Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman

 

From the blurb: 

"The new year barely began when Grace White and Henry Adler both lost their spouses. Now, nearly a year later, the first holiday season since their "Great and Terrible Sadnesses" approaches. Although their mothers scheme to matchmake the two surviving spouses, it’s clear that neither is ready to date again. Yet no one understands what they're going through better than each other, and a delicate friendship is born.

"When Henry sees an ad for a Christmas movie marathon—once an annual tradition for him and his wife—Grace offers to watch some films with him, despite her aversion to a few of his picks. Her two young kids, Ian and Bella, also join in whenever possible—bedtimes permitting, of course.

"With each movie, Grace and Henry’s shared grief eases as they start to see a life beyond the sadness. But as they draw closer, other romantic possibilities leave them both uncertain about their future together. Is their bond merely the result of loneliness and shared circumstances, or have they found something that’s worth taking a shot at . . . again?"

My thoughts:  Matthew Norman brilliantly captures the up-and-down journey through grief. And though this novel deals with death and loss, it's not a sad book. There are poignant moments, but there are also humorous, heartwarming and fun moments. And so many times I found myself nodding my head at something Grace or Henry said about the grief process. Because I've been there. And Norman gets it. I love the way he writes! And I love these characters and their friendship and shared moments of sadness. And Grace's two kids are awesome. I loved Henry's and Ian's art projects. And all the Christmas movie tie-ins were so fun; they made me laugh. This book is the best!

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

Happy After All by Maisey Yates

 

"It's a truth universally acknowledged--at least, in a romance novel--that the moment the main character has her life in order, the exact person she doesn't want to meet will come along and knock all that careful order into disarray. For example, when a respectable motel owner who has decided to focus on her writing career and her own personal happiness is beginning to feel satisfied with the way she's rebuilding her life, a disastrously gorgeous man will walk in and disrupt everything."

Amelia fled to Rancho Encanto to rewrite her life. She's not looking for romance. Then Nathan Hart comes to her motel to write for the summer. He's aloof and keeps to himself, but Amelia can't help feeling a spark of attraction between them. Not only are they both writers, they're both grieving loss and trying to move forward and heal. But heartbreak is hard to overcome. 

"We would never have met if our lives hadn't crashed and burned. But it doesn't feel like something that happened because of tragedy. It feels like a small miracle. An oasis in the middle of the desert, which in many ways is what Rancho Encanto is."

This is such a good book! I loved how Yates starts each chapter with a romance trope, and how Amelia, a romance writer, uses that framework to narrate her own story. I thought it was very clever and fun. But this is not a simple summer romance. There's a range of emotions in this one: laughter and loss, hurt and hiding from that sadness, grumpiness, joy, lots of tears, and love. Both Amelia and Nathan had to navigate their own grief in order to find healing and hope. I also loved Amelia's found family full of quirky characters living in this small desert community. They made me smile. 

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin

 

The main characters:

FRANKIE O'NEILL--a graduate student grieving the death of her father and struggling to finish her master's thesis; she's come to her family's small summer cottage on June Lake to try and pull her life together. 

"Bird song, wind in the trees, the rhythmic lifting and clanking of the dock in the waves, the water lapping the shore. Sounds as familiar as her own breath. It was a comfort to hear them, as she'd hoped. But the feeling wouldn't last....Because she was not a girl at home in the woods and falling in love with birds for the first time. She was twenty-six, homeless, and staring down a host of uncomfortable new firsts in her life. She was unemployed and unemployable. Bereft of friends and allies, she was out of options, out of ideas, and out of places to go."

ANNE RYAN--Irish musician, young wife and mother; she's dealing with her own grief and struggling to connect with her five-year-old son, Aiden, who no longer speaks to her or her husband, Tim. She, Aiden and Tim have come to June Lake hoping to reconnect. 

"Nobody tells the truth about having children, Anne knew. ...Nobody ever admitted that being a mother is an epic of failure. There were just so many opportunities to fail: when your baby won't eat, or sleep, or stop crying, or won't look at you, or won't speak to you. Or stares at his hands and won't respond when you say his name. Or screams unconsolably for some unknown reason. Or when you take your attention off him for one minute and he vanishes into thin air."

My thoughts:  I loved this book. The quietness. The beautiful prose. The tentative friendship between Frankie and Anne's young son, Aiden. The baby crow Frankie saves and returns to its family. Hers and Anne's separate journeys through loss and grief, and the friendship and healing they find along the way. I loved the remote setting, and all the talk and descriptions of crows. It's such a transporting and captivating novel. A perfect read for the end of summer. 

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  

Happy Reading!

 

I also really enjoyed reading Garvin's The Music of Bees. 

How to Walk Away by Katherine Center

 

Plot summary:  Margaret Jacobsen's life feels perfect. She has her MBA and the promise of a dream job. And her handsome boyfriend just proposed. Everything is falling into place. But then, on Valentine's Day, the unexpected happens and Margaret's life is changed forever, her future that seemed so bright suddenly gone. And everyone keeps telling her to be positive and smile...except for her physical therapist who barely talks to her; instead, he pushes her to try harder everyday. And her fiance? When he's not drunk he tells her he still loves her, but he never comes to visit her. Instead, it's her sister that shows up, the sister she's been estranged from for the past three years. Margaret's journey is one of pain and grief....and hope. And she learns some important truths along the way:

• Needing to find reasons to live had forced me to build a life worth living.
• The greater our capacity for sorrow becomes, the greater our capacity for joy.
• You have to live the life you have.
• When you don't know what to do for yourself, do something for somebody else.
• There are all kinds of happy endings. 

My thoughts:  This is one of those books that once I started reading it I couldn't put it down! Margaret's such a relatable character. Everything about her accident and recovery felt so real; I understood her moments of depression, cheered her resilience and moments of anger, and cried with her, too. And I loved her happy ending. Her sister, Kit, made me laugh; and I really liked Ian, her physical therapist. This book is so much more than a simple romance. It's amazing. And I loved it!

Happy Reading!

Other favorite Katherine Center books:

The Bodyguard

Things You Save in a Fire

Happiness for Beginners

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

 

Blurb from Goodreads:  Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books.

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Satoru, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoko left him five years earlier.

When Takako's boyfriend reveals he's marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle's offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above the shop. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.

My thoughts:  This novel is quietly enchanting, especially the first half. I loved Takako's time at the bookshop with her uncle, and how books and reading became so important in helping her find her way out of her depression. I also loved reading about Jimbocho, Tokyo's famous book district. What a cool neighborhood! In the second half, Takako leaves the bookshop and her aunt, Momoko, who has been gone for five years, comes back. I didn't like Momoko very much, and Takako doesn't spend much time in Jimbocho or at the bookshop in this part of the book, so I didn't enjoy the last half nearly as much as I did the first half.  

Here are two of my favorite quotes from this book...the first one is Takako's Uncle speaking of his adventurous youth traveling the world, and the second one is Takako talking about her newfound love of reading.  

"I wanted to see the whole world for myself. I wanted to see the whole range of possibilities. Your life is yours. It doesn't belong to anyone else. I wanted to know what it would mean to live life on my own terms."

 

 "It was as if, without realizing it, I had opened a door I had never known existed. That's exactly what it felt like. From that moment on, I read relentlessly, one book after another. It was as if a love of reading had been sleeping somewhere deep inside me all this time, and then it suddenly sprang to life. ... I'd never experienced anything like this before. It made me feel like I had been wasting my life until this moment."

Happy Reading!

P.S. This book counts towards Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge. 

 

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

 

This is a thoughtful and poignant novel about how books and reading can provide help, healing and hope, bring people together, and create lasting friendships. And I loved it.

It begins with Mukesh Patel, a lonely and grieving widower, whose wife loved books; Mukesh wants to connect with his granddaughter, Priya, but doesn't know how. An overdue library book of his wife's leads him to the local library where he meets Aleisha, a lonely teen working at the library for the summer who doesn't actually read much, and who has no idea what book to recommend to Mukesh. 

But then she's given a list of eight books with the heading: "Just in case you need it," and she starts to read them...and recommend them to Mukesh. And these books help Mukesh connect with his granddaughter, and with Aleisha, and pushes him to socialize more; they also help Aleisha connect with her mentally ill mother, and with a boy she meets on the train. Many other lives are touched in this book because of this one reading list. 

The Reading List is a captivating novel that touched my heart and kept me reading all day long. I loved the characters. And the ending totally made me cry. It's a good one...and another book that's perfect for Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge.

Happy Reading!

A Happy Catastrophe by Maddie Dawson

Marnie MacGraw is a bit of a matchmaker--she believes in love and sees sparkles in the air when she meets two people who are meant to be together. Of course, she's already found her match. She loves Patrick--even though they are complete opposites--and she wants to have a baby with him. But she also knows she needs to be ready to accept whatever the universe brings her way.

Patrick Delaney is an introvert. He used to be a up-and-coming sculptor, but then a fire ruined his hands, scarred his face, and killed his girlfriend. That was seven years ago, but he thinks about it everyday. And even though he loves Marnie, he guards his heart from loving her too much because he can't risk the pain of losing her. And he thinks he's too empty inside to ever be anyone's father. 
 

Then along comes Fritzie. She's eight. She loves doing cartwheels and asking too many questions. And she's Patrick's daughter. A daughter he never knew he had. And she's about to change Marnie's and Patrick's life forever. 

My thoughts: I enjoyed everything about this book. It alternates between Marnie's and Patrick's POV, which worked well because the two of them are so different and I liked being able to see the same situation from both of their perspectives. I thought Patrick's struggle to get over his grief and guilt, figure out how to be a dad to an extroverted eight-year-old, and embrace the chaotic joy of having Marnie in his life was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. His and Marnie's relationship is messy, diverting, funny, flawed, hopeful and full of heart. I was rooting for them to make things work because I liked them so much. For me, A Happy Catastrophe turned out to be a sweet and charming romance. 

Happy Reading!

Bear Necessity by James Gould-Bourn

 

Things aren't going well for Danny Malooley. His wife died a year ago in a car crash, and his eleven-year-old son, Will, who was with her when she died, hasn't spoken since. Not one word. Even though he's being bullied at school. And Danny doesn't know what to do to make him start talking again. Not only that, Danny is two months behind in the rent. And he just lost his job. And when no one else will hire him, he dons a cheap panda suit and starts dancing in the park in the hopes of making some money as a street performer. Though his plan would work better if he could actually dance. But it does give him a chance to rescue his son from a bully. And when Will speaks to him afterwards?! It's the best moment in the world. Too bad Will doesn't know it's his dad behind the panda mask. And Danny doesn't know how to tell him the truth.

This book is one of those quiet, character-driven novels that packs a punch. It's poignant, humorous and heartwarming all at once. Both Danny's and Will's struggles made me want to cry...and laugh. And I loved Danny's efforts to reconnect with his son. Even the secondary characters in this book are fun and memorable, from Danny's tough Ukrainian friend, Ivan, to Krystal, the wise-cracking, f-bomb dropping, pole dancer who helps him learn to dance. Like Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson and Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobsen this novel is a true gem, and one I'm so glad I happened upon. 

Happy Reading!

Not just a summer romance...

 

Ben and Anna had a plan to sail the Caribbean together. But then Ben took his own life and Anna now has to figure out how to live without him. Only it's not working. So on the day they were supposed to set sail, Anna decides to take Ben's boat and make the trip alone. But Anna's never sailed without Ben, so she hires a professional sailor to show her the ropes.

Keane is grieving, too. He lost his lower right leg in a car accident a year ago and now no one will hire him to race with their crew, even though he has a prosthetic leg that makes it possible and sailboat racing is the thing he loves most in the world. Until he meets Anna.

My thoughts:  Float Plan by Trish Doller is one of those poignant and charming reads that had me hooked from the first page. I really felt for Anna as she grieved Ben's death and the loss of all their dreams. I also admired her resilience as she found new hopes and dreams for herself.

"I'm starting to understand how sadness and happiness can live side by side within a heart. And how that heart can keep on beating."

Her relationship with Keane as they went from polite strangers to caring friends to more was a touching journey. There's a lot of humor and heart in this book. I also really enjoyed reading about all the different islands they visited; it made me want to set sail around the Caribbean myself. All in all, Trish Doller has written an amazing story that I loved a lot.  

Happy Reading!

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs

 

Short summary of the plot: 

Natalie Harper has a safe job she doesn't really like, and a safer boyfriend she just doesn't love. But everything in her life changes when her mother unexpectedly dies. Now Natalie is in charge of her mother's beloved bookstore, The Lost and Found Bookshop, and she's also responsible for her aging grandfather who's been experiencing memory issues. To make matters worse, the bookstore is drowning in debt and unpaid bills. The logical answer is to sell it. Only the historic San Francisco building that houses the bookshop belongs to her grandfather, and he refuses to sell because he's convinced there's a treasure hidden somewhere inside. But the old building is practically falling down around them and in need of some serious repairs, none of which Natalie can afford. So, to keep her grandfather happy, Natalie has to figure out some way to save her mother's bookshop. 

My thoughts:

The thing I loved most about this book is Natalie's sweet relationship with her grandfather, and how she tries so hard to honor and take care of him. I also loved the bookstore and its interesting history. Bookstores have always been a favorite setting of mine. Then there's Peach Gallagher, the ex-marine Natalie hires to do some repairs on the bookstore, and his cute daughter Dorothy. They're both such great characters; I loved them, too. Books, family, friendship, loss, hope, and love. All of these things make this novel a joy to read. And it's got a happy ending, too! And right now, don't we all need one of those?

Happy Reading!

A bookish journey to Budapest...

Title: Katalin Street
Author:  Magda Szabo
Summary:  In prewar Budapest, the Elekes, Held and Biro families live side by side on gracious Katalin Street, their lives closely intertwined, their four children inseparable. Then, in 1944, during the German occupation, all their hopes and dreams for the future are shattered. Lives are lost. And those who survive are forever changed. They are haunted, not only by their own guilt and sorrow, but by their longing to return to their former lives on Katalin Street.

Adjectives that describe this novel:  introspective, poignant, and bleak

Favorite quotes from Katalin Street:

There were several ornaments and objects from her former home too, but none of them conjured up the magic he had been hoping for. Iren's new abode had turned out to be nothing like the one in Katalin Street, and even here he was haunted by the sense of being somewhere else. The marriage to Iren had showed him that she yearned and pined for Katalin Street just as much as he did, that she had not found it, and neither had her parents, who were locked in the same hopeless quest to recover it ... This tyranny of somewhere else was a cruel one. It stopped Balint from seeing both the reality that existed and what he would have liked that reality to be.

The people who were with me on that day were imprinted on my memory--some of them permanently, some for many years afterward--exactly as they were at the time...

It was the first time in my life that I had an inkling that the dead are not dead but continue living in this world, in one form or another, indestructibly...

It is not only facts that are irreversible, our past reactions and feelings are too. One can neither relive them not alter them.

This isn't exactly a happy read, but it is an interesting and thoughtful one. (It's also not very long.) I  like reading about Europe, and World War II, and the time period following it during the Soviet occupation; I think it's important for all of us to know and remember what those times were like for the people who had to endure them. So even though this novel is a little depressing and sad...

Happy Reading!

The Language of Sand

"We was a term she hadn't uttered in a while. For Abigail, there was no more we. To her, we meant her family, her husband and son. Her main frame of reference was as we:  We bought a new house. We're having a baby. We're going out to eat. Now all that remained was I. It was the second of only two one-letter words in the entire dictionary, the first being A. Each was defiantly singular. The language would be nothing without them. Abigail felt she was nothing without we. She missed we." 

When life as she knows it ends one night in heartbreaking tragedy, Abigail Harker seeks refuge at the lighthouse on Chapel Isle, a secluded island in North Carolina's Outer Banks. It was where her husband loved to go as a boy. Where she hopes to be able to grieve in peace. But the caretaker's cottage isn't exactly the haven she thought it would be:  it's isolated and rundown, very rundown, and it's also apparently haunted by Wesley Jasper, the former lighthouse keeper who experienced his own tragedy in 1902. And while many of the islanders are friendly and welcoming, some are not. And the words that Abby once loved as a lexicographer seem to have failed her. For there are no words to deal with her loss. Still, she's doing her best to keep moving forward. But then there's a rash of robberies on the island. And an approaching hurricane. And Abby begins to think coming to Chapel Isle might not have been such a good idea after all.

"Whether you stay here in Chapel Isle or take the next ferry home, it won't make a bit of difference. It's like trying to serve two masters. You've got the grief and you've got your life. The one you choose to serve is up to you."

 I loved this book:  the lyrical writing, the exploration of words and language, the quirky cast of island characters, and Abby's own reinvention of her life. Ellen Block is an amazing writer, and The Language of Sand is a magical story full of hope and heart. There's nothing I would change about it. Best of all, there's a sequel:  The Definition of Wind. 

Happy Reading!

Forever, Interrupted

Wow.

This book is both sexy and sad, magical and heartbreaking. And parts of it left me breathless.

Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid is definitely "not your average love story." I've never read another novel where a romance so right and a grief so poignant are as deftly woven together as in this one. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down.

The premise?

Elsie Porter meets Ben Ross on New Year's Day. Their attraction is instantaneous and very mutual. After only two weeks of dating, they've both fallen head over heels in love with each other. Five months later, they decide to elope. Nine days after that, Ben is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Their love was like a supernova. And then it wasn't. Life's like that. But that's not the end ... because "there's more than one way to find a happy ending."

This gripping, amazing novel made me smile, sigh, laugh, cry, skip ahead and go back and read all over again. It's that kind of book.

Happy Reading!

Feeling Lost?

Title: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
First Line: Once upon a time--for that is how all stories should begin--there was a boy who lost his mother.
Summary: That boy is twelve-year-old David. Grieving for his mother, David turns to his books for comfort. But the stories whispering through their pages want something from him in return. As his mother once told him, "Stories wanted to be read. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours." Only this time, they manage to lure David into their world instead--a world full of strange creatures, twisted fairy tales and dark magic. Now David must somehow find his way back home.
My Thoughts: David is a great character--still only a boy, lost and alone and having to battle his own fears, anger, and jealousy, all while struggling to grow up; I liked him a lot. I also liked the characters he meets on his journey, especially The Woodsman. In many ways, this book reminded me of the second half of the musical Into The Woods. Parts made me laugh, other parts made me sad; but altogether, this book has an ending worth reaching. Despite its premise and fairy-tale aspects, it is shelved in adult fiction. Go figure. So, if you want to lose yourself in a good read, check this one out.

Happy Reading!

Sisters in books...

Title: The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

First Line: The night before the worst day of my life, I dreamed the sun went dark and ice cracked every mirror in the house, but I didn't take it for a warning.

Characters:  Olivia and Jazz Moon, two sisters grieving the death of their mother. Olivia, who sees sounds and tastes words, is exasperating and impossible; she's also a dreamer who goes blind staring at the sun. Jazz, who can't compete with her younger sister, is down-to-earth, responsible, and angry; she also feels like it's her job to watch out for her sister.

My Thoughts:  When they're together, Olivia and Jazz bring out the worst in each other; around Jazz, Olivia seems incredibly selfish and spoiled, while Jazz seems rigid and controlling. I liked them much better apart. Luckily, they both do some growing up over the course of this novel. My favorite character was Hobbs, the tattooed train-hopping wanderer the two sisters meet along the way. I knew about synesthesia--the stimulation of senses other than those receiving input (like hearing colors, or tasting sounds)--before I read this novel, but glimpsing the world as viewed through the eyes of someone (Olivia) who has this 'faulty wiring' was fascinating. And I love the way Walsh writes--there's just enough poetry in her words to make her prose sing. Most of all, I liked the way she divided her novel (and Olivia's and Jazz's journey) into the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. What a great way to tell this story!

Similar read: When Venus Fell by Deborah Smith

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

"What if, what if, what if...What if we knew what tomorrow

would bring?  Would we fix it?  Could we?"

Like a topple of dominoes, Tamara Goodwin's happy life has crashed to the ground.  Her father committed suicide, leaving behind a mountain of debt.  Her mother now seems lost in a fog of grief.  The bank repossesses their house.  With no money, Tamara and her mother are forced to leave Dublin and move in with Tamara's strange Uncle Arthur and even stranger Aunt Rosaleen.

Stuck out in the middle of nowhere with no car and no friends, there's not much for Tamara to do.  But then she meets Sister Ignatius, keeper of bees and secrets; Weseley, the cute boy-next-door type; and Marcus, the charming driver of the local bookmobile.  It's in this "Travelling Library" that Tamara finds an old leather bound diary.  And it doesn't take her long to realize that this diary is special ... maybe even magic.

"That night I sat staring at the diary for hours.  I kept it open on my lap, waiting for the words to arrive ... when I woke up at one A.M., the diary was still open on my lap, every single line filled in my handwriting.  Gone was yesterday's forecast and in its place was another entry, a different entry for tomorrow."

With the help of the diary Tamara can now change her future, but should she?

I've never read Cecelia Ahern before but I'm really glad I stumbled across this book at the library.  Her plot is tightly woven and character-driven.  Tamara's grief and anger at her father's death is completely believable, as is her curiosity in the face of her aunt's strange (and increasingly creepy) behavior.  I will definitely be reading Cecelia Ahern again!