Showing posts with label Private School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Private School. Show all posts

Thursday, 4 January 2024

What You Wish For

Finished December 27
What You Wish For by Katherine Center

This novel is about second chances, finding joy in something every day, and giving yourself time to play. Samantha Casey is the librarian at a private school in Galveston, Texas. She has become close with the couple that founded the school, Max and Babette, and lives in the coach house on their property. It was Max that taught her to look for joy. Sam has changed from a woman who was smart but shy into one who delights in colour, who truly engages with the kids in her school because she pays attention to them, and yet also one who has still not allowed herself to dream all those dreams she has. 
When tragedy strikes, Duncan Carpenter is hired to be the new school principal, and Sam can't believe it. Duncan Carpenter is a man from her past, one that provided inspiration for who she is today, but the man who shows up is utterly changed from the one she knew. 
Duncan, and the man who hired him, seem focused on one thing and one thing only, and that focus threatens the heart of this very creative school. Sam, and the rest of the school community must rally together, despite their grief, and work to change Duncan back into the man she had a crush on years ago.
I really related to this second chance love story, and the two main characters. Samantha is a woman after my own heart, one who delights in being creative and fun, and listening to those she cares about to meet their needs in the best way she can. Duncan is a man who has endured a very traumatic event, and who is searching for a way forward, but not always making the best choices. One gets glimpses of his heart early on, but it takes a long time for his story to be revealed.
I also really loved this school, and the other teachers that are part of the story, from math nerd to phys ed teacher. If this school, or ones like it exist, the kids that go there are really lucky. 
A great read, one of my favourites of the year. 

Saturday, 31 December 2022

You All Grow Up and Leave Me

Finished December 31
You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss

This memoir is about Piper's relationship with a tennis coach, Gary Wilensky, who, when she was fourteen, attacked a former student and then later killed himself. As Piper works through her emotions around the man she liked and trusted, she looks at him as well. 
Piper was a private school student, a girl shorter than her peers, who found tennis an activity she could be special in. Gary was a sought after instructor, with a personality that was engaging. He made his teen students feel special, taking them to dinner and buying them presents. He treated them as peers. 
When one of his students felt that something was off and told her mother, she stopped taking lessons from him, and that triggered something in him. He had a plan, but he was also panicking in the moment of action, and that led to mistakes that led to him aborting his plan and finding himself with no way out. 
This is a sad story, a story of questions that don't all have answers. The author also has issues and wonders why this is a story that she still cares about years later. As a journalist, she's done her research, interviewed who she could, and been open about her own story, leaving me sad for her as well. 
The title comes from a conversation she had near the end of her time with Gary when he said this and she promised that she wouldn't, that she'd be there for him, and perhaps this is her way of keeping that promise. 

Tuesday, 10 November 2020

A Noel Killing

Finished November 1
A Noël Killing by M.L Longworth


This mystery is the 8th book in the series featuring Verlaque and Bonnett, but the first one I've read. The story is set in the town of Aix-en-Provence in France in December. Antoine Verlaque is the examining magistrate for the town and his wife Marine Bonnet who was a law professor, but is now doing research and writing. Antoine doesn't like Christmas, as it brings back unhappy memories for him. His parents did not have a happy marriage, his mother has passed away, his father remarried, and he isn't close to either his father or his brother. 
Marine's parents live in Aix. Her father is a doctor and her mother Florence seems to have her hand in everything that happens. Marine wants to make this a special Christmas. 
There is a tradition with the local Anglo Protestant Church of having a special service with Christmas carols in the days before Christmas, followed by a buffet meal, with the food supplied by vendors who have booths in the local Christmas Fair market, but are from sister cities of Aix in other countries. This year, there are booths from Philadelphia, United States; Carthage, Tunisia; Perugia, Italy; Bath, England and Tübingen, Germany. France Dubois is the secretary for the church and the main organizer of the event. She lives in an apartment near the town centre by herself and her story is only gradually revealed.
Debra Hainsby and her husband Cole have been living in the area a few years. Debra is working as a secretary at the private English language school nearby. Her boss and the owner of the school Alain Sorba is a self-made man who has lots of things on the go, but he isn't well liked. The school attracts international students as well as some locals wanting to have their children gain another language. Cole has partnered with a local man, Damien Petit, to run a tour company, but he seems to be always looking for new ideas, unable to focus and plan, and the company has been facing financial issues lately. 
There are many side stories in this book, that I'm guessing will be developed further in other books in this series, and we meet many of the shopkeepers and residents of this town as the story develops. 
There are definitely some I liked and would like to see more of. France Dubois, who is intelligent and resilient and kind is one of them. Four young female friends who get together on occasion socially are other. The consist of Fanny Jacquet, owner of a popular bistro in town; Rachida Hammoudi who works in a pharmacy; Jennifer Flanagan whose husband Dave is the pastor at the Anglo Protestant church and who bakes cakes for Fanny's bistro; and Brigitte Plantier who is teaching at the private school and whose husband is Quebecois. 
As is common in European mysteries the food and drink are all enticing, and many scenes take place at dinners and in restaurants, whetting my appetite for the dishes described. 
When a man dies at the carol service dinner, Antoine gets involved. He is joined by his friend, Bruno Paulik, the commissioner of police, when the death looks like is wasn't accidental. 
As people's secrets get exposed, there are many lines of potential inquiry, and some moments of suspense and danger. 
I really enjoyed this book and will look for more in the series.