Olive again

Olive Again / Elizabeth Strout, 289 pgs.

I admit to loving Olive.  She doesn't really give a shit about what you think and what could be more attractive in an aging woman?  In this book, Olive has aged, is aging...maybe is losing a little confidence here and there.  Maybe finding some happiness with a second husband, maybe looking deep into herself and not always liking what she sees.  She is still admirable and doesn't beat around the bush much.  It is a bit sad for me to see her getting older but she is out there still learning and doing and enjoying a pedicure.

The 27*Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders

The 27*Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders by Nancy Pickard (based on characters and a story created by Virginia Rich) (1993) 296 pages

Mrs. Eugenia Potter is the widowed owner of a cattle ranch in southern Arizona very near the Mexican border. While staying in Maine for a few weeks, she receives a call from Ricardo, the manager of her ranch, asking her to return immediately, but when she returns the next day, she learns that he and his granddaughter Linda are both missing, having left their home on horseback in the middle of the night. Added to this concern is that Mrs. Potter doesn't know why she was summoned back – Ricardo wouldn't tell her over the phone because of the party line in their small town.

Based on some notes Ricardo left in her house, Mrs. Potter feels more and more sure that Ricardo and Linda were the victims of foul play rather than an accident. There are plenty of suspects: neighboring ranch owners as well as those who work on the various ranches.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Potter learns that Jed, her college sweetheart from forty years ago, is staying at a fancy dude ranch nearby while in the area on business. Jed's presence is a unexpected surprise in the midst of her worries, making Mrs. Potter wonder whether Jed wants to re-establish a relationship.

I had my pet suspects, but as usual, Pickard (and Rich) fooled me. The thorough details sometimes seem more than needed, but they set the stage quite well.

Penelope Lemon: Game On!

Penelope Lemon: Game On! by Inman Majors, 221 pages

Penelope Lemon is a twice-divorced, underemployed mom who lives with her parents. She's trying to get back into the dating game (via a couple of online services that her mom so kindly signed her up for), but without much luck. Penelope's happily-married friends don't really understand what she's going through, and finding out (from her 9-year-old son, no less!) that her ex-husband has a nice new house and a new girlfriend really doesn't help her morale. But perhaps the appearance of a like-minded single mom at her son's baseball game will make all the difference.


This is such a funny book. The characters are fantastic (I LOVE Penelope's reactions to the craziness going on around her) and the situations are hilarious. It's a quick read, and so much fun. I'm gonna be recommending this like crazy.

My Name is Lucy Barton

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, 193 pages.

In this spare and beautiful book, successful author Barton reflects on her troubled childhood, her crumbling marriage and her relationships with her daughters and her mother while hospitalized and slowly recovering from an infection she develops after surgery. I listened to this 2016 novel after reading and enjoying the equally brilliant collection of stories from this year, Anything Can Happen. The stories in ACH were built around minor characters from Lucy Barton and people who knew her. A wonderful book.

Anything is Possible

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, 254 pages. Narrated by Kimberly Farr.
A truly wonderful collection of interconnected stories that follows the people living in Amgash, Illinois. Lucy Barton, the main character of Strout's previous book, grew up here, and all the characters in this latest work know her or knew her or her family, and many of the townspeople express strong feelings about her and her (fictional) work. There is a lot of pain and anguish here, but it's revealed in an almost unsentimental way that makes it possible for the reader and most of the characters to get through. Everyone is carrying around secrets and hidden wounds in the town of Amgash. Really worth the read. I read the author's Olive Kittredge years ago, but had avoided her subsequent books for some reason I look forward to catching up on all of them now.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald, 394 pages

Quiet, shy bookstore clerk Sara Lindqvist has traveled from her home in Sweden to the tiny, dying town of Broken Wheel, Iowa, to meet and stay with her book-loving pen pal, Amy Harris, for two months. But when Sara gets to Broken Wheel, she discovers that Amy has died of a long illness that she'd kept hidden from Sara. While some (probably most) people would leave town and either go back home or embark on a different adventure, Sara stays, quickly falling in love with the quirky town and its residents, and sets up a pop-up bookstore, using Amy's vast book collection as her stock.

This is a cute book, and one that's just begging to be made into a romantic comedy. The characters are charming (I particularly liked Poor George and Grace, the tough broad (I think that word was made for this character) who runs the diner); the plot is full of pratfalls (Drunk guy in the bushes outside the church? Our heroine in a cheesy costume for a town event? Check and check); and you know almost from the outset how this book is going to end. But as predictable as it may be, it's a fun read. Fans of Fried Green Tomatoes, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, even Bridget Jones will want to check this one out.

Home / Marilynne Robinson 325 pp.

Robinson's Lila is just out and garnering praise; Home is the middle story in the group of novels which begins with Gilead in the Iowa town of the same name.  Robinson's writing in Home is quietly dazzling, as she tells the story of Glory, who's returned to Gilead to care for her dying father, the Reverend Boughton. She is joined by her brother Jack, the family's black sheep and a struggling alcoholic.  This is small-town America in the 1950s and yet in Robinson's writing these conservative Iowans have a worldview and way of speaking which seems almost foreign.  Jack is a prodigal son, but she expands on the biblical story in such a way that it's new and fresh.  And the ending is very close to perfect.

Benediction / Kent Haruf 257p.

Another novel set in the small Colorado town in which Haruf's earlier Plainsong was featured.  An elderly cancer patient relives his past, wondering about the son from whom he's estranged.  A minister becomes estranged from his congregation and his family for his views on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Thoughtful, but with little plot movement.  I enjoyed this but it wasn't as strong as Plainsong.