The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett

Finished June 7

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons

This is a very enjoyable read. The title character is in two timelines, both in London. One begins in World War II when she is a child and her father leaves for war. The other begins in the present day. Eudora is just turning eighty-five and she lives a lonely life. After a bad fall, she now walks with a cane and although she still goes for a swim most days, and Ruth, a social worker now comes to see her regularly, she and her cat Montgomery live a quiet life together. Eudora has recently sent away to Switzerland for information on booking a planned death.

Then, a new family moves in next door, and ten-year-old Rose Trewidney introduces herself into Eudora's life in a way that can't be denied, and soon Eudora is connecting with others in her neighbourhood as well. 

As we gradually see, from the earlier timeline, what events shaped Eudora, we see how those events now connect to her present and how she has created barriers to protect herself, but they have also prevented connections from forming. 

As she and Rose become friends and she shares more of her earlier life with her, and uses her experiences to help Rose face challenges of her own. She also begins to realize that her life has been a better one than she realized. 

This is a story with sad moments, but also joyful and amusing ones. Rose is a force to be reckoned with, and changes Eudora's life in subtle and interesting ways. 

White Rabbit

Finished December 3
White Rabbit by Kate Phillips

This is a story of Ruth, a woman in her old age. She has been married to her second husband for many years, but still looks back with longing at her first marriage. She was widowed young, and subsequently fell in love with a man who didn't live up to her ideals, and thus came to marry her current husband.
We are placed in Ruth's life over a day, and see all her regular habits from her sleeping arrangements, to her determinedly planned outings, to her predetermined meals. We see her relationship with her granddaughter Karen, her husband Henry, her cleaner Luzma and her young son Luis, neighbours, acquaintances, and random strangers she meets.
The book often ventures into the past, looking at Ruth's younger life, her mother Elizabeth, her first husband Hale, and her early friendships.
This is a book of relationships, of the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and about growing old. A very interesting read.
The white rabbit of the title is a family game Ruth plays, with everyone she knows trying to say the phrase before Ruth does. It also comes up again in other ways as the book progresses.

Cat Flap

Finished October 18
Cat Flap by Alan S. Cowell

I picked up this book at the library, as I was intrigued by the premise. Dolores Tremayne, a successful IT business executive is the breadwinner in her family. She travels a lot for work, and her husband Gerald is a writer that has one published book. He is supposed to be working on a sequel, the second in a planned trilogy, but he hasn't been feeling motivated, and has slipped back into some of his habits from before he met Dolores, when she was a university student. They have two young daughters, in grade school and a housecat named X.
Dolores has just left for a multi-destination business trip, with the first stop in Germany. Just before she left, X jumped into her arms and the two stared at each other, and somehow, a piece of Dolores' consciousness has been left in the cat. That is not to say that Dolores has much influence in what the cat does, but she does witness what the cat witnesses, and that includes many of the things that Gerald does, unbeknownst to Dolores before now.
As the days go by, Dolores tries to influence the cat's actions to both find out more, and to get Dolores to return home sooner than planned. Dolores, meanwhile, has a couple of weird experiences where thoughts and connections come into her head seemingly from nowhere.
The book culminates in a scene bringing most of the characters together in a in a dramatic climax.
It was a fun book, with elements of suspense and humour.

Every Last One

Finished September 2
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

This novel begins with a typical day in Mary Beth Latham's world. She wakes up before anyone else, has a coffee and some time alone before waking her three children and seeing them and her husband off, then going off to her own landscaping business. Her daughter Ruby is in her junior year of high school, and has a unique sense of style and great self-confidence. She loves to write, and is booked into a summer writing class at a college. Her two sons, fraternal twins, Alex and Max are in their last year of middle school. Alex is a star athlete with decent grades and a small group of friends. Max is a loner, with an interest in music and comics. Both boys are booked into summer camps suited to their interest. Mary Beth's husband Glen is an opthamologist with a quiet manner and a strong sense of order. Their marriage has gotten to a comfortable familiar stage where they each do their own thing, and follow a routine.
Ruby is getting ready for prom, and plans to do it in her own way. But she is also looking at changes in her life and one of them is moving on without her current boyfriend. Kiernan lived next door for a few years when the kids were small, then moved away. When his family moved back to town, they lived on a different street, but Kiernan seemed to latch onto their family, and spent a lot of time at their house. He gradually became Ruby's boyfriend, but he seems to be rubbing her the wrong way lately, and a split-up is due soon.
Ruby had an eating disorder a couple of years ago, and Mary Beth still worries about her a bit, but her main worry now is her son Max, who seems to be too much alone, and not very happy. When Max's stay at camp is cut short, she worries more, and does what she can to help.
But when violence and tragedy come into Mary Beth's life, it is from a direction she wasn't looking, and she must find a way to move forward, rebuilding her life.
This is a book of how someone recovers from an unthinkable event, and we see how various characters struggle with their own role, however small, in what happened. As always, I love how Quindlen puts a story together, and I read this in one sitting.

Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners

Finished August 12
Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony

This fun novel, coming out later this fall, takes an inside look at a Midwest family where things don't always go as the matriarch wishes. Violet Baumgartner has managed the lives of her husband and children as much as she can, but she can't always control things. The novel intersperses a selection of Violet's annual Christmas letters with events as they unfolded over the months from last fall when her husband Ed retired from his research position at BioTech.
The book opens with an incident in June, when Violet is being questioned by police over someone being punched, and a woman yelling out a question. Violet knows some of the answers to his questions, but she doesn't want to admit it. It is followed by the events beginning in December with Ed's retirement party.
Violet's daughter Cerise loves her mother dearly, but is frustrated that she hasn't acknowledged Cerise's sexuality, in spite of being friendly with her long-term partner Barb. Cerise is now pregnant, and Violet's need to know everything is definitely going to be an issue. Cerise hasn't told her yet, as she is waiting until after her dad's party, so as not to steal the limelight or distract her mom from all the planning. But when someone else discloses the information in front of everyone, things start going a little off the rails.
This book has a lot of humour, the growth of Violet as a person as she comes to terms with her daughter's real life, and family issues all round.
I found it a quick and enjoyable read, that surprised and entertained.

Reservoir 13

Finished May 9
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

This book was recommended to me by Ben McNally, and although it wasn't what I expected, I really enjoyed it. The novel takes place in a small town in rural England. One winter, a teenage girl on holiday with her parents goes missing. A search is mounted, but the girl is not found. But activities for the inhabitants of the town go on, more or less as they had done before. As the book follows a variety of people who live there, who arrive their after this event, and who leave for various reasons, we see the life of a town and its people. The small secrets, the kindnesses and resentments, the family dynamics. We see the cycle of nature, year after year, and the events large and small.
I loved how each year was a chapter, and that while some scenes of interaction were included, so were straightforward descriptions of what happened.
One example

The summer had been wet but in September the skies cleared and the mud in the lanes was baked into thick-edged ruts. There were springtails under the beech trees behind the Close, burrowing and feeding on the fragments of fallen leaves, and somewhere deep in the pile a male laid a ring of sperm. A blackbird's nest was blown from the elder tree at the entrance to the Hunter place, the mud mortar crumbled and the grasses scattered as chaff. Tony produced an arrangement of hops for the Harvest Festival display, and it was certainly striking but there were some who felt the pungent smell was out of place in a church. Jones's sister was seen at the post office, buying packaging paper and string, and this was understood as some kind of breakthrough. Irene sometimes told people that Jones's sister had been at her wedding, and had been the very life and soul. Such a shame, what happened, she would say. As though anyone actually knew. On Sunday in the evening Brian and Sally Fletcher at a meal together. Brian grilled lamb chops and boiled potatoes while Sally made a salad. It was a rule they had, to make sure they did this. For most of the week they kept different hours, and communicated through notes on the kitchen table. This suited them both. They had come to marriage late, and were each comfortable in their own company. But they'd decided they should always eat together on a Sunday night. I don't want to go forgetting what you look like, Brian had said. A meal, and a conversation, and then settling down together to watch whatever was on television. It was something about a murder, on the whole. At the allotments Ruth was seen working alone, pulling handfuls of beans down from the overloaded canes. The leaves were covered in blackfly but this late in the season she wasn't concerned. It was food for the ladybirds at least. She was letting the courgettes mature to marrows because even if no one really liked cooking them they did look good in baskets outside the shop. They made people think of harvest festivals, and that made tem come into the shop and spend money. The blackberries were thick on the brambles growing up around the greenhouse, and she thumbed a few into her mouth each time she went past. There had been words with the allotment committee about the brambles. The matter was not yet settled. Her phone beeped, and when she read the text a smile opened on her face that she found herself hiding behind a berry-stained hand. She sat on the bench for a moment, watching the shadows lengthen across the valley and feeling the warmth and thinking carefully about her reply. 

shows both the close observation and the narrative distance that occurs throughout the book. It is as though the narrator observes moments and strings them together in a loose connection by time. My enjoyment with this book grew as it progressed. The missing girl comes up each year as people still think about her and wonder what happened to her. But life here goes on, as it must.

The Party

Finished December 9
The Party by Robyn Harding

This book takes inside a family faced with a crisis. Jeff and Kim and their two teenage children live in a upscale San Francisco neighborhood. Jeff is a tech executive and Kim has been slowly getting back into the PR career she stepped away from when they had children. Their oldest child Hannah is turning sixteen, and they've given her permission to have a few friends over to celebrate. When things go horribly wrong and one of the girls is badly injured, we begin to learn what's under the perfect facade that others see.
From Jeff's flirtation with microdosing to Kim's flirtation with another man, the relationship between these two parents isn't as good as it seems. And Hannah is facing social choices at school as she tries to be accepted by the more popular crowd.
Everyone has secrets, secrets that are only gradually revealed as the facade unravels.
An interesting look at moral lapses, betrayals small and large, and the negative effects of peer pressure.

Like Family

Finished August 20
Like Family by Paolo Giordano, translated by Anne Milano Appel

This short novel is told by a young married father and centers around a woman who first came into his life when his wife had a difficult pregnancy. Mrs. A is recommended as a housekeeper, and she quickly grows close to Nora, the narrator's wife who is home on bedrest. When the baby is born, Mrs. A. naturally takes on the role of nanny to young Emanuele, even though she has no prior experience with that type of job, not even having had children of her own.
The narrator is a research scientist, who is not entirely happy at his current job. He had won a spot at a university in Zurich, but circumstances made it difficult for him to accept, and he is now almost resigned to the stagnant status of his career.
When Mrs. A. suddenly quits, each family member takes it differently. Nora is begging to get her to come back, and Emanuele is confused about the sudden loss of a woman who was a second mother to him.
While the narrator tells the story looking back at events that have already happened, we only gradually understand the true nature of the Mrs. A's motivation, and the complicated relationship that she has with the family.
A very thoughtful book.

The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin

Finished August 7
The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin by Stephanie Knipper

This novel begins with Rose Martin watching her young daughter Antoinette sleeping. She loves her deeply, but worries over her. We get the sense that something isn't right with the child. We next see ten-year-old Antoinette on her own, leaving the farmhouse to go out to the field of flowers beyond. We see that she responds to nature, but has difficulty moving, and is unable to talk. They live at the home that Rose and her sister Lily grew up on, at a farm near a small town called Redbud, in central Kentucky, near Lexington. The farm is a commercial flower farm.
Rose's sister Lily lives a couple of hours away in Covington, Kentucky, the north end of the state. She works for an insurance company there. Not far, but she hasn't talked to her sister in years, Not since shortly after their parents died, and Rose asked Lily to stay at the farm and help. Lily felt then that staying was a challenge that she wasn't up to, and Rose resented her for that decision. Both women have wanted to reach out many times since then, but neither has the courage.
So when Lily gets a call from Rose, once again asking her to come home, and tells her of her own failing health, Lily goes. She is still wary, afraid of the way she begins to act when she is around her young niece. She is very surprised to find that their neighbor, Seth, a man that Lily once thought she had a future with, is back in Redbud and working at the farm. Lily never really got over Seth, and thus the homecoming is even more emotional that she guessed. As she gets to know Antoinette, she finds that she can relate to the young girl, but when she discovers that Antoinette has healing powers of some sort, she is upset that neither her sister nor Seth has told her. As she learns more, she understands the situation better, and begins to find her place again there.
Lily's neighbor from Covington, Will, a young doctor who is a good friend, has followed Lily south, and shows up unexpectedly. Will has strong feelings for Lily, but also is a sensitive and observant man, and he begins to notice Antoinette's abilities fairly quickly. He also notices something else about them that no one else has, something that makes a big difference.
This is a story of love, of families, of how it feels to be "different," of the sacrifices that people will make for love. It is a story of a woman who comes to accept herself as she is, rather than fighting against her impulses. A story of two sisters who care deeply for each other.

Leave Me

Finished July 2
Leave Me by Gayle Forman

Maribeth Klein has a busy life as a magazine editor in New York City. She is the mother of 4-year-old twins, and her husband also has a demanding career. So when she gets chest pains at her desk one day, she pops a couple of Tums and keeps doing all the things that she needs to do. But when they don't seem to be working and she's feeling worse she mentions it at her scheduled ob/gyn appointment. Her doctor sends her to the hospital, where she learns that she's been having a heart attack for the last few hours and needs a stent. During that procedure, things get worse, and she ends up having emergency bypass surgery.
After a week in the hospital, Maribeth is home, where her mother has come to help. Unfortunately, Maribeth's mother isn't particularly helpful, and everyone seems to expect her to just pick up where she left off, and seem annoyed when she isn't able to do that. Desperate at her situation, Maribeth listens to her inner self, and does what many women dream of, but few actually do, and leaves a note and runs away to be by herself.
She ends up doing a lot of thinking, about her life, about her beginnings, about what she wants. And she makes new friends, who like her for herself, and encourage her.
This is a story of a woman reaching her breaking point, and doing something positive for herself. It's about realizing that we all need to ask for help sometimes, and that's okay. This is a book that is also a wake-up call to treat yourself well, because as important as it is to help those you love, you can't do that if you don't ensure you're good first.

Tapestry of Fortunes

Finished February 5
Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg

This feel good novel begins as Cecelia Ross, a motivational speaker reflects on the recent loss of her best friend to cancer. It is a reflection that has her looking at her life and realizing that she isn't in a place she wants to be. After Penny's death, Penny's husband moved away from Minneapolis, and when Cece receives a missive from an old boyfriend, she realizes that she is lonely and needs to make a change. She promised Penny that she would volunteer at a local hospice, and along with that new commitment, Cece takes a break from her speaking and writing and puts her home on the market.
Fate directs her to share a house with three other women and these new relationships and the opportunities that come with her new home lead her forward to a life she's missed by always being afraid to take risks.
This is a story of love and the risks one takes when having any kind of relationship, the need to give up some control and see what life brings you. There is romance, and food, and friendship. And there is optimism for the future.

Tumbledown Manor

Finished December 24
Tumbledown Manor by Helen Brown

This light novel begins in New York City where Lisa Trumperton is having a significant birthday. But when a gift of flowers arrives, she discovers that her husband of many years has been having an affair, and her life is changed forever. Lisa is a writer, and is struggling as she writes a second book in a planned series. Her marriage breakdown doesn't help matters.
She decides to return to her birth country of Australia to put herself in a new environment. She initially stays with her sister in Melbourne, but quickly begins looking for a house of her own. When she finds that the home her grandfather grew up in, an estate a couple hours away, is for sale, she can't resist buying it.
As she tackles the massive renovations needed at the manor and settles into the community, she discovers herself all over again.
This is a story of love, of friendship, and of self renewal. Inspired by the author's observations of friends who underwent midlife changes, this book looks with optimism to a fresh start and an acceptance of others as they are.
There are many minor plots here including the stories of Lisa's two children and the reality of her grandfather's life choices. I found it a fun and refreshing read.

Quality of Care

Finished December 17
Quality of Care by Elizabeth Letts

Clara Raymond is an obstetrician driven by true care for her patients and a drive for perfection. One evening as she is working, a pregnant woman and her husband arrive unexpectedly. All three are surprised to see each other. The couple was just passing through town when the woman had some symptoms that caused her concern. They had no idea that they would encounter Clara, but are pleased to see her. Lydia is a childhood friend of Clara's, one who saved her life during a terrible accident. Gordon is Clara's college boyfriend, whom she hasn't seen since their breakup. She knew they were married, but having mixed feelings for both, hasn't seen either of them in years and didn't expect to. Clara is there to attend a delivery from a young teenage mother, and after evaluating Lydia's symptoms and looking her over, admits her for observation, not thinking there is any reason to be worried. But when things go tragically wrong, Clara feels it strongly because of her personal connection. The aftermath sends Clara back to California, where she grew up and where questions about her father remain unanswered. She doesn't expect that it will be easy to track down the woman she needs to talk to, but when serendipity brings her to Eleanor's doorstep, and she finds herself taken for someone else, she goes along, falling back into old patterns as she reconnects with her past and finds answers not only about her father, but also about the accident that nearly took her own life.
This book is a page-turner, and the character of Clara is well-drawn in her intensity and passion. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

Today Will Be Different

Finished December 3
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

This novel follows Eleanor Flood through a single day of her life. She knows she's been distracted and not living up to what her husband Joe, her son Timby, and herself expect from her. The book starts with an affirmation and intention

Today will be different. Today I will be present. Today, anyone I speak to, I will look them in the eye and listen deeply. Today I'll play a board game with Timby. I'll initiate sex with Joe. Today I will take pride in my appearance. I'll shower, get dressed in proper clothes, and change into yoga clothes only for yoga, which today I will actually attend. Today I won't swear. I won't talk about money. Today there will be an ease about me. My face will be relaxed, its resting place a smile. Today I will radiate calm. Kindness and self-control will abound. Today I will buy local. Today I will be my best self, the person I'm capable of being. Today will be different.

that she fully intends to live by. She does shower and get dressed in a nice dress, but from the beginning she notices some things aren't right, and when more things throw her plans off-balance she reacts emotionally. From her son needing to be taken out of school because he's sick, causing her to leave her poetry lesson midway through to a lunch bringing up old painful memories, we see Eleanor and her feelings.
She lives a good life. She works as an animator, although not to the extent she did a decade ago. Her husband is a renowned hand surgeon. Her son is intelligent and confident. She is well enough off to buy what she wants. As we gradually understand what her true sorrow is based on, we realize both the importance and the limitations of families.
The middle section of the book takes us back into the past to see how Eleanor came to be where she is now, and that section is poignant with unresolved emotions.
This is a story to make you laugh, make you cry, and make you care. I loved how poetry was used. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Rejected Writers' Book Club

Finished November 1
The Rejected Writers' Book Club by Suzanne Kelman, performed by Tanya Eby

This light novel is part of a series of books set in Southlea Bay, a small island in Puget Sound. The main character here is Janet Johnson, local librarian. Janet used to live in California, but she and her husband Martin moved to the island fairly recently. Martin is trying to figure out how to deal with the pesky raccoons that keep getting into their garbage when Janet is asked to come to a meeting of a local club. The Rejected Writers' Book Club is a group of women who have all written books, but have never been accepted for publication. They read from their work and celebrate the receipt of rejection letters, planning a large celebration for 500 letters, which is less than 100 letters away as the book opens.
Janet is also worried about her daughter who lives in San Francisco and is encountering some issues with her first pregnancy.
But then tragedy strikes. One of the women gets an acceptance letter, and is crushed. Not only does this mean she will have to leave the club, but the novel she submitted contains a plot that she borrowed from someone else, and now believes may be a true piece of someone's history. Janet is asked for her assistance, and the group plans a road trip to the publisher's office in San Francisco since Janet is already planning to go there to see her daughter.
As with many road trip novels, many interesting meetings take place, introducing other characters, quirky and helpful, and the group has issues that delay them, from car trouble to weather.
Living in close proximity to each other during this trip, they get to know each better, and bond in ways Janet wouldn't have imagined. She returns home with friends, love, and maybe even a solution to the raccoon problem.

Untethered

Finished October 3
Untethered by Julie Lawson Timmer

This novel begins just after the death of Bradley Hawthorne, husband of Char and father of Allie. Char gave up a fulfilling career as a journalism professor in Washington, D.C. when she met Bradley, moving to small town Michigan. Allie has been living most of the year with Bradley and Char, with brief visits to her mother Lindy in California. Now Char realizes that she has no legal parental rights with Allie, despite being one of her primary parents. Char has always been careful not to tread into Lindy's role as mother, and she doesn't know what to do to keep Allie living with her.
Allie takes seriously a role she herself stepped into as a tutor to a younger, troubled girl, Morgan. She meets Morgan formally once a week for sessions, but also has taken on the role of big sister to the girl. Morgan's parents are also dealing with some health issues for their younger child, Stevie.
As Char and Allie walk carefully into their new roles with each other, they are waiting for Lindy to make a definitive move. With Morgan's problems escalating, a move by Morgan's parents creates a crisis for Allie and Char, once that will have lasting changes to their lives.
This is a story today's complex families, with step parents, foster parents, adoptive parents, and friends and other family members complicating the family dynamic. When things are going well, everyone gets along, but when things aren't going well, power and feelings take on deciding roles that may not always look out for the best interests of all family members.
This is a story of families in all their complexity, with the mixed up feelings that go along with that. We are all human and some of us become stronger with adversity. Char and Allie are ones that become stronger, but it takes them awhile to figure out their new relationship and realize all they have to lose.

Sophie's Throughway

Finished May 2
Sophie's Throughway by Jules Smith

This short novel was fun and insightful. Sophie is a writer for an unnamed magazine, and struggling with her personal life. She has two teenagers, Bryony, who is 14, and Brendon, who is 15.  Brendon has been recently diagnosed with Asperger's and PDA. I hadn't heard of PDA before, and learned it stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance, and is often associated with Asperger's. Brendon is very bright, but is having behavioural issues, which is particularly a problem at school. At home, it has created enough issus that Karl, Sophie's husband has left the family.
Sophie has been missing work to deal with Brendon's issues, and while she has an understanding boss, and makes up her work from home as much as she can, she worries about how this affects the other staff members.
The novel has a chicklit feel to it, with the social nature of Sophie's job, and her open communication with her children, but also more substance with the insight into having a child affected by these conditions. Sophie's got a good approach to it, and is better able to handle Brendon when he is in the midst of an inappropriate episode than Karl, but she's not a saint and that makes the book feel more real.

Red Lights

Finished April 16
Red Lights by Simenon, translated by Norman Denny

This dark novel is unusual for Simenon in that it was set in the United States, rather than France. On the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend, Steve and Nancy Hogan, meet as the always do in a small bar in downtown Manhattan for a drink before heading to their home on Long Island. The couple is a bit unusual for their time as Nancy went back to work after having children and is a well-paid executive assistant at a Madison Avenue firm.
This evening they are waiting for the worst of the traffic to stop before driving up to Maine to bring their two children back from summer camp. For some unstated reason, Steve has a bit of an attitude, drinking at first secretly and then more openly as they drive north. Nancy finally has enough of this, and tells Steve that she won't go on this way. When he pockets the keys, he returns from a bar to find her gone, likely to the crossroads ahead to get a bus. He follows, but has missed the bus and when he drives on, loses his way. As he continues driving on in the rain and dark, and his mind grows more confused, he goes over his resentments in his head, and we learn of his life and his wife's.
At one point Steve agrees to drive someone else north, someone he clearly suspects to be an escaped convict, and when he stops after getting a flat tire, loses consciousness. When he wakes the next morning, he finds himself alone and with his wallet gone. Phoning ahead to the camp, he finds that Nancy has never arrived, and as he realizes what must have happened to her, he finds his life forever changed.
The drinking and driving is definitely an element from another time. The novel was set in the early 1950s, and first published in 1955. But the dynamic of resentment and guilt are still clear in today's world. This new edition has an insightful foreword by Anita Brookner. The cover on this edition has the right feel to it, but I would have liked it better if the cars had been from the right era.

The Girls in the Garden

Finished March 26
The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell

This novel follows eleven-year-old Pip as she and her older sister Grace and mother Clare move into a terrace house in a new neighbourhood of London. The family is still in shock after Pip and Grace's dad had a mental health breakdown that resulted in him burning down their home. He is in hospital getting the help he needs, and they must start over with everything gone. Pip is steadfast in missing her father, writing him letters about their lives and new home, and observing the world around her. Grace is angry and scared and at the age where she is looking for her own identity. Clare is fearful of what lies ahead, afraid of what she saw in her husband in his mental breakdown, and worried about managing everything.
Their new home backs onto a large communal park and the girls soon find their way among the other residents. Grace begins hanging out with 5 other kids around the same age: three sisters Catkin, Fern and Willow, another girl Tyler, and a boy Dylan. She hangs out a lot at the sisters' house, liking their parents, Leo and Adele. Adele home schools the girls. As the action begins, the sisters grandfather has come to visit from Africa as his diabetes now requires amputation of one of his feet.
Pip is more of a loner, not feeling comfortable with the other kids, or their parents. Something about Leo doesn't feel right to her. She befriends and older woman with a pet rabbit, and from her learns the history behind the girl memorialized on a nearby bench, Phoebe. Pip is a quiet girl, watchful and sensitive, an important role in this story.
At the annual part party, there is much going on, music, face painting, a barbeque, and as it is also Grace's thirteenth birthday, Clare has let her have more freedom than normal. When the day grows later, Pip searches for her sister, finding her unconscious and bloody in discomforting circumstances. What happened to Grace and who is responsible is the focus of the story.
We see the interaction of both the adults, teens, and preteens here, and how relationships change and develop with the arrival of this new family in the neighbourhood. I liked the way the characters were each so different. None of them perfect.

The Far End of Happy

Finished February 13
The Far End of Happy by Kathryn Craft, performed by Janet Metzger

This novel was inspired by a real life episode in the author's own life. As the book begins Ronnie wakes up in the guest bedroom of her home, on the morning that her husband is supposed to be moving out. This is a temporary measure, giving Ronnie time to find a new place to live for her and their young sons, while getting them out from sharing the same roof. Ronnie has grown more and more unhappy in her marriage, initially allowing herself to be stifled in her own career goals, then finding that her husband has kept secrets from her regarding his spending, their financial circumstances, his consumption of alcohol, and more. As he has grown more distant, their physical intimacy has also diminished, and Ronnie feels that she must begin again for her own good.
That morning, she finds her husband's bed not slept in, the TV blaring, and an accusatory note left in her office. As she gets the boys up and ready, her husband Jeff reappears, but it becomes obvious to all of them that he is drunk. As her youngest son Will takes it upon himself to intervene, her husband's unstable state of mind becomes clear. His car is stocked with alcohol and he threatens to kill himself with a shotgun.
This novel covers the next twelve hours as Ronnie, her mother, and her mother-in-law all examine the events that have led to this day. All three of them, as they wait under police protection in the nearby firehouse, look back at their relationships, their own struggles with life, and their questions about what more they could have done.
This is an exploration of depression from family members viewpoints, and about the complex feelings that exist when the help they want to give isn't accepted.