Matt Hay has written a memoir that will resonate with its audience. It is a story of his hearing loss but, more importantly, about his life and those around him, including his wife.
Young Matt did not completely realize that he heard the world differently from others though he was making efforts to compensate. He discorered that he would completely lose his hearing at a very vulnerable time in his life. So, what did he do and how did his life go on?
Readers will find that this title is most aptly named. Music played a key role in his coping and strategy.
This is a story of a person finding their way. It will be especially welcome to those who have faced a hearing impairment but also, I think, speaks to a wider audience.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this title. All opinions are my own.
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND THE WASHINGTON POST’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Boston Globe, NPR, Chicago Public Library, The Star Tribune, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, Real Simple, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Bookreporter
It is clear from the above that North Woods is a special book. Anyone who enjoys an immersive read will want to give this title a look. It tells the story of a place over the course of many years and many lives and through many narrative threads. As an added perspective, there is much on nature in these pages.
The story begins with the Puritans; readers get to know these first (and all of the other characters) well. All have stories to tell and their lives cover many years of American history.
I highly recommend this complex and rewarding book. Get to know the yellow house. Take the time to enjoy time spent there.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.
Robyn Carr knows how to write the kinds of stories that her readers love. From series like Virgin River to her many standalones, the pages turn with Ms. Carr. Learn about her newest novel below.
Many thanks to the team at HTP for my stop on this blog tour.
THE FRIENDSHIP CLUB
Author: Robyn Carr
ISBN: 9780778311881 Publication Date: January 23rd, 2024
Publisher: MIRA 28.99 US | 35.99 CAN
Book Summary:
Four women who work on a popular cooking show band together when they discover the youngest member of their group has an abusive boyfriend. The Barefoot Contessa meets Big Little Lies in this drama-filled novel about the power of female friendships.
Marni McGuire is the host of a popular television cooking show and leads a very happy life. Twice married, she has been widowed and divorced and now, in her mid-fifties, she enjoys being a successful single woman. But Marni’s daughter Bella, who is pregnant with her first child, is convinced that Marni is lonely and she is determined to find a new man for her mother. To humor her daughter, Marni goes on a series of terrible dates. Marni’s best-friend and colleague from the cooking show, Ellen, is a widow who has no interest in meeting anyone new and the two women have discussed the challenges of marriage and the joys of being single. But, while Ellen is adamant she wants nothing to do with men, Marni has to admit to herself that she would like to be with someone but only if he is the right fit.
As Bella’s pregnancy progresses she admits to her mother that she has some concerns about the state of her own marriage, and all three women are concerned that the young intern on the cooking show is caught in a toxic relationship.
Marni and Ellen are determined to guide the two younger women to have the strength, confidence and support to improve their situations and the women gather regularly to talk about the important issues in their lives.
When Marni and Ellen each unexpectedly find themselves falling for new men in their lives the younger women help them navigate the dating world.
Together these four women form a strong bond of family and friendship that will anchor all of them as they navigate the challenges and celebrate the joys of life.
Start reading:
ONE
“And that’s a wrap,” the director said. “I think I have everything I need. I’ll do some editing and you can review it.”
“Thanks, Kevin,” Marni said. “My sister and my daughter are coming by for a glass of wine. Would you like to join us for a drink to celebrate finishing another season?”
“Thanks, no. I’m on the timer. New baby on the way,” he said.
“Of course! How’s Sonja feeling?”
“Huge,” he said with a laugh. “But the baby’s still cooking. The midwife says she has a few more weeks. Sonja cried for an hour after hearing that.”
“I remember that feeling,” Marni said. “Like it was yesterday. You better stay close to her. Thanks for everything this season. I think we got some good stuff.” Then Marni turned to her intern, Sophia Garner. “But you’ll stay, right?”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” she said. “It’s going to be an intervention, I think.”
“Oh, fabulous, I love those,” Marni said with a hint of panic. “If you and Ellen clean up, I’ll put out some hors d’oeuvres.”
Of course she was prepared; just a little fixing up and presentation required. Marni Jean McGuire worked every day and took very few breaks from cooking, writing, studying, traveling and experimenting with new recipes but they only filmed the segments of her show sixty days a year. But filming was intense. Twice a year they’d film for thirty days over six weeks—enough for two seasons. She hosted one of the most popular cooking shows on a cable network. Today marked the last day of filming and they always celebrated.
Marni’s kitchen was essentially a set; all their filming was done in her home as opposed to a studio. She smiled as she watched her producer, Ellen, who was busy cleaning up with Sophia. Ellen was a bona fide chef but she had no interest being in front of the camera. Sophia loved the camera and the camera loved her; after being caught on camera accidentally a few times, she had become beloved by the viewers for her quick wit and delicious accent.
Marni Cooks was very popular but hosting a TV show had never been her lifelong goal. Far from it. It fell into her lap like a glorious miracle. When she was a young widowed mother, she did whatever she could to make a dollar and raise her little Bella. She took a job handing out food samples for a chain of grocery stores. With her baby in a carrier on her back, she turned out to be a hit. She sold out her product day after day, probably because Bella was so funny and flirtatious and Marni, despite the fact that life hadn’t been easy, was personable and approachable. Almost immediately after she began, shoppers came looking for her, engaging her in conversation. They gave her good reviews and told store managers how much they liked her.
Once she filled in for a product demonstrator for the same grocery chain, showing interested patrons how to slice, dice, shred, spiral and chop vegetables. Again, Bella rode along; childcare was impossibly expensive. Her sense of humor and ease with being in front of a small audience charmed people—including the producer from a television station. Marni was hired to demonstrate a couple recipes every week on a local morning show. Along with that she did cooking demonstrations at fairs or exhibits, published a couple of small cookbooks, helped out at catering services, began writing a short cooking column for the newspaper and filled in when other chefs were unavailable as a guest on various cooking shows. Then she landed a full-time job as the on-air chef for a cable cooking show. She had been thirty-two. Her viewing audience grew quickly and soon after she hired Ellen, who was an expert in her own right. Marni was syndicated to a handful of affiliates and her popularity continued to grow. She knew she owed as much of her success to Ellen as to her own hard work. Ellen had a knack for delectable creation but she was such an introvert she would never agree to join Marni in front of the camera.
But in Ellen’s hands the food became a living, breathing wonder and she had become the associate producer over time, thanks to Marni. She knew what a gift she had in Ellen and took very good care of her. And Ellen knew what a great opportunity she had with Marni; no one else in the business would let her just cook without taking on any management responsibilities and yet pay her so well. But every time Marni’s fortunes improved, Ellen benefited as well.
A little over twenty years ago Marni had met Jeff, a news anchor for the local affiliate. Since she lost her young husband when Bella was only nine months old, she hadn’t been optimistic she’d ever find another forever man but fate shocked her by delivering up Jeff. It was a great love, filled with promise and passion. They were a team from the start, both of them being in TV and very visible in the community. They worked together, shoring each other up and urging each other on. Jeff was a fantastic stepfather for Bella and proudly walked her down the aisle six years ago.
Shortly after that something changed. Marni was concerned that a woman Jeff worked with had ulterior motives. She’d been stalking him for years, texting him, asking his advice, professing to be his friend and protégé and constant supporter. Marni had warned Jeff many times that he needed to be careful not to encourage this woman and he always said he could handle things. But his behavior changed and Marni grew suspicious. She caught them making out in Jeff’s car in the parking lot of a local park that sat in the shadow of the beautiful Sierras.
When she realized what she was witnessing, she drove very slowly up close to Jeff’s car and laid on the horn. They jumped apart like two heart attacks. It was divine.
She knew in that moment that her marriage, which she had enjoyed a great deal, was over. Clearly Jeff had been lying and leading a double life for years. The pain of that was excruciating. She also instinctively knew that Jeff and the woman had both gotten what they deserved—each other. Neither was honest nor faithful. In an instant she knew, she would not go a second further with a man who could look her in the eye and deceive her. She told him to leave. He didn’t argue or try to save their marriage, but he did hire a good lawyer and fought for a healthy settlement. At that time they both had solid careers, but Marni was edging ahead. Jeff went after a big slice of that success; indeed, he took credit, as he’d given her so much wonderful advice. At least that was his perspective.
At Marni’s insistence, they settled and divorced quickly. Marni had asked herself if she should pause and think it over, maybe try marriage counseling, but a gut instinct said end it fast. When he asked for a percentage of her future earnings, she knew she’d been right. It had to be over as swiftly as possible. She gave him half, though he hadn’t earned half. Since there were no minor children or businesses involved, he couldn’t possibly do better. She cut him a big check, waved goodbye and ran for her life. She learned you can still sprint pretty well with a broken heart.
After a couple of years of hating him, things settled down. Marni had handed over more money than seemed fair to her, certainly more than Jeff deserved, and that angered her but the relationship was over in her heart. And Karma being a vicious soul, Jeff was demoted in his job while Marni’s popularity soared.
Jeff had used his settlement to open a restaurant, hoping to capitalize on Marni’s notoriety as a television chef. But Gretchen, the other woman, was his business partner and Marni refused to endorse the restaurant. While he was busy trying to cash in on her success, Marni just put her head down, worked hard and became even more popular.
Then there was a sea change. Jeff had not married Gretchen, but he had spent a lot of money on her, found her cheating, and she unceremoniously dumped him, leaving Jeff a broken, much poorer man…with a struggling restaurant. Of course he brought his tons of regret to Marni, begging her forgiveness. Telling her that letting her go was the biggest mistake of his life!
“No doubt about it,” Ellen had said.
“Too little, too late,” Bella said. Bella was, if possible, angrier than Marni about Jeff’s betrayal.
“Men are so stupid,” said Sophia when she heard the story.
Marni had long since stopped complaining to her friends. To Jeff she said, “You broke my heart and tore my family to pieces. Don’t expect any sympathy from me.”
“You don’t understand, Marni,” he said. “I think she used me and turned me against you, the only woman who truly loved me.”
“Oh, I believe I understand completely,” she had said. The story was as old as time. He’d succumbed to flattery and been thinking with his dick. No amount of his regret would change the fact that she’d be an idiot to ever trust him again. She was no idiot.
But she did soften her anger slightly and they were now cordial. Every now and then Jeff would call her or text her or stop by, though the locks on the house had long since been changed. Over the past couple of years he had suggested a few times that they go out for dinner and she always declined. He clumsily proposed she might cook something for him. “One of your favorite new recipes… I would love that.”
“Not in your wildest dreams,” she had replied.
Marni heard the dishwasher start and snapped out of her thoughts of the past. She pulled her pesto canapés from the oven, the artichoke dip from the refrigerator and heard Kevin depart.
The door opened again. “Mama?” Bella called.
“Right in here,” Marni said. “How is the bump?” Bella was five months pregnant and cute as a button. It was a pregnancy hard won through wildly expensive in vitro fertilization.
“A little feisty,” she said with a very proud smile.
The door opened again and Marni’s sister, Nettie, came in from the garage.
Marni put down her hors d’oeuvres and transferred the centerpiece from the kitchen island to the long rectangular coffee table in the great room just as Ellen was bringing in a tray of wineglasses. Sophia followed with a large oval-shaped bucket filled with ice and two opened bottles of white wine. She went back for a chilled bottle of sparkling cider in an ice bucket on a tripod stand for Bella since she was off alcohol.
Marni loved watching them enter the room, her colleagues and loved ones. Ellen came into a room with shy demeanor, standing nearly six feet tall, lithe and graceful. She wore her her once blond and now white-gray hair in a simple pageboy. She always bent her head slightly and Marni wasn’t sure if her height made her uncomfortable or if it was her shy nature.
Nettie, ten years younger than Marni and the mother of two sons, was an English professor at the university in Reno.
Marni brought out a couple more plates of hors d’oeuvres, Sophia placed napkins all around, Ellen pushed over an ottoman for Bella to rest her feet upon, and they settled in. First was a toast. “A very good season, I think,” Marni said. “One of our best. I’m sleeping in tomorrow.”
Glasses were clinked in agreement, small plates were filled, napkins unfolded. And Marni looked around with a feeling of warm satisfaction. This was her happy place. This great room with her closest friends and family. And outside, through the patio doors, reflected in the backyard infinity pool was the sight of the Sierra Nevada mountains, still covered with snow, though it was May. They all lived in Breckenridge, Nevada, a picturesque little town nestled into the base of the mountain range just south of Reno and Lake Tahoe. There was a winding road, not exactly a secret but little known, that went switchback up over the mountains and then down into Lake Tahoe. People who grew up in Breckenridge knew it well.
This was an agricultural and ski town, with the mountains so close, and it was beautiful with its million-dollar views of nature at her best. To Marni, it looked similar to Austria.
Marni had overseen every aspect of the construction of this house, the kitchen being the focal point. She and Jeff were married at the time and while he helped by sharing advice and supervising construction, it was her house. She approved the plans and made it part of her business. And she loved it. Knowing it would be caught on camera, it was beautifully decorated in beiges, browns, pinks and mauves. It was redecorated almost annually for the same reason—updating for the viewers. But the most important thing to Marni was that the house felt like a hug to her, making her feel safe and protected.
When Jeff moved out, she filled the empty space he left in no time at all. Filling the empty space in her heart had taken longer. Even though she had stopped loving him and stopped hating him, there was still a hole there. A black cold hole. It frequently reminded her that she had no talent for love.
Robyn Carr is an award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than sixty novels, including highly praised women’s fiction such as Four Friends and The View From Alameda Island and the critically acclaimed Virgin River, Thunder Point and Sullivan’s Crossing series. Virgin River is now a Netflix Original series. Robyn lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Visit her website at http://www.RobynCarr.com.
This collection focuses on the importance of all that can be done for the environment. Rather than being doom scrollers, the writers of this book present a more hopeful outlook.
I love that the authors begin by noting that anytime is a good time for a story. What could be more true. Reading is the perfect anytime, low tech activity for an adult to share with a child.
Included in this beautifully illustrated collection are stories from around the world, beginning with Indonesia and ending with Canada. Birds, beasts, water creatures are all here.
This is a good book for a home or pre-school or early elementary school library.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group. All opinions are my own.
Four Alarm Homicide is the sixth entry in this traditional mystery series. Once again, Ms. Kelly tells a good story. Fans of her books will be delighted.
This time, a firehouse in Nashville is a property that is of interest to carpenter Whitney and her cousin Buck. The two are also approached by Joanna who needs some help. When she later seems confused, Whitney and Buck need to figure out what is going on.
Angry neighbors, renovations, murder, a cat…what else could a cozy reader want?
This is an enjoyable entry in the series. Note that the books do not have to be read in order.
Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this title. All opinions are my own.
When I was a Junior in high school, I asked my mother what her favorite book was. She told me that it was The Forsyte Saga. I read the book at that point to feel a connection with her and enjoyed it. I have read the whole saga again several times and still love these novels.
The books may seem slow to you and a bit old fashioned as you start but I highly recommend giving them a chance. The characters come to life, the relationships are well described and a period of English life is well portrayed. Among the memorable characters is Soames who wishes to not just marry, but to possess, Irene. There is Bossiney the architect who has relationships with several characters after he is hired by Soames. There are Jolyons old and young and scores of members of the clan. You will get to know them well. Characters are nuanced, even those whom you may not like, you will come to understand.
The books have been made into TV series twice. In one there were 26 episodes, I think. More recently, in fewer episodes, the series starred Damian Lewis as Soames. This version is on Amazon Prime. However, try reading before watching…please.
Review
”[The Forsyte Chronicles are] a social satire of epic proportions and one that does not suffer by comparison with Thackeray’s Vanity Fair…the whole comedy of manners, convincing both in its fidelity to life and as a work of art.” —New York Times
About the Author
John Galsworthy (1867–1933) was an English short story writer, novelist, and playwright whose work spanned the better part of four decades. Author of more than seventy books, Galsworthy is best remembered for the Forsyte Saga as well as its follow-up trilogies, a Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. A tireless champion of women’s rights, prison reform, and free speech, Galsworthy turned down knighthood out of the belief that writing was a reward within itself. His works have often been adapted for television and film, and in 1932 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Janet Skeslien Charles’s novel, The Paris Library, was historical fiction at its best, and here, with Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade, she offers readers another emotional and compelling story. Charles takes a part of WWI history about which I knew nothing and brings it to textured and detailed life.
The Miss Morgan of the title was of the daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan . She went to France to help those who experienced the devastation that comes from losing everything held dear. For this community, survival was a daily challenge. The American Committee for Devastated France wanted to offer assistance and hope. This group of international women helped rebuild destroyed French communities building relationships in the process..
Children’s librarian, Jessie (Kit Carson) works as the New York Public Librarary as the story opens. Her boss is very critical and is a constant voice in Jessie’s head. Jessie wants to do more and volunteers to go to France. She brings her talents, insecurities, many books and her love of them (especially perhaps Anne of Green Gables) with her.
In addition to Jessie and Miss Morgan readers meet doctors, nurses, cooks and other brave women. And, of course there are the people of the community. Readers are sure to want the very best for them. Just two of these characters are a young teen who loves to read and drive, and a woman devastated by the loss of her husband and baby. The remnant that she has left is a book that was written by her husband and that Jessie restored.
What the American women accomplished and created was nothing short of amazing. Readers will be engaged by their stories and works. Note too that Jessie was honored by France for her accomplishments in the field of children’s libraries.
As is often true in historical fiction, there is, in addition, a story set in a time close to the present. This features a young woman who is microfilming at the NYPL and learns of Jessie’s story. Readers trust that the storylines will intersect and indeed they do.
This is a novel for anyone/everyone who adores books, historical fiction, and good storytelling with emotional resonance. Very highly r4ecommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
What Taylor Swift has achieved in her career is pretty amazing. She has to be one of the most popular singers ever. This entry in the good series tells her story.
Readers learn that Taylor grew up in a family that loved music Once she discovered country music, Taylor knew what she wanted to do even if she felt isolated from her peers at times. She has gone on to sing in many genres for her fans. Her hard work and persistence make her a role model for those with dreams.
This book is delightfully illustrated. There is additional information at the back.
Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for this title. All opinions are my own.
Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 