon to Mrs. Tim Christie

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

Sanditon, the unfinished Jane Austen, was Kate’s starting book. I read this long ago and unfortunately don’t remember it at all.  However, I am looking forward to the new dramatization on Masterpiece Theatre beginning January 12, 2020.

Joan Aiken came to mind because I thought she had completed Sanditon, but "her" Austen is Emma Watson, The Watsons Completed, which is my first book (not to be confused with actress Emma Watson!). 

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

Title: The Rest of the Story
Author: Sarah Dessen
Publication: HarperCollins, hardcover, 2019
Genre: Young Adult

Plot: When Emma Payne’s father remarries, she unexpectedly needs a place to go while he is on his honeymoon. The surprising suggestion is that Emma visit her mother’s mother in working class North Lake, two hours away. Emma’s mother was an addict who overdosed years ago, and Emma has had no contact with her mother’s family since she was 4, although she remembers stories her mother told her as a child. When she arrives, she meets cousins she didn’t know existed and learns her grandmother runs a motel. She also learns that her Calvander family know her as Saylor, which is her middle name. Determined to pull her weight, Emma Saylor is soon changing bedding and scrubbing toilets with her cousins and Roo, the cute son of her mother’s best friend. Cleaning allows time for contemplation about her mother’s sad end; why doesn’t Emma remember more about her childhood visit; the contrast between North Lake and the affluent resort side of town, known as Lake North, which is where Emma’s mother first met her father. Although it takes strategy, Emma finds she fits in on both sides of the lake and, ultimately, has to make a choice regarding where she actually belongs.

My Impressions: A new Sarah Dessen is always a treat, and after a few that were only so-so, I felt this one returned to her usual high standard. Emma is introspective and allows the reader to share her reactions and feelings and, as always, the author makes you care about her. Like many heroines of this genre, Emma is trying to figure out who she is – with the added complication of learning she has two names – Emma, her comfortable suburban self, and Saylor, her can-do summer lake self. Knowing your mother was an addict and died from her addiction would be stressful for anyone and one can’t blame her father for shielding her from that part of her heritage, but it is hard to believe that her paternal relatives living just two hours away gave up on all contact with Emma. Her father didn’t even know Emma’s grandfather had died!

Coming to North Lake brings Emma Saylor close to her rediscovered family, helps her realize all the things she can do – drive, clean (you can tell Sarah Dessen has deep cleaned some rooms in her time – I wish I had those skills!), hold her own against anyone who challenges her, and reclaim memories of her mother. Dessen excels in depicting relationships, and the best part of the book is the way Emma Saylor and her three cousins establish friendships. If there was a flaw, it was that the story is light on romance.   Roo is appealing (except for his name) but very understated.

Off the Blog: It is day lily season and I am pleased that the crimson and peach bulbs I planted have finally emerged! Gardening is an uphill battle for me.

Source: Library copy but I hope to attend a book signing later this month in Falmouth and purchase my own. Not long ago I learned that my father and Sarah Dessen’s father were college classmates, although I doubt they knew each other.  Funny to think she might have turned up at Harvard instead of becoming a Tar Heel!   My elder nieces and I did meet Sarah in 2013 - see photo (proof!).

Unclaimed Baggage (Book Review)

Title: Unclaimed Baggage

Author: Jen Doll

Publication: Farrar Straus Giroux, hardcover, 2018

Genre: YA

Plot:  Unclaimed Baggage follows three quirky teens working for the summer at a store that sells luggage lost and never claimed by airline travelers.  Doris is 16 and has a skill for finding things.  She is a liberal in a conservative town and yearns to escape to Brown (which would be lucky to get her).  She has been with the store long enough to be so highly regarded by the owner that she is put in charge of training two new summer associates: Nell, a reluctant newcomer from Chicago; and Grant, whose life has suddenly gone from football star to outcast. Even worse, he was once involved in the most traumatic episode of Doris’ life and showed no remorse.   This unlikely trio become friends, which helps each one find what he or she most needs.

Audience: Fans of YA who enjoy unusual friendship stories

My Impressions: I really liked this book and the character of Doris, who feels like a stranger in her own family and home town, but starts coming to terms with it once she has friends who really get her.  The story is told convincingly from three points of view, and author Doll does an amazing job creating major and minor characters, and weaving various types of friendship – among teens, among coworkers, and even between Doris, Nell, and Grant, and their families .   She also reminds us how differently people view the same events: an incident that took place at a local water park several years ago has haunted Doris, primarily because an adult did not believe her account of what happened and shamed her, but also because Grant laughed at her humiliation.  But Grant hasn’t thought about it since, although showing more clue than most teenage boys, he does remember, once prompted, is contrite about his failure to stand up for Doris, and is forgiven. And I forgive the author for writing in the present tense, which I usually find annoying.   

Another thing I liked was that all the parents cared about their children, even if they didn't always understand them or know how to show they care.  

Quotes I Liked:

“Oh, the 8-Ball!” she says, not even acknowledging that I was just caught making out with it. “I’ve asked it so many dumb questions.  Will I get into Brown?  Will my parents let me go if I do?  Will I ever be kissed?  By someone not horrible?” She sticks out her tongue and makes a face.  “The answer to that one: Very doubtful.  Every single time!  I think it’s trying to tell me something.” She laughs. 

* * * 

"One final question." Doris interrupts my train of thought.  "When can you start?  Oh, and one more question: Have you ever had a Krispy Kreme donut?"

* * * 

Having someone else value you means you don’t have to work so hard to do it yourself – or at least, it can feel that way, even if it shouldn’t.  

“But, Nell, you are interesting, on your own.  You are choosable!   I know that, and I’ve never even met your boyfriend.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, I would choose you.  I do choose you.” I reach out and squeeze her hand for a second, and she squeezes back.

“I choose you, too,” she says. “I’m really glad we’re friends.”

Unclaimed Baggage is a real store in Alabama!

Purchase Links:  IndieBound * Amazon * Barnes & Noble 

Off the Blog: This weekend included an exciting triple overtime win for the Crimson over Columbia on Friday, followed by a depressing loss to Cornell in which we'd had a 15 point lead.

Source: Boston Public Library

The Perfect Burger

My sisters and I are in search of the perfect burger. This article from the NYT and this from the Washington Post don't really provide enough recipes to help us. I wonder if I should pack my Worcestershire Sauce and bring it with me? What is the real secret? What do you suggest?