THE BEACH STREET KNITTING SOCIETY AND YARN CLUB (Gil McNeil)

One thing that struck me about this book, aside from the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed it, is to wonder about the title.  The knitting group in this novel is called "Stitch and Bitch", although Jo McKenzie's yarn shop IS located on Beach Street, though.  Strange!

That being said, McNeil's novel is wonderful, a series of glimpses into a year in the life of a British wife and mother whose husband is killed in an automobile accident just after telling her that he is leaving her for another woman.  Amidst the confusion of dealing with sudden widowhood and raising two small boys on her own, Jo, an expert knitter, decides to move back to the seaside town of her youth and take over running her grandmother's old fashioned yarn shop.  Jo is refreshing, dealing diplomatically with her grandmother's longtime assistant who prefers tradition to change, providing encouragement and friendship to a famous movie star that happens into her shop one day, and interacting with her long-time friend, Ellen, a local celebrity.  Jo is not desperately looking for love or immobilized with grief or regrets.  She is practical, loyal to her friends, realistic about money and family (including her adorable grandmother, her active sons, and her "crap" mother), and approaches every part of her life with a sense of humor.  She is endearing, just the type of friend I would like to have.  McNeil manages to combine self-deprecation, practicality, intelligence, and charm into one woman who is not not necessarily looking for someone to take care of her or complete her life.  This story is an uplifing tale of friendship, family, and survival.  I loved it and I can't wait for the next installment, Needles and Pearls, due out this spring!

SNOWED IN (Christina Bartolomeo)

Sophie Quinn and her husband, Paul Stoddard, experience culture (and climate) shock when they move from Washington, DC to Portland, Maine for a year for Paul's career.  Sophie is by nature meek and non-confrontational, and making friends is a problem until she meets Stephen, a charming and talkative gay man, at a coffee shop and joins his walking group.  Through her friendship with the group and with Stephen's brother and business partner, Ned, Sophie's small world begins to expand.  She purchases a car and hones her driving skills with the help of Ned, venturing out on foot and by highway to new areas around Portland, gaining confidence as her free-lance art career takes off and her social circle expands.  In the meantime, Sophie's marriage to to uncommunicative Paul deteriorates as he buries himself in his work and, perhaps, in the arms of his co-worker, Natalie. 

Bartolomeo's novel is charming.  Her characters are appealing and realistic.  I plan to read another of  this author's novels ASAP.  I really liked this one!

DEATH OF A VALENTINE (M.C. Beaton)

Hamish MacBeth fans will not want to miss this 25th book in M.C. Beaton's Scottish series.  Hamish is once again headed for the altar, this time with his new constable, Josie McSween.  When Lammas Queen Annie Fleming is blown up by a letter bomb, Hamish investigates with the help of new, love-struck assistant, Josie, whose focus is more on landing the handsome policeman than on solving the case.  Will Hamish finally settle down to domestic bliss in his beloved highlands?  What about love-of-his-life Priscilla, or sometimes-love Elspeth Grant?  As usual, Hamish sees through the chaos of life in Lochdubh to solve the murder.  Can he also solve the mystery of love?

THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER (Hilma Wolitzer)

Alice Brill, the doctor's daughter, is in her fifties, somewhat uncomfortably married, and the mother of three grown children, a downsized editor who now works for herself as a "book doctor", editing works in progress for aspiring authors.  The passion and communication are gone from her once happy marriage and her youngest son has ethical issues that help to drive a wedge between Alice and her husband, Everett.  Alice's mother, Helen, a poet, died of cancer when Alice was a graduate student.  Her father, Sam, once a brilliant surgeon, is now confined to a nursing home with dementia.  Alice and Everett's marriage cannot, in Alice's mind, live up to the "perfection" of her parents' union.  Alice and Everett's relationship began with competition (Alice and Everett were once both aspiring writers) that blossomed into passion, but Sam Brill wanted Alice to marry a doctor, to form a partnership like that shared between her parents.  Throughout her marriage (Everett ends up working in the family printing business) Alice, an only child, is cognizant of the fact that she has failed to live up to the idealized standard set by her father and mother.

Throughout Wolitzer's novel the reader is treated to something out of the ordinary.  Alice is not focused primarily on repairing her marriage or interfering in the lives of her children.  There is no "crisis" that compels her and Everett to realize what they might have to lose.  She experiences a vague "pain" in her chest, not physical but emotional or psychological, an emptiness or unidentifiable longing that prompts her to set out on a quest to discover what subconscious event is driving her marriage and current life off of its proscribed course.  Bit by bit Alice recovers the memory that has set her at odds with herself and with her father and she is able to move on with her life, always the doctor's daughter, but now with a new understanding of what that means. The unattainable perfection that she saw in her parents' marriage may not be the answer to a happy life for Alice and Everett.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (Jennifer Weiner)

In the 15 years since her painful high school sojourn, Addie Downs has transformed herself from an overweight misfit into a lovely, fit, but still awkward woman.  Her life, until now devoted to redecorating her parents' home and caring for her brain damaged brother, changes suddenly when childhood best friend Valerie, now a TV weather girl with delusions of grandeur, shows up on Addie's doorstep one evening.  Valerie has come from their high school reunion and is covered with blood.  For some reason Addie readily agrees to help Valerie find out what happened to her old high school flame Dan Swansea, whom Valerie left naked in a parking lot and possibly dead after accidentally hitting him with her car.  Despite the fact that Addie has not seen Valerie since high school, they embark on a Thelma and Louise type journey that involves a psuedo bank robbery, a disillusioned cop, and facing the trauma of the past that destroyed their relationship.  While on the lam they rediscover their friendship while local authorities try to find out whose blood is on the belt in the parking lot, what happened to the victim, and whether or not a crime has been committed.

Valerie is wacky and out of control while Addie is practical and down-to-earth, two opposites who bonded initially because they were outsiders, in part due to their family situations.  Valerie's single mother is an irresponsible dreamer who failed to notice that her daughter needed meals and clean clothes.   Addie's mother, now deceased, was generous and practical, but embarrassingly (to her children) obese, and her disabled brother, a once popular athlete, was brain-injured in an automobile accident.  This is story of two damaged people who gradually come to terms with their past and future.  Weiner has another winner here.

SIX STROKES UNDER (Roberta Isleib)

I am not a fan of golf.  I am bad at it, really bad.  I had to take golf as part of a gym class back in college in the 70's, and it was NOT a high point of my life!  That being said, Isleib's book is a pleasant surprise.  The author thoughtfully includes a comprehensive glossary of common golfing terms at the beginning of the novel, which is very helpful in allowing the non-golfing reader to enjoy the mystery without feeling as if they are in a completely foreign world. 

Cassie Burdette is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, the LPGA's Q-School, which could qualify her to participate in the LPGA tour.  Before she is scheduled to leave, she discovers the dying Dr. Bencher, a psychologist who has been involved in helping patients "recover" memories of sexual abuse.  Dr Bencher's office is in the same building as that of Cassie's therapist and he has been shot in the neck in his office.  Despite the fact that she has no connection with Dr. Bencher, Cassie immediately becomes a person of interest in the crime, but is allowed to travel to Florida for Q-School providing that she checks in with the odious Officer Pate when she arrives.  Cassie is an interesting character, flawed and colorful.  As Q-School progresses readers are introduced to quite a few enjoyably quirky characters, golfers and non-golfers alike, and along the way another murder is comitted.  Are the two crimes connected?  Will Cassie get out of Q-School without becoming the 3rd victim of this murder spree, if the crimes are actually connected?  Read and find out!  Don't let the golf theme put you off if you are not a fan of the game. I do have one word of caution, though.  Isleib is a delightful writer, but the crimes themselves seem to be a bit disconnected from the main Q-School story.  I (and the other members of the Christie Capers) think that Ms. Isleib might have done better (and perhaps will in future novels) to keep the murders directly connected to golf and the Q-School.  The murders themselves seem a bit contrived when the novel is considered as a whole because they are separate from the main theme of the novel, golf.  That being said, I am actually enjoying my new golf knowledge and I am happy to have discovered an interesting new author in Roberta Isleib!

ALL THINGS AT ONCE (Mika Brzezinski)

During the time that Mika Brzezinski was a reporter and news anchor in the Hartford  area, she married, had her first child, and then moved on to, presumably, bigger and better things in the the New York metro news market.  Today she is co-host on MSNBC's Morning Joe, well paired with conservative Joe Scarborough.  This very readable memoir, which covers the major events of her childhood and the pitfalls and rewards of trying to "have it all", should be required reading for anyone who yearns for the glamour and excitement of a career in television news, and especially for any woman who wants marriage and a family in addition to a successful career in broadcasting or any other field.

Brzezinski is well-grounded.  Her parents, a former National Security Advisor and a talented sculptor, raised her in an atmosphere of intellectual richness and instilled her and her two brothers with an admirable work ethic and solid values,  Her life has not been a fairy tale, but her own commitment to marriage and career has enabled her to overcome setbacks that might have caused a different type of person to choose another path.  The book opens with a description of Mika's horrific fall down a flight of stairs with her infant daughter in her arms, a fall caused by total exhaustion and resulting in months of medical treatments for her daughter, whose leg was broken .  Initially doctors suspected a spinal injury and Brzezinski was investigated for child abuse as a result of the incident.  She makes no excuses for the accident and expresses both profound regret and vast relief over the outcome.  This accident was a wake-up call, jarring her into the realization that no one can work for 24 hours a day at a job and as a mother, and that she needed to pull back and take a look at what she was doing to herself and her family.  Her fabulous, understanding husband hovers in the background of the story throughout.

Mika Brzezinski is a woman who has worked hard, personally and professionally, not just at a career, but at her life.  She has been the victim of an attack by a pedophile, the privileged daughter of a government official, a struggling reporter, a loved and cherished daughter, wife, and mother, a down and out has-been, and a confident on-air partner.  Most of all, she has been and is a work in progress.  Her book is a wonderful insight into real life, its rewards and consequences, its ups and downs.  Two-way strong family ties are and always have been at the center of her life.  I hope that she gives us an update in twenty years or so.

THE SCHOOL FOR ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS (Erica Bauermeister)

This wonderful and totally appetizing little book is actually a series of vignettes rather than a "novel", stories of eight people brought together for a monthly cooking class.  The author focuses attention on one of these people during each chapter, each a different class.  The stories are blended together seamlessly into a delightful experience for all of the senses as the characters chop, sauté, fold, and season ingredients into delectable feasts for the heart and soul as well as for the palate.  Each character has experienced a loss, a disappointment, a trauma, or a lack of focus in their life and through the experience of creating meals that nourish in every sense of the word, they work their way towards answers, acceptance, and life-changing friendships.

This novel opens up a whole new world for those of us who have never thought of cooking as a creative and even life-affirming activity.  Bauermeister's descriptions of each class are a feast in themselves.  The characters are vulnerable and likable.  I think that the author has a rare and wonderful talent for providing brief glimpses into her character's lives that are simultaneously satisfying and unfulfilling, like briefly meeting someone that you'd like to know better and then losing sight of them in a crowd.  This is a charming, short homage to both the culinary world (your mouth will water!) and the resilience of the human spirit.

MORE THAN YOU KNOW (Beth Gutcheon)

Gutcheon's novels are always exceptional, and each one is unique in theme and setting.  "More Than You Know" is a ghost story, a love story, a historical novel, and much more.  Gutcheon manages to juxtapose vividly the stark coldness of life and an unhappy marriage on a barren island more than 100 years ago with the excitement of young love and the terror of unexplained phenomena in Depression-era Maine.  The novel spans many years, alternating between the life, marriage, and family of Claris Haskell and the budding romance between young Hannah Gray and Conary Crocker, both of whom have witnessed the chilling apparition that seems to haunt both the schoolhouse-turned-cottage that Hannah's grim stepmother and mostly absent father are renting for the summer, and deserted Beals Island, off the coast of Maine. During the course of the novel we learn, along with Hannah, the story of the brutal murder of Danial Haskell, Claris' husband, and their daughter Sallie's inconclusive trials for his murder.  Gutcheon begins and ends with Hannah as a very old woman, widowed now and in the twilight of her years.  Hannah acts as a sort of narrator, ensuring that the story is finally told before she is no longer able to tell it.

I read this book over a weekend.  It is short (268 pages), intriguing, and definitely worthwhile.  I recommend it wholeheartedly to both adults and teens.  Gutcheon maintains the suspense of the story right up until the end, when we finally discover the truth about the horrifying apparition that haunts Hannah and Conary.